Quarks to Quasars
	This is a visual journey consisting of 42 images -- 42 powers of ten. At one end of the journey is the immensity of the known universe, some 15 billion years old and 10 to 20 billion light years across. At the other end of the journey is a depiction of the three quarks within a proton.

These images are based on a fascinating book, The Powers of Ten, written by Philip and Phyllis Morrison and the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. Each successive image shows a view ten times wider or narrower than its neighbor. In either direction, new information is found at each step: Outward, novelties appear as the view widens; inward, the expansion of the picture allows the resolution of more detail. That relationship is emphasized in each picture by outlining a small central square whose edges are one-tenth the width of the whole frame.

At the center of each image, whether visible or not, are the quarks within a proton within a carbon atom beneath the skin of a man sleeping on a grass-covered Chicago field on the third planet from the star Sol -- a small unregarded yellow sun in the western spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, an average galaxy within the Virgo Cluster. The journey occurs along a straight line originating within that proton, proceeding directly upward from the grassy field, and passing parallel to the north pole of the Galaxy on its path into deep space.

Note: This is a large, graphics-intensive site

If you find these pages interesting and informative, please bookmark this home page. Plan to spend some time here. There are over 120 pages and a growing collection of images. If you have a slow connection, the images can take several seconds to load. I have set up these pages so that you can read the text while the images are loading. Please be patient -- I believe you will find this site worth some of your time.

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