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Distances in Space. On our Solar System Walk, we learned that – contrary to how they look in most illustrations, the planets are VERY FAR apart!. Distances are so big that kilometers are not that useful.
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On our Solar System Walk, we learned that – contrary to how they look in most illustrations, the planets are VERY FAR apart!
Distances are so big that kilometers are not that useful. This is the reason why astronomers made up a new unit: The Astronomical Unit (AU), which is the average distance between the earth and the sun.
But….beyond our solar system, distances are so great that even AUs are not that useful.
Meet the Light Year!(Copy these notes in your Journal.) Named after me, of course! Uh, Woody, it’s actually the other way around!
How many seconds make up a year? 365 days x 24 hours in a day = 24 hours x 60 minutes in an hour = 525, 600 minutes x 60 seconds in a minute=
How many seconds make up a year? 365 days x 24 hours in a day = 8760 hours in a year 8760 hours x 60 min. in an hour = 525, 600 minutes in a year 525, 600 minutes x 60 seconds = 31, 536,000 seconds in a year!
Or you could have just skipped ahead to the minutes part if you know this song…