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Measuring Distances in Space

Measuring Distances in Space. Measuring Distances in Space. Why is it so hard to measure distances in space?. The distances are so large that it is hard to imagine how big they are. Example- The distance from the sun to the Earth is 93 million miles or 150 million km. 93,000,000 miles

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Measuring Distances in Space

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  1. Measuring Distances in Space

  2. Measuring Distances in Space Why is it so hard to measure distances in space? The distances are so large that it is hard to imagine how big they are. Example- The distance from the sun to the Earth is 93 million miles or 150 million km. 93,000,000 miles 150,000,000 km

  3. Astronomical Units What is an astronomical unit? A system of measurement used INSIDE of the solar system. Also known as an AU Based on the distance from the Earth to the sun. Earth to sun = 1AU 1AU = 93 million miles/150,000,000km

  4. Astronomical Units What are the AUs for the planet? Mercury= .4 AU Venus = .7 AU Earth = 1.0AU Mars = 1.5 AU Jupiter = 5.2 AU Saturn = 9.5 AU Uranus = 19.2 AU Neptune = 30.0AU Pluto = 39.5 AU

  5. Light years Why can’t we use AUs outside of the solar system? What do we use instead? What is a light year? Distances between objects are too large. We use light years A light year is the DISTANCE light travels in one year 300,000 km/s; 186,000 miles/s 9,460,800,000,000 kilometers in a year 5,865,696,000,000 miles in a year

  6. Distances to other stars How far is the closest star to our solar system? How far is the closest galaxy to us? 4.2 light years away – It takes 4.2 years for light to get to us from ProximaCentauri 2 million light years away – It takes light 2,000,000 years to get to us from Andromeda

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