Picture of the day...

Hubble's 20th anniversary image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising in the Carina Nebula. The top of a three-light-year tall pillar of cool hydrogen is being worn away by the radiation of nearby stars, while stars within the pillar unleash jets of gas that stream from the peaks.

One light-year is just under ten trillion kilometers, or to be exact 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers. The most distant space probe, Voyager 1 was about 16 light-hours away from earth this year. It will take about 17,500 years to reach one light-year at it's current speed. That gives you a bit of an idea on how big this is. 

Makes you feel fabulously insignificant, doesn't it?