Whether we consider something “big” or “small” often depends on the context we see it in. Place a Spitfire next to a Boeing 747 and the Spitfire seems small. Try to fit it into your living room, though, and it suddenly seems a lot bigger!

If you want to get an idea of where we humans fit in the Scale of the universe, there’s a great site to help you do just that. Handily, it’s called “The Scale of the Universe 2“.

As well as letting you move up and down the size scale (using the scrollbar), you can click on the various items you see to learn a little more about them. It’s a genuinely fascinating site and makes me appreciate just how much stuff is happening on too small a scale for me to see… and just how small humankind is in comparison to the rest of the universe.

One slight word of warning, you’ll need Adobe Flash so you may have difficulties if your browser has automatically disabled it. Assuming you’re good to go, though, head on over to The Scale of the Universe 2 and take a look.