You're blowing my mind, Astronomy class!
I have been blown away by all the facts I have been learning about in Astronomy class. This past week we did homework and an in-class lesson on the size and scale of the observable universe. Starting small, we went from objects on Earth to more massive things like galaxies! I am so excited about all of this, so I had to share! Accompanying is some doodles of mine again. Sorry for the terrible quality as I am lacking a scanner and my pencil wouldn't erase! (Snazzy, right?) It's difficult to get things to scale on pen and paper, so it may be slightly off but it will give you the general idea!
The distance from San Francisco, CA to Washington D.C. is roughly 5,000 km.
Earth has a diameter of 12,742 km (or 7,918 miles).
Earth's moon has a diameter of 3,470 km.
About 4 moons placed side by side equals the diameter of the Earth.
The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 380,000 km (or 30 times the diameter of Earth).
1 AU (astronomical unit) is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, about 150 millions km.
Mars' orbital radius is 1.5 AU.
Jupiter's orbital radius is 5.2 AU.
Pluto's orbital radius is 40 AU.
Alpha Centauri, the closest star, is 280,000 AU away.
It takes around 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth.
It takes around 5 hours for light from the Sun to reach Pluto.
It takes around 4 years for light from Alpha Centauri to reach Earth.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, the moon would be reached in 8 hours.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, Jupiter would be reached in almost 2 years.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, Alpha Centauri would be reached in 100,000 years.
Andromeda, the second most massive galaxy in our Local Group of galaxies, is 2.5 million light years away. (The Milky Way is the most massive galaxy, but isn't the biggest.)
The Local Group is 3 million light years across!
The Local Supercluster is 100 million light years across!
The observable universe is 14 billion light years across!
The distance from San Francisco, CA to Washington D.C. is roughly 5,000 km.
Earth has a diameter of 12,742 km (or 7,918 miles).
Earth's moon has a diameter of 3,470 km.
About 4 moons placed side by side equals the diameter of the Earth.
The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 380,000 km (or 30 times the diameter of Earth).
1 AU (astronomical unit) is the distance from the Sun to the Earth, about 150 millions km.
Mars' orbital radius is 1.5 AU.
Jupiter's orbital radius is 5.2 AU.
Pluto's orbital radius is 40 AU.
Alpha Centauri, the closest star, is 280,000 AU away.
It takes around 8 minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth.
It takes around 5 hours for light from the Sun to reach Pluto.
It takes around 4 years for light from Alpha Centauri to reach Earth.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, the moon would be reached in 8 hours.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, Jupiter would be reached in almost 2 years.
Traveling 50,000 km/hr, Alpha Centauri would be reached in 100,000 years.
Andromeda, the second most massive galaxy in our Local Group of galaxies, is 2.5 million light years away. (The Milky Way is the most massive galaxy, but isn't the biggest.)
The Local Group is 3 million light years across!
The Local Supercluster is 100 million light years across!
The observable universe is 14 billion light years across!
That is mind blowing! I love astronomy so much! I bought an astronomy textbook once, just to read for fun. Haha.
ReplyDeleteHaha, I totally did the same but with a college psychology book once.
DeleteYou know what's interesting, though? I could have looked up and been told any of this information about the sizes and scales of the universe, but it made so much of a difference when we saw the examples in the planetarium. The dome is just so darn cool!
I bet that would make a huge difference! Its making me want to visit my local planetarium again!:D
Deletenooo, the sun IS a cute li'l lion! can't tell me otherwise
ReplyDeleteNO IT'S NOT I SWEAR! (wait... what is that cute face doing on there?)
DeleteSo cool! I took Astronomy 100 in university just for the fun of it. It was one of my favorite classes and I always sat in the front row to get a good look at my prof's wachy ties.
ReplyDelete