Vocabulary - Planet Size And Distance
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Vocabulary
STUDENT RESOURCE 2.1
INFORMATION SHEET
astronomical unit the average distance
light-year the distance light travels in
from Earth to the Sun, or 150 million
one year, or 9.5 trillion km (5.9 trillion
kilometers (93 million miles)
miles)
Earth is 1 AU from the Sun. The closest
Light travels at a speed of 300,000
planet to the Sun, Mercury, is 0.39 AU.
km/s (186,000 mi/s). The distance to the
The farthest planet from the Sun, Pluto,
next closest star, Centauri Proxima, is 4.2
is 39.48 AU.
light-years. That means it takes 4.2 years
for light from that star to reach Earth.
For comparison, it takes 8.5 minutes for
light from the Sun to reach Earth.
EXPLORING SPACE • SECTION 2 PLANET SIZE AND DISTANCE •
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