Many people, students, kids are wondering....just how big is our Solar System? For all of us stuck on this "spaceship" Earth, we see the sun rise and set, we see our neighbors and family, we go on drives to states nearby or fly to distant places like New York, or Asia. But that's about it. We can't see much more than that. Distances in space are so large units like feet, meters, kilometers just can't justify the distances. So scientists use the "astronomical distance" unit called AU. 1 AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Mercury is only 0.39 astronomical units from the Sun, while Jupiter orbits at a distance of 5.5 astronomical units. And Pluto is way out there at 39.2 astronomical units. If you could drive your car at highway speeds, from the Sun all the way out to Pluto, it would take you more than 6,000 years to complete the trip. But here’s the really amazing part. Our Solar System extends much, much farther than where the planets are. The Kuiper Belt, where we find a Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea, extends from 30 astronomical units all the way out to 50 AU, or 7.5 billion kilometers. And we’re just getting started. But the true size of the Solar System is defined by the reach of its gravity; how far away an object can still be said to orbit the Sun. The Sun’s gravity pulls in objects in local space out to a distance of about 2 light-years, or almost half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star: Proxima Centauri. Believe it or not, any object within this region would probably be orbiting the Sun, and be thought to be a part of the Solar System. At those distances, it would take you 19 million years to complete the journey to the edge of the Solar System. Even NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, the fastest object ever launched from Earth would need 37,000 years to make the trip. This gives new meaning to "enjoy the journey".....
10 Comments
Elayna
11/13/2017 03:32:21 pm
So cool. I like learning new stuff on the blog
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Errol
11/13/2017 03:49:24 pm
Ha ha Mrs Taylor the baby is really funny! Me and Lily (partners for the lab) Thought that it was funny when we were drawing the planets.....you just see these four planets all squished together and then the other planets are so spread apart! Lily and Me are so close to coloring! And it was crazy that to make sure that the paper didn't curl up Lily chose astronomy books and it showed all of the planets so me and lily thought..." Perfect, Lily chose the right books for coloring!" It might be just me so don't think I am weird because i am the only one that thinks these are funny!
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Luke
11/13/2017 03:57:23 pm
Thanks Mrs. Taylor for making this AWESOME blog!😀
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Ben / moosee/ moosey I stole Sammy’s nickname
11/13/2017 04:15:23 pm
Hello today my head really hurts same with my legs and my stomach serouisly also I’m watching nartou right now there in the chunine exams I kinda miss the devil of the mist he was fun I’m glad gata is gone
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Mooasus/ Sammy
11/14/2017 07:14:17 am
Ben first of all you don’t even know what Mooasus means. Second, you shouldn’t steal peoples names. Third, you don’t know how to spell Mooasus. Mrs. Taylor thank you for th blog. It helps us learn a lot of stuff!!!!
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Sadie
11/13/2017 04:45:44 pm
The pig one is so cute! Thanks for the blog Mrs. Taylor.
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ryley
11/13/2017 04:49:20 pm
the dog has stretchy lips
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aidan
11/13/2017 04:59:09 pm
WHATARETHOSE!!!!!
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gandalf
11/13/2017 09:09:53 pm
yeah i can finally comment! the people in the car look like they are dancing which i hope they crash because the driver isn't even paying attention. The piggy looks like it is celebrating something, if the pig was celebrating he would be celebrating that he is still alive. the dog on the other hand ... you know i can't even look at that picture without the destruction of my imagination. this would most likely be Jonahs response: "i didn't know you had an imagination to be destroyed." Why do i guess this, because has said that to me before. Did you know E=MC2 stands for energy equals mass times the speed of light!?! did you also know that chickens can recognize more than 100 faces!?! did you also know that there are 25 billion chickens in the world more than any other bird species? did you also know that a warp drive that will allow spacecraft to travel at speeds faster than light -- 186,000 miles per second.
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elephant
11/14/2017 08:23:53 am
I am so super creeped out!!! that is the creepiest pig i have ever seen. i hope the people dancing in the car crash. it would be hillarious!! i toataly would want to see them crash!!!!! so i wrote a pharagraph and i need to go. bye!!!!!
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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 |