According to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a science fiction series by Douglas Adams, space is "big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind bogglingly big it is. And so on."
It contains everything that is, was or ever will be - including all the planets, stars, moons and um, all the other Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows.
So it should come as quite a surprise that you can now have the universe in the palm of your hand.
Well, not exactly in the palm of your hand.
It's actually a really amazing 3D computer simulator that you can have on your Windows-based PC. But you do use a mouse - which does fit in the palm of your hand - so my original claim still stands.
The simulator is called Universe Sandbox, and it's like somebody was sitting there looking at Google Earth, turned their virtual head to the side and said, "Hey, what's all that other stuff out there?"
I know that a computer astronomy program sounds about as yawn-inducing to most of you as reading a car manual after a big turkey dinner and a handful of sleeping pills, but it's far more "wow-is-that-ever-cool" fun than just gazing at stars.
Universe Sandbox is a fully interactive, 3D space simulator that features realistic gravity and physics - and best of all, you can manipulate, interact with, and destroy it all at will.
It's more Ultimate God Game than simple space simulator.
Sure, at its core Universe Sandbox is really just a souped-up, tricked-out 3D gravity simulator, but c'mon, isn't it enough to be able to say to your friends, "Hey, come see my souped-up, tricked-out 3D gravity simulator," or is it just me?
It's just me, isn't it?
OK, have you ever looked up at the night sky on a clear, magical night and marvelled at the complex web of stars, wondered what other suns, planets and galaxies were like, and thought to yourself, "Man, I'd love to blow some of those things up"?
Just me again, eh?
Regardless, I do encourage you to at least download the free version (available at universesandbox.com), or check out some of the videos of the program in use on YouTube.
The simulator/game features more than 70 systems (both real and fictional), including the 100 largest bodies in our solar system and the nearest 1,000 stars to our Sun.
It's pretty easy and intuitive to use, so you don't have to be a rocket scientist to jump in right away, although if you are a rocket scientist, you probably already know all this stuff and don't need the program.
But you can't imagine how fun it can be to, say, turn a neighbouring star into a massive black hole and watch a whole galaxy go swirling down a celestial toilet bowl, until you do it yourself.
Lob stars around like pool balls, adding moons to planets, or building your own custom-made solar system. Universe Sandbox lets you see anything, or do anything with everything in known space.
Of course, if you're anything like me, the first thing you'll do after loading up the program is zero in on Earth and blow it to smithereens, just like in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Or if you're not like me, you'll probably just learn something about the incredible universe in which we live.
And that's OK too.
