Distances in space
How can the common individual learn the distances in space
without some frame of reference to compare?
When we talk of distances in outer space we use terms like light year and astronomical
unit. While these are great for the scientist, how can the common individual get a
perspective on how these distances compare? This paper will use the distance from the
earth to the sun as 1 inch and show how large the distances are, in scale, from planets and
stars.
The distance from the earth to the sun is about 93,000,000 miles. This distance is used for
a standard for measurements within our solar system and called an astronomical unit or
AU. Putting this unit to a scale of 1 AU = 1 inch the distance to the planets from the sun
would be:
Mercury .39 inches
Venus .72 inches
Earth 1.0 inch
Mars 1.5 inches
Jupiter 5.2 inches
Saturn 9.6 inches
Uranus 19.3 inches
Neptune 30.2 inches
Pluto 39.9 inches
Using this scale given a 1 inch astronomical unit Pluto would be a little over 3 feet
3inches away (about 1 meter). This distance represents over 3.6 Billion miles! Using this
same scale to map the nearest star to earth you would have to use a larger reference scale
because the distances are so great. For instance it is approximately 4 light years to the
nearest star to our solar system. Given that a light year is approximately 63,255 AU's the
distance would be (63,255 x 4 or 253,022 AU's measured in this way a map using 1 inch
= 1 AU. The first star on the map from earth would be 253,022 inches from earth on the
map or 4 miles away! Consider you wanted to map our galaxy, making a map where the
earth was on inch from the sun would require a piece of paper the size of the United
States to show the "neighborhood" stars. Even then the problem of finding the earth
would be enormous. Remember 93,000,000 miles is 1 inch, this would mean the earth
would only be 43 millioneth's of an inch wide on this paper, or about the size of a large
molecule. If drawn to scale the earth on this map would be invisible to the naked eye.
Using this scale it becomes clear how difficult if would be to map and navigate in space.
Given a scale that would make the earth larger, the map would become bigger than the
entire planet. Making a map with a greater scale the earth would disappear from even
microscopic measurement.
The term lost in Space is easy to understand when you use these figures. No proportion or
scale is possible as a realistic and accurate measure of distances in space. In simple terms
the numbers are too astronomical!
Distances of space
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How many Au make a light-year?
How big is an Au?
What is a light-year?
How far is the closest star in light-years?
How long does it take light to travel 1,000,000,000 km?
What is a parsec?
What is an Au?
How many Au's make a light-year?
You will need to travel 63,000 Au's to make one light-year.
How big is an Au?
The real name of an Au is an Astronomical unit, a unit of distance, equal to the mean distance of the
earth to the sun 149,597,870km.Ther are different ways to measure the distances in space Au's are one of
them the other one is light-years.
How far is the closest star in light-years?
The closest star is called Proxima it is about 40,000,000,000,000 km and in light-years it is about
4.24 light-years away from Earth.
What is a light-year?
How long does it take light to travel 1,000,000,000 km?
To travel 1,000,000,000 km light would have to travel about one hour.
What is a parsec?
One parsec is equal to 3.26 light-years.
What is an Au?
The real name of an Au is an Astronomical Unit it is the distance from the sun to the earth.
Nothing that is man made can travel the speed of light it's simply to fast for our technology to
accomplish. The speed of light is so fast that in 1 second light can travel 6 times around the earth just
imagine a light year which light travels no stop for a year. The Andromida Galaxy is 2,000,000 light years
which means light has to travel 2,000,000 years to get there. A light year is so big that it takes about
63,000 AU to equal 1 light-year. The distances in space are very great things are really far apart like the
Big Dipper, the star look like there the same distance from earth, but some of them are really close and
some are millions of light years away, but to us they look like there in the same distance. The whole milky
way is 100 million light years away for example were where the star is.
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Planets
Distances from
In AU
Diameter
sun (in million of miles)
(miles)
Mercury
36.0
0.39
3,031
Venus
67.1
0.72
7,521
Earth
92.9
1.00
7,926
Mars
141.5
1.52
4,221
Jupiter
483.4
5.20
88,734
Saturn
886.7
9.54
74,566
Uranus
1,782.7
19.14
31,566
Neptune
2,794.3
30.06
30,199
Pluto
3,666.1
39.53
1,450