It happens to everyone. One moment, you're contemplating the beautiful starry sky on a summer's night. The next, you're having an epiphany. The Universe is unimaginably vast, and we humans are nothing but tiny, tiny ants when compared to its astronomical magnitude. But do we need to go that far?
The size of the stars humbles us, but planet Earth is filled with things that are much bigger than we expect. Sometimes, it takes something as simple as looking at the world's biggest clock or getting to know the size of a wombat to realize that humans are not that big after all. To learn all about our real place in this world, let's take a look at 25 things that are way larger than we have ever expected.
Talk About a Beak!
Roughly the same size as a light aircraft, the 'quetzalcoatlus northropi' was a type of pterosaur that roamed the skies during the Late Cretaceous period. It's considered to be one of the largest flying animals ever, and its full magnitude is even more apparent in this to-scale museum model. Just to be clear: the man in the picture is five feet tall!
Have you ever wondered how heavy airplanes can fly? Well, this gigantic bird was doing it millions of years ago. We cannot conceive how big its eggs must have been! But we should be grateful birds this large don't exist anymore. Can you imagine seeing one of these taking a nap on the roof of your house?
Is This Where Horse Power Comes From?
Humans' faithful companion since the early stages of civilization, the horse was like the 'first car.' Before the motor was invented, people relied on these impressive animals to travel from one location to another. Incredibly resistant and fast, horses are still admired today for their endurance and physical condition.
But who could have guessed that their lungs were this big? This fully-inflated set of horse lungs proves that it takes a lot of air to run like a horse! Unsurprisingly, horses are way more efficient at breathing than humans. They have four distinct bronchiole systems and an airflow velocity of 64–79 liters, which is way more than our pitiful four-liters airflow velocity.
A Blue Whale's Heart
We have all read about the majestic blue whale. But it's only when someone decides to build a to-scale replica of a blue whale's heart that we genuinely internalize how big blue whales really are. The man standing next to the model could easily fit inside one of its large arteries.
The blue whale is the biggest animal that has ever lived on the planet. It consumes approximately 80,000 pounds of krill every single day. Blue whale babies can gain as much as 200 pounds every single day. And their tongues alone can weigh as much as a full-grown elephant!
The Real Size of the Sun
Next time you complain about how far your office is from your house, it's better to put things in perspective first. In this image, a plastic ball was filled with marbles to help us to grasp the real size of the sun. Just so you have an idea, each one of the little blue marbles represents the planet Earth!
This means that the sun would be able to fit about one million planet Earths inside it. Probably a fact to remember the next time we forget to apply sunscreen at the beach. That bright thing up there in the sky is unimaginably powerful!
Aww, so... Cute?
We don't know what to think of this giant African land snail. While some people are probably horrified to learn snails can get this big, we cannot help but find it utterly adorable. A couple of YouTubers seem to agree. The giant African land snail has recently been paraded on social media as an exotic household pet.
Whether you love it or hate it, the African land snail is a real thing and can sit comfortably on your lap just like cats and dogs would. Is it okay to pat it? Probably, if you happen to enjoy the feeling...
Behind Massive Doors
America is all about dreaming big, with Washington D.C. being the embodiment of the larger-than-life American dream. But sometimes, we cannot avoid thinking that they have overdone it. Just take a look at the entrance doors of the U.S. National Archives. They seem designed for a future society of giants!
And what does this majestic building holds? Disappointingly, there are no monster trucks inside the National Archives. Not even some cool war tanks. Enclosed behind D.C.'s most iconic entrance is... government documentation.
I Want What They're Having!
In the French comic book of Asterix, the lovable Obelix acquired super-strength after falling in a wizard's cauldron when he was a little boy. We're guessing the same happened to the ancestors of these horses in the distant past.
The Clydesdale horse is the breed of all breeds, the horse every horse envies and wants to be. Initially from 18th century Scotland, these majestic animals not only have designer boots, but they're also unbelievably big. If you're looking for the ride of your life, it's better if you just ask for a Clydesdale horse!
I See Seafood
It might sound like cruelty against animals, but it's impossible not to think 'seafood' when looking at the Japanese spider crab. This enormous specimen is what happens when Mother Nature decides to combine your regular crab with a leggy spider. The result should've been something horrifying. But it turned out to be something delicious.
Just look at how happy that man is while holding his next banquet! Unsurprisingly, the spider crab is a delicacy in Japan and is considered to be very tasty. It's also the main reason why Japanese restaurants are forced to have a couple of huge pans in the kitchen!
When David is Goliath
We have all heard stories about how Mona Lisa is way smaller than you expect. But not all trips to the museum end up in disappointment. If you have ever checked out David's statue in real life, you know what we're talking about.
Michelangelo's masterpiece is way bigger than we thought, going far beyond the expected human-scaled proportions. Suddenly, we're not so impressed with the whole David-beats-Goliath story. It turns out David was a big man himself!
Makes You Want To Be a Billionaire
Math is an incredible way of deciphering the secrets of the world, but it holds some secrets of its own. We all seem to know how much a million is. But is it really that easy to grasp the sheer magnitude of the number?
Self-described social media bookworm Paul Franz is using time as a metaphor to help us to internalize how much a million truly is. And after learning about this fact, we cannot avoid but to think about all of those Hollywood billionaires. After all, how many years is a billion?
Keep the Change
Money is essentially representative. Nowadays, currencies are not even physically linked to gold reserves anymore. This means that, at its core, a $1 bill is as valuable as a $100 bill. But, despite their similarities, these two pieces of paper are entirely different.
In this picture, you can compare a stack of $10K in $100 bills to the same amount in $1 bills. The visual effect is astounding. It's just like when you were little and saved an entire jar of coins. It looked like a million dollars. But when you counted it, it was only about $5.14. Money can be disappointing...
Chicken For Dinner
It's no wonder the Brahma chicken was named after one of Hinduism's most powerful divinities. This thing is way bigger than we ever expected a chicken to be! An American breed of chickens, the Brahma chickens were initially imported from China. Unsurprisingly, they were seen by the American industry as a reliable and profitable source of meat.
While most Brahma chickens weight about 12 pounds, there are some more impressive and substantial examples to be found. This particular Brahma chicken is so big that it's probably not going to be used for dinner. It makes a perfect security 'dog;' with a chicken like that on your property, no reasonable thief would ever dare to enter.
Highway Visual Illusion
Driving through the highway is something we do so commonly that it's easy to forget how surreal it actually is. The highway is like a parallel universe, where cars have taken over completely, and in which big and fast things seem dramatically smaller and slower.
Highway traffic signs are a perfect example. We don't always notice them when we're driving down the highway, but they are way bigger than we thought! No, those two workers are not miniature people. Traffic signs do get this big!
What The Wombat?
Unless you have visited Australia, there's a good chance you've never seen one of these furry quadrupedal marsupials known as wombats. But you've probably heard of them or maybe even watched them eating roots in a cute YouTube video. Even so, did you know that wombats were this big?
When scaled against a human being, wombats reveal their actual size, and they're way bigger than we expected! Wombats are nothing like little opossums or bandicoots. They are big and can weigh as high as 88 pounds!
Great Movie, Not So Great Boat
The legendary Titanic was, at its time, considered to be one of humanity's most impressive creations. But today, the historical passenger liner doesn't seem so magnificent. In this picture, you can compare the size of the Titanic with the size of a modern-day cruise ship. Yes, the Titanic is the one on the front.
It makes you wonder how far civilization has come in just the matter of a century. The Titanic marked a generation and inspired some great stories, including a classic James Cameron movie, but it would be nothing compared to the beasts that cruise the seas in this day and age.
What Time Is It?
You have probably heard about Dubai and its majestic constructions before. But did you know that the world's most astronomical clock can be found in the neighboring country of Saudi Arabia? The people of Mecca have no excuses for getting to work late. The massive Abraj Al-Bait clock is placed right at the center of a seven-skyscraper complex that's designed to awe even the least impressionable of all men.
With a record-breaking 141 feet of diameter, the Abraj Al-Bait clock is over six times bigger than the famous Big Ben clock in London. But somehow, these two visitors seem extremely laid back about it. They probably have a couple of free hours to spare.
What the Frodo?
The fantasy trilogy of The Lord of the Rings is a cinematic masterpiece, brilliantly directed by Peter Jackson. During the production of the movies, Jackson faced many challenges, but arguably none as tricky as keeping things in their right size.
Middle Earth is filled with big and small creatures, so it took a lot of groundbreaking camera angles and custom-designed models to make every character and scenario look authentic. This supersized ring, though, is one of the most unexpected props in the movie. It was used in the dramatic scenes that included close-ups of the ring. Fortunately, the ring in the story was more easily concealed, much to Lord Sauron's desperation.
Small Arms, Long Teeth
Next time you feel like mocking the hilariously small arms of the mighty T-Rex, just keep in mind, these beasts were big enough where it mattered the most. Naturally, we're talking about their teeth! A T-Rex tooth can be as big as 12 inches, and they had 60 of those. This means that T-Rex's jaws were approximately four feet long!
Impressively, you can buy real T-Rex teeth today. Dinosaur fossils have a market of their own. In 2017, an entire T-Rex skeleton was acquired by a private buyer for the price of $8 million.
Moon vs. America
The United States and the moon have a lot of things in common. For one, they both contain one or more American flags. And secondly, they share roughly the same size. Yes, the moon is way bigger than we have ever imagined, and it could easily store the entirety of the United States.
Next time you serenade your significant other with a moonlit ballad, just take a minute to consider the unimaginable immensity of the Universe. It makes you feel quite small, doesn't it?
Bye Bye, L.A.
This picture looks like a screenshot from a disaster movie, but it's instead a scientific projection. It depicts the size of the Comet 67P, which was the subject of the Rosetta space mission, in comparison to the city of Los Angeles.
If the comet was to land on the City of Angels, can you imagine the outcome? It's spine-chilling to think rocks this big are floating around the planet. But the best we can do is to hope they don't end up crossing Earth's orbit. Otherwise, we would be looking at some pretty gnarly consequences. Just ask the dinosaurs.
Blowin' in the Wind
When seen from afar, wind turbines are very beautiful to behold. They are used to convert the wind's kinetic energy into the electrical energy that powers our houses and cities. But if you ever happen to stand close to a wind turbine, you will be impressed by how massive they are!
The gigantic structure you see in this picture is one of the three blades to be installed in a new wind turbine. It measures between 110 and 124 feet and weighs about 11,500 pounds. Although massive, these blades move faster than expected, with its tip being able to reach a speed as high as 100 miles per hour.
Meet General Sherman
General Sherman is not the brilliant war strategist you're expecting. In this case, we're talking about a rather peaceful tree, that can be found in the Sequoia National Park of California. Known as the world's biggest tree in volume, General Sherman weighs an astounding 2,472,000 pounds and has a maximum base diameter of 36.5 feet.
It's not the world's tallest or oldest tree, but it's arguably the most impressive. Its majestic sight makes you feel quite small. It also makes you wonder about humanity's passive role toward massive deforestation. How many potential General Shermans are being cut at the base in the world right now?
Don't Drop Your Phone!
We've grown so accustomed to living in a highly-engineered world that we don't think about the size of our modern-day vehicles anymore. But there's a thing in this world called an aircraft carrier. These are boats designed to host airplanes! How crazy is that?
If it seems like we're overreacting, just take a look at what an aircraft carrier anchor chain locker looks like! This is what it takes to pull a 100,000-ton boat back to the dock.
Watch Out For the Moths
Lighthouses are essential to signal and guide boats at night, but they require a surprising amount of electrical power. In this picture, a dandy man poses next to a lighthouse lens, and we never imagined it was this big!
When it comes to naval engineering, size doesn't seem to be an issue. This picture is making us consider lighthouses with a whole new... well, light. We could go as far as saying that it is incredibly illuminating.
Agave Plants Are Beautiful and Massive!
We knew agave plants grew in the aridest regions of the U.S. and made for an excellent Western movie prop. But we could have never imagined they were able to grow to sizes this massive. Not only they're gigantic, but they also flourish beautifully.
Most commonly found in the Karoo region of South Africa, these majestic plants can be seen in some selected gardens and natural parks in Europe and the U.S. They are yet another example of how the natural world continues to surprise us.