Insane Curiosity | How Big Is The Solar System?
If we watch the sky on a clear night, far away from the pollution of the cities, we immediately understand that the universe is huge. It is just a sensation, perhaps based on naive and intuitive reasoning: if we see a lot of stars, let's say, thousands, maybe millions of stars...this means the universe is really, really big.
2023-05-18 15:00:00 - Insane Curiosity
Light would from the Sun takes about 555 days to reach the edge of the Solar System compared to 8.25 minutes to reach the Earth. It’s clear we’re talking about some IMMENSE distances which can be hard to imagine. Broadly speaking, the diameter of the entire solar system is 100.000 times the distance from the Sun to Earth. If you managed to design and build a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light, it would basically take one year and a half to reach the end of the solar system.
Don't worry though, because it would be a very nice trip: you wouldn't get bored at all!
For instance, approaching Jupiter, you would see that it would take 11 Earths to fit across its diameter.
However, we will probably never be able to travel at the speed of light, so the trip might get boring.
If we had to travel on a planet, at normal speed, it would take us over 570 years to get to the dark, cold, and blue Neptune.
Of course, our patience would then be rewarded by this amazing view...