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How Big Are Things?
Home     Welcome
small Real
world

big     solar system between galaxy
nano
micro
meter
kilo
Mega
Giga
Tera
Peta
Exa
  Megameter's Room - looking at the entire room
  Mm = 106 m
look at a sheet of graph paper
 
galaxy21
 20
19
local stars18
 17
16
between15
 14
13
E's orbit12
 11
10
sun9
 8
7
texas6
 5
4
hood3
 2
1
you0
 -1
-2
salt grain-3
 -4
-5
bacteria-6
 -7
-8
atom-9
106 m    1 Mm
107 m    10 Mm
108 m    100 Mm
109 m    1000 Mm (1 Gm)

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.

Thumbnail of Megapaper.

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