How Far is Far?

Average of 238,000 Miles

Earth to Moon Distance

93,000,000 Miles1 Astronomical Unit (AU)

Sun to Earth Distance

Body AU Mercury .39Venus .72Earth 1.0Mars 1.5Jupiter 5.2Saturn 9.5Uranus 19.2Neptune 30.1Pluto 39.5

Solar System Model

Diameter Orbital Radius Model Diameter Scaled RadiusBody in Miles in Miles in Inches in Feet

Sun 865,000 9

Mercury 3,032

36,000,000 .0314 31

Venus 7,521 67,000,000 .0782

58

Earth 7,926 93,000,000 . 0823

81

Mars 4,228 141,000,000 . 0437

123

Jupiter 88,846 483,000,000 .9021

419

Saturn 74,898 886,000,000 .7528

769

Uranus 31,763 1,782,000,000 .3035

1,546

Neptune 30,775 2,794,000,000 .2937

2,425

Pluto 1,423 3,666,000,000 .0 140

3,186

Calculating Distance

Viewpoint B

Viewpoint A

Viewpoint A Viewpoint B

Parallax

Parallax

Viewpoint B

Viewpoint A

186,000 miles/second

The Light-Year

X 60 minutes/hour X 24 hours/dayX 365 days/year

X 60 seconds/minute

5,865,696,000,000 miles/year

Proxima Centauri

Alpha Centauri A & B

Our Nearest Neighbors

4.2 Light-Y

ears

5 Light-Y

ears

The Solar Neighborhood

~ 40,000 Light-YearsGalactic Center

100,000 Light-Years

The Size of Galaxies

The Galactic Neighborhood

2 Million Light-Years

Hubble Deep Field Image

Questions?