Space Face
A wave of cosmological curiosity passed over me this morning and I wanted to get an idea as to the sort of distances we're talking about when we refer to say "the nearest star" to our own. You can pick up the figures anywhere but I couldn't find any actual diagrammatic representations, so I decided to make them myself.
So, here's the orbit of Neptune, the farthest (known) planet from Sol, in as small a scale as I think I can get away with. The tiny pixel in the middle is Sol (it's actually smaller than a pixel, to this scale, but whatever). Click to enlarge!
Now, keep that orbital circle on your mind, 'cause here's that same circle again showing the relative distance from Sol to Alpha Centauri A (said nearest star). Remember, the circles here are not the sizes of the stars themselves but the sizes of two Neptunian orbits (let's pretend that Alpha Centauri A has its own Neptune, for the sake of this diagram...):
...well, I thought it was quite interesting, anyway. We've got just 1 billion years to get there, let's get packing!
Disclaimer for the benefit of the cosmologically well-read: I reserve the right to be completely wrong about all of the above.
So, here's the orbit of Neptune, the farthest (known) planet from Sol, in as small a scale as I think I can get away with. The tiny pixel in the middle is Sol (it's actually smaller than a pixel, to this scale, but whatever). Click to enlarge!
Now, keep that orbital circle on your mind, 'cause here's that same circle again showing the relative distance from Sol to Alpha Centauri A (said nearest star). Remember, the circles here are not the sizes of the stars themselves but the sizes of two Neptunian orbits (let's pretend that Alpha Centauri A has its own Neptune, for the sake of this diagram...):
...well, I thought it was quite interesting, anyway. We've got just 1 billion years to get there, let's get packing!
Disclaimer for the benefit of the cosmologically well-read: I reserve the right to be completely wrong about all of the above.