Cosmic Distances

Cosmic distances are so huge, it is hard for us to comprehend them. We generally measure distances in miles and a long distance can be a few miles, if you are walking, or a few hundred miles, if you are driving, or a few thousand miles, if you are flying. When measuring distances on Earth, thousands of miles is as large as we would generally need to go but once we leave Earth, distances become so huge that we need some other measurement.

The most common measurement of distance used when discussing space is the light year. How long is a light year? Well, it is 1 year when measured in time because a light year is the distance that light travels in one year. Light travels pretty fast, 186,282 miles each second. So light could circle the Earth about 7 and a half times in one second. Here is how far light travels in various time units:

Time            Approximate Calculation       Distance in Miles

1 Second                                                               186,282

1 Minute                Times 60                               11,174,520

1 Hour                  Times 60                              671,471,200

1 Day                   Times 24                          16,091,308,800

1 Month               Times 30                        482,739,264,000

1 Year                  Times 12                     5,873,327,712,000

Astronomers generally use a light year as a unit of distance measure. So one light year is about 5.8 trillion miles. Here are some the distances from Lynbrook to points of interest as measured in miles and in terms of the speed of light.

                                                Distance          Time it Takes

                                             (in miles)       at Speed of Light

Theodore Roosevelt 

Nature Center (Jones Beach)       11               0.000059 seconds

Cradle of Aviation

(Garden City)                              12              0.000064 seconds

Rose Center for Earth

and Space (NYC)                         23              0.000123 seconds

Custer Institute (Southold)         77                0.000413 seconds

Griffith Observatory

(Los Angeles)                           2,820            0.015142 seconds

Distance around the Earth       24,900            0.133697 seconds

Moon                                     240,000                 1.29 seconds

Sun                                      94 million                   8.3 minutes

Jupiter                                500 million                    45 minutes

Pluto                                  3.75 billion                      5.5 hours

Nearest Star to Our

Sun (Proxima Centauri)         25.4 trillion                      4.3 years

Sun to Center

of Our Galaxy (Milky Way)    178 quadrillion            30,000 years

Width of the

Milky Way Galaxy                587 quadrillion           100,000 years

Nearest Galaxy to

Milky Way (Andromeda)        15 quintillion           2.6 million years

Furthest Known Galaxy

(MACS0647-JD)                   78 sextillion          13.3 billion years

Some of the larger numbers are rounded and scientists don’t all agree on their accuracy.

For More info:

Distances: http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~cbarnbau/astro_demos/distance/dist_from_sun.html

Names of Large Numbers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers

Roosevelt Nature Center at Jones Beach: http://nysparks.com/environment/nature-centers/4/details.aspx

Cradle of Aviation: https://www.cradleofaviation.org/

Rose Center: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/rose-center-for-earth-and-space

Custer Institute: http://www.custerobservatory.org/

Griffith Observatory: http://www.griffithobs.org/