The Sun is at an average distance of about 93,000,000 miles (150 million kilometers) away from Earth. It is so far away that light from the Sun, traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, takes about 8 minutes to reach us. Like all of the other planets in our Solar System, Earth does not travel around the Sun in a perfect circle. Instead its orbit is elliptical, like a stretched circle, with the Sun just off the center of the orbit. This means that the distance between Earth and the Sun changes during a year. At its closest, the Sun is 91.4 million miles (147.1 million km) away from us. At its farthest, the Sun is 94.5 million miles (152.1 million km) away. The Earth is closest to the Sun during winter in the northern hemisphere. What this means is...if the sun were to fizzle out, we would have 8 minutes of light and then total darkness for the rest of our lives. If the sun were to blow up? Well, we would have 8 minutes to say our goodbyes or find a very, very deep hole... Would you like a peek at our nearest star neighbor? The red star in the center of this picture is Proxima Centauri, our sun's nearest neighbor among the stars. A beam of light from this star takes about 4 years to travel to Earth.
Kind of makes you think just where in the world are we when it comes to "space". Happy Weekend!
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Mrs. TaylorI love science! Everything about the world is interesting and never boring. I love to study plants, animals, insects, and people. My favorite subjects are my students who are the most unique organisms on the planet! Categories |