Our Space Time Coordinates: Time, Distances, and Sizes http://cecs.wright.edu/~tkprasad

Seven Continents and Four Oceans Universe Milky Way Galaxy Solar System (including the star Sun, the planet Earth, the moon Moon(!), etc) Planet Earth Seven Continents and Four Oceans North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, Antartica Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic Countries, States, Cities United States of America, Ohio, Dayton Russ Engineering Center, Wright State University, 3640, Col. Glenn Highway

(Speed of light = 186000 miles per second) Measuring Distances Average Distance between Sun and Earth = 93 million miles (1 Astronomical Unit) (Speed of light = 186000 miles per second) (1 light second = 186000 miles ) = 500 light second = 8.33 light minutes 1 light-second = 186 282.397 mi = 299 792 458 km 1 light-minute = 11 176 943.8 mi = 17 987 547 480 km 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) = 8.317 light-minutes = 92 955 807.3 mi = 149 597 870.691 km 1 light-hour = 670 616 629 mi = 1.079 ×10^12 m 1 light-day = 1.60947991 × 10^10 mi = 2.590 2×10^13 m 1 light-year = 5.87849981 × 10^12 mi = 9.461 ×10^15 m <365.2422 d/y> 1 parsec = 1.91735131 x 10^13 miles = 3.2616336 light-years = 3.08567782 x 10^13 km

Visualizing Distances If 1 inch is the distance between sun and earth, then 1 mile is equivalent to 1 light year. 1 parsec = 3.26 light years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsec The parsec ("parallax of one arcsecond", symbol pc) is a unit of length, equal to just under 31trillion kilometres (about 19 trillion miles), or about 3.26 light-years.

Solar System scaled to Football field Body Diameter Semi-major axis Sun 0.85 in (21.5 mm) zero Mercury 0.003 in (0.08 mm) 1.0 yard (0.9 m) Venus 0.007 in (0.19 mm) 1.9 yard (1.7 m) Earth 0.008 in (0.20 mm) 2.5 yard (2.3 m) Mars 0.004 in (0.10 mm) 3.8 yard (3.5 m) Ceres 0.001 in (0.02 mm) 7.0 yard (6.4 m) Jupiter 0.085 in (2.16 mm) 13.1 yard (12.0 m) Saturn 0.071 in (1.8 mm) 24.2 yard (22.1 m) Uranus 0.029 in (0.73 mm) 48.6 yard (44.4 m) Neptune 0.028 in (0.7 mm) 76.1 yard (69.6 m) Pluto 0.002 in (0.05 mm) 100.0 yard (91.4 m) Eris 171.4 yard (156.7 m) α Centauri A 0.94 in (23.9 mm) 396 mile (637 km) Yard = 3 feet 1 meter = 40 inches Average Distance from Sun::- Mercury : Venus : Mars :: 1 : 2 : 4 Jupiter : Saturn :: 1 : 2 (25%) Saturn : Uranus : Neptune : Pluto :: 1 : 2 : 3 : 4

Distances to nearby objects Heavenly Body Average Distance from Earth Moon 1.3 light seconds Sun 8.3 light minutes Mars 12 light minutes (0.5 – 2.5 AU) Jupiter 42 light minutes Saturn 1.2 light hours Pluto 4 light hours Comets – outer reaches of solar system Light months Time needed for signals to travel to interplanetary spacecrafts http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/bnbg6billion/6billion_traveltimes.htm Distance between mars and earth varies between 0.5 AU – 2.5AU (Consider elliptic motions around the sun)

Blue/Red giant in Orion Distances to Stars Stars Distinction Distance from Earth (light years) Proxima Centauri Nearest Star 4.2 light years Sirius Brightest Star (in night sky) 8.6 light years Pole star North star, Cepheid Variable 300 light years Rigel/Betelgeuse Blue/Red giant in Orion 800/600 light years Deneb Blue giant in Cygnus 1500 light years Andromeda Galaxy Nearest galaxy 2 million light years *HST Image* Most distant galaxy 13 billion light years Light left the farthest object when the universe was only 750 million light years old http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080210.html The object is not in the cluster but situated a long way behind it. Abell 2218 was simply used as a "gravitational lens" - a massive foreground object that can bend and magnify the light of objects much further away. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/astronomy/faq/part8/section-14.html

Age vs Distance http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect20/A8.html Age: Distance travelled by light? If red shift of light is measured, we get source velocity information. We still need its distance to estimate age.

Universe Distances http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html http://cass.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/scale.html http://cass.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/Intro.html FantasticTrip.pps

Universe Timeline http://www.pbs.org/deepspace/timeline/index.html http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/tl1.html http://science.jrank.org/pages/118/Age-Universe.html http://www.atgc.org/TimeLine/TimeLine.html

Sizes of planets and stars Planets, Stars, Nebulae, Galaxies - Universe Size Comparison [HD High Definition] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZkAZebK1U&NR=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNb3H9kICbA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpUWNYgVEfk&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FwCMnyWZDg&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FwCMnyWZDg&fmt=22&annotation_id=annotation_902471&feature=iv 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S69zZwYrx0 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNb3H9kICbA