Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2020 October 3

                             Driving to the Sun
               Image Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA

   Explanation: How long would it take to drive to the Sun? Brittany age
   7, and D.J. age 12, ponder this question over dinner one evening. James
   also age 7, suggests taking a really fast racing car while Christopher
   age 4, eagerly agrees. Jerry, a really old guy who is used to
   estimating driving time on family trips based on distance divided by
   speed, offers to do the numbers. "Let's see ... the Sun is 93 million
   miles away. If we drove 93 miles per hour the trip would only take us 1
   million hours." How long is 1 million hours? One year is 365 days times
   24 hours per day, or 8,760 hours. One hundred years would be 876,000
   hours, but that's still a little short of the 1 million hour drive
   time. So the Sun is really quite far away. Christopher is not
   impressed, but as he grows older he will be. You've got to be impressed
   by something that's 93 million miles away and still hurts your eyes
   when you look at it!

                 Tomorrow's picture: nearby stellar nursery
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.


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