DISTANCE AND TIME IN

SPACE
Section 1.2

DISTANCE AND TIME IN SPACE

When you view an object in space you are seeing it as it was in the past. It
has taken the light a very long time to reach the earth. Light from the sun
takes about 8 minutes to reach the earth, whereas light from Pluto takes
about 5 hours. The further away, the longer it takes light to reach earth. Light
from the stars in the center of the universe takes about 25, 000 years to reach
the earth.

THE ASTRONOMICAL UNIT

The astronomical unit is the average distance between the sun and earth. Its value
is 149,597,870 km (about 93 million miles)
In our Solar System, the distance from the sun to the other planets can be measured
in AUs as well:
Mercury 0.38 AU
Venus .72 AU
Jupiter 5.2 AU
Saturn 9.54 AU
Uranus 19.22 AU
Neptune 30.06
Pluto 39.5 AU

LIGHT YEARS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v82sGrjOgis

LIGHT YEARS
To measure really long distances people use a unit called a light year. Light
travels at 300 000 KM per second. A light year is the distance that light can
travel in one year or:

9.46 x1015m

LIGHT YEARS