"Space … is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to
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"Space … is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to [Smith’s], but that's just peanuts to space." -The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
"Space … is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to [Smith’s], but that's just peanuts to space."
-The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Our look at the Universe will begin
on Earth.
Source: bestanimations.com
The Moon is the nearest world to
Earth.
Source: bestanimations.com
It is about 250,000 miles from Earth.
Source: NASA
The Sun is the nearest star to
Earth.It is 93,000,000
miles from Earth.
Golly, Gee Whiz Fact.
Source: Dan Heller Photography
The Sun is 370 times
farther from Earth
than Moon.
The fastest something can move is the speed
of light.Light travels 186,000
miles per second.
Source: recoverybridge.org
Distances in terms of the speed of light.
Moon - 1.5 light seconds.Sun- Eight light minutes.Solar System Diameter
– Twelve light hours (eight billion miles).
When we leave the Solar System, we need a new unit of measurement.
The new unit is called a “Light
Year.”A light year is the distance light travels in one year.One light year = six trillion miles.
Leaving the Solar System, our next stop will be at the
Alpha Centauri system.
Source: Goddard Spaceflight Center
Source: Wikipedia
The system is four light years away.
Source: Goddard Spaceflight Center
Move out 12.5 light years.
Note: Pictures and information that follows comes from http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/12lys.html
Thirty-three stars are
within 12.5 light years
Move out 250 light years.
260,000 stars are in this
area.
Move out 5,000 light years (Orion
Arm).600,000,000 stars are in this area.
At 50,000 light years, you see the
Milky Way.
There are about
200,000,000,000 stars in the
Milky Way.
More exploration of the Milky Way (click the
picture below).
Source: Atlas of the Universe
The Sun
Move out 500,000 light years.
The Local Group – 13 galaxies
What is the Nearest Galaxy to the Milky
Way?
Source: Cal Tech 2MASS Galaxy Redshift Catalog (XSCz)