If the entire solar system were about the size of a quarter (roughly 1" in diameter), approximately how far away would the nearest star be?

Question

Jaida Fuentes

Chemistry

21 April, 10:00

If the entire solar system were about the size of a quarter (roughly 1" in diameter), approximately how far away would the nearest star be?

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Tristin · Answer 1

If our entire Solar System were the size of a quarter, the planets and the sun is now a tiny speck of dust. The flat disc of the coin can represent the orbits of the planets.

Using this scale, the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy will be about the size of North America.

The nearest star, other than our own Sun, is about four light years away. That means it takes four years for its light to reach us. Since light travels at a speed of 3.0 x 10^8 meters per second, each light year is such a great distance. Proxima Centauri Milky way would be another quarter, two soccer fields away.

A much further star, Deneb is actually 1,800 light years away, the nearest star would be about 24,000 miles away.