The Galaxy Song
from Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”
Eric Idle (mods by Steve Rose):
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving,
And revolving at 900 miles an hour,
That’s orbiting and 19 miles a second, so it’s reckon’d,
A star that is the source of all our power.
The Sun, and you, and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
Near an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call The Milky Way.
Our galaxy iteself contains a hundred billion stars,
It’s 100,000 light years side to side,
It bulges in the middle 16,000 light years thick,
But out by us it’s just 3,000 light years wide.
We’re 30,000 light years from Galactic Central Point,
We go round every 200 million years,
And our galaxy is only one of hundreds of billions,
In this amazing and expanding universe.
Our Universe itself keeps on expanding, and expanding,
In every dimension it can whiz,
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely was your birth,
And throughout your precious life,
Be grateful, even for the strife,
At least you have the luck to Be on Earth.
And to other Beings out in space,
Greetings from the Human Race,
We hope you have a place as nice as Earth.
Commentary:
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving,
And revolving at 900 miles an hour,
At the equator, the Earth is revolving at >1000 MPH, at the poles, 0. 900 is close enough for England and Hawaii.
That’s orbiting and 19 miles a second, so it’s reckon’d,
A star that is the source of all our power.
(The Earth’s internal thermonuclear energy came from the same matter that condensed into our Sun, so this is still adequately accurate.)
Always remember, our Sun is a star! Just like (although not identical to any of) all the other stars you see at night.
The Sun, and you, and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
Near an outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Formerly thought to be in an outer spiral, we are just near. However, that is very important to the long term survival of Earth, as we are in a sparse neighborhood with a low likelyhood of a nearby supernova that would destroy Earth.
Of a galaxy we call The Milky Way.
Our galaxy iteself contains a hundred billion stars,
This may need to be revised to 300 billion stars, as it has just been discovered that there are about three times more stars than we have accounted for in the past due to very dim red dwarf stars that were invisible to earlier technologies.
It’s 100,000 light years side to side,
It bulges in the middle 16,000 light years thick,
But out by us it’s just 3,000 light years wide.
We’re 30,000 light years from Galactic Central Point,
When Idle wrote this song in the 70′s, it was not known that galaxies (including ours) typically have a Black Hole at the very center. Since a Black Hole’s singularity is a “point”, this was very prescient, and we should call our black hole “Galactic Central Point” in Idle’s honor.
We go round every 200 million years,
And our galaxy is only one of hundreds of billions,
Presently the count is less than 2,000 billion (some say 200), so we can’t even really say thousands (original lyric was millions). However, this is subject to revision as above.
In this amazing and expanding universe.
Our Universe itself keeps on expanding, and expanding,
(and ours may be one of many!)
In every dimension it can whiz,
“dimension” instead of “direction” in honor of string theory and its derivatives
As fast as it can go, the speed of light you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
(Disregarding entangled states, how amazing that there is a limit!)
So remember when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely was your birth,
And throughout your precious life,
Be grateful, even for the strife,
At least you have the luck to Be on Earth.
The term “being” in human being is a perfect description of life.
And to other Beings out in space,
Greetings from the Human Race,
We hope you have as nice a place as Earth.
(For several reasons!)
Given the numbers and the circumstances, it seems remarkably unlikely that we are the only life in the universe capable of understanding our surroundings. The Kepler satellite has found 68 earth-size planets nearby (its field of view is about 149,000 stars). That equates to more than 40,000,000 earth size planets in our galaxy alone. So far.
Five of those earth size planets were in a “habitable zone” (similar temperatures to Earth). (There is a big assumption here, that the only forms of life are like the ones we know here — not likely.) Assuming that one in five hosts life as we know it (640K planets), there are still a few issues (aside from whether we would consider the life intelligent). First, most of those planets are in an area of the Galaxy where life would be unlikely to survive due to stellar density. So lets take 10% of that number (now 64K) in the outer 1/3 of galactic area. Assuming even distribution, those remaining planets are an average of 10^15 miles apart, or about 500 light years. So we may not be alone, but we are likely to remain lonely.
———
How amazing is it that as soft, tiny, fleshy beings on the surface of a tiny planet circling an isolated, nondescript star, we are able to be aware of our circumstances in our Universe? And even more amazing, that the Universe can be quantified! Even then, there is a lot more to be understood, such as the “dark matter” (now possible to visualize) and dark energy that surround us, and the possibility of the Multiverse. But I’m pleased to exist at a time that we have determined so much, thanks to the scientific method.
To hear an excerpt of the original, select #24 from samples at http://www.amazon.com/Monty-Python-Sings/dp/B000000WIA