• Question: how far is the sun to earth?

    Asked by rania to James, Marcus, Martin, Rob, Suzanne on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Suzanne McEndoo

      Suzanne McEndoo answered on 15 Mar 2012:

      It’s about 150 million kilometres. We actually have a special name for this, the Atronomical Unit. It’s actually the average distance between the earth and the sun. We don’t go around the sun in a proper circle, so some times we’re a little closer or a little further away.

    • Photo: Marcus Gallagher-Jones

      Marcus Gallagher-Jones answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      Can’t really give you a better answer than that. Fastest fingers first I guess.

    • Photo: Martin Zaltz Austwick

      Martin Zaltz Austwick answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      About 8 1/2 light minutes. Where a light minute is the distance light travels in one minute.

      (light years are the distance light travels in a year. That’s a long way. So remember, light years measure distance, not time!)

    • Photo: Robert Thompson

      Robert Thompson answered on 16 Mar 2012:

      *Looking out of the window* Further than I’ve ever been

      Martin’s answer is good, and what it means is when you look at the moon you are looking into the past because what you see actually happened 8 and a half minutes ago when the light left the moon.

Comments