galaxy

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is.

So sang Eric Idle to a perplexed housewife (a drag-clad Terry Jones) in “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.” Truly, it’s one of the most beloved science songs of the twentieth century; right up there with Tom Lehrer singing “The Elements.”