What is the mass comparison for a nebula the size of our entire Earth?
Answer
Weigh only a few kilograms.
Despite nebulae stretching across vast distances, often spanning multiple light-years, they possess an extremely low density due to the immense spread of their constituent gas and dust. This lack of material concentration means that if one were to hypothetically compress a volume of nebula material equivalent to the size of the Earth into a manageable sample, its total mass would be extraordinarily small—only amounting to a few kilograms. This stark contrast between immense apparent size and minimal actual mass underscores how sparse the interstellar medium truly is when not yet gravitationally collapsed.
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