How Big Are Things? Home     Welcome	small		Real world	big			solar system		between	galaxy
	nano	micro		meter	kilo		Mega	Giga	Tera	Peta	Exa

Mm = 106 m

look at a sheet of graph paper

galaxy		21
		20 19
local stars		18
		17 16
between		15
		14 13
E's orbit		12
		11 10
sun		9
		8 7
texas		6
		5 4
hood		3
		2 1
you		0
		-1 -2
salt grain		-3
		-4 -5
bacteria		-6
		-7 -8
atom		-9

Earth ~10 Mm
Jupiter ~100 Mm
Sun ~1000 Mm

Sun

light-seconds ( lt·s )
0	1	2	3	4	5

Moon's orbit

src, original movie	movie
Earth's magnetosphere

Sun Alpha Centauri A B C (Proxima)
Barnard's Star src
Wolf 359
Lalande 21185 (aka BD+36°2147)
Luyten 726-8 A B (UV Ceti)
Sirius A (the bright star you can see in the sky)
Sirius B
Ross 154

Do some of the stars look similar?
Alpha Centauri A is a lot like our Sun.
But most stars are small, red, and old. Wolf 359 has been around since the galaxy formed.

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