How big is the sun?

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RamzFanz

RamzFanz

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The recently released images of Mercury in front of the sun taken by Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft are pretty amazing.

DoZSJKu.jpg


The perspective is skewed though by the distance of Mercury from the sun and the relative closeness of the spacecraft to mercury.

I made this to show a better perspective. The left shadow is mercury, to the right of that is Earth from the same perspective. Below that is Mercury and Earth if they were actually next to the sun.

Sun.jpg


I once did an ad hoc poll of college students asking which was bigger, the sun or the moon, and they did miserably. Even those who guessed correctly weren't sure. Mercury is 1/4 larger than the moon for comparison.

The moon and sun being the same size in our sky is actually a very odd thing and is why we can have such perfect solar eclipses. The moon was once larger in the sky than the sun, but it's slowly leaving us and will one day be smaller than the sun.

Many people think the side of the moon we see is static but it actually varies some.

Lunar_libration_with_phase2.gif
 
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bluecoconuts

bluecoconuts

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We can fit 1.3 million Earth's into the sun. If you imagine this ball is the sun, the little blue balls inside would be the amount of Earth's that could fit inside of it.

you-can-put-1-million-earths-in-the-volume-of-the-sun--heres-what-that-looks-like.jpg


99.86% of the mass of our solar system is our star... Which isn't a very large star by the standards of the universe, it's about average. Some of the largest known stars have a volume 5 billion times larger than the sun.

Also in terms of the moon drifting away, the further away it gets the longer our days get.


*Edit* all small correction on the photo posted by Ramzfanz, the New Horizons craft is just under 35AU away, and such the sun is but a mere speck, looks like a very bright star. The photo posted above is from a German astrophotographer using equipment here on Earth. Amazing photograph though, I highly recommend checking out his stuff on twitter.

https://twitter.com/astroaffairs
 
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Selassie I

Selassie I

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Yeah... I've been watching this stuff too. I'm a space freak and always have been.

I've lived very close to Cape Canaveral for most of my life. Seen many a launch with my own eyes... You can see the rockets clearly from the Cape over here in Orlando when they are going up. I don't remember, but I was actually at the Cape when the rocket went up for the 1st moon landing (I was only 2 or 3). I watched many a shuttle go up as well. I watched the Columbia break up from my backyard as it happened... had to run inside to see what they were saying on the news because it was so obvious something was wrong. My favorite launches have always been the night launches. We were able to watch 2 different shuttle night launches from my Grandfather's boat out in the Atlantic off the coast. Night becomes day when those things would blast off at night. So cool... it's always had a hold on me.

I can never get enough when it comes to Space News and that type of science. We've really been able to see some truly incredible pics from out there in recent months.
 
RamzFanz

RamzFanz

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bluecoconuts said:
We can fit 1.3 million Earth's into the sun. If you imagine this ball is the sun, the little blue balls inside would be the amount of Earth's that could fit inside of it.

you-can-put-1-million-earths-in-the-volume-of-the-sun--heres-what-that-looks-like.jpg


99.86% of the mass of our solar system is our star... Which isn't a very large star by the standards of the universe, it's about average. Some of the largest known stars have a volume 5 billion times larger than the sun.

Also in terms of the moon drifting away, the further away it gets the longer our days get.


*Edit* all small correction on the photo posted by Ramzfanz, the New Horizons craft is just under 35AU away, and such the sun is but a mere speck, looks like a very bright star. The photo posted above is from a German astrophotographer using equipment here on Earth. Amazing photograph though, I highly recommend checking out his stuff on twitter.

https://twitter.com/astroaffairs
Click to expand...

Damn it CNN, get your shit together.

That ball of "Earths" is a fantastic example. As always, thanks for jumping in. I love this stuff.
 
RamzFanz

RamzFanz

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Selassie I said:
Yeah... I've been watching this stuff too. I'm a space freak and always have been.

I've lived very close to Cape Canaveral for most of my life. Seen many a launch with my own eyes... You can see the rockets clearly from the Cape over here in Orlando when they are going up. I don't remember, but I was actually at the Cape when the rocket went up for the 1st moon landing (I was only 2 or 3). I watched many a shuttle go up as well. I watched the Columbia break up from my backyard as it happened... had to run inside to see what they were saying on the news because it was so obvious something was wrong. My favorite launches have always been the night launches. We were able to watch 2 different shuttle night launches from my Grandfather's boat out in the Atlantic off the coast. Night becomes day when those things would blast off at night. So cool... it's always had a hold on me.

I can never get enough when it comes to Space News and that type of science. We've really been able to see some truly incredible pics from out there in recent months.
Click to expand...

I was ready to buy tickets to the last shuttle launch and bring the family there to see it. I don't remember why, but it fell through. Ticket lottery maybe? If only I had know we could bring our dogs and guinea pigs and all stay with you. :whistle:

I've never seen a launch. I would almost kill to go there for a Delta IV or V and to see the shuttle in the museum. My sister now lives in Orlando so I'm thinking this summer if they launch from there.

I envy you. Except the Columbia breakup, that made me heartsick.

One small gripe is that there are 3 shuttles on the East coast, 1 on the west, and none in between. WTH? St Louis is home to Boeing, has skunkworks and DARPA installations, and we can't get a Shuttle 'round hea'? Right across the state line is the stealth bomber base. The Gulf coast tested the damn engines and nothing? I hate politics.
 
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TK42-RAM

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I think this picture gives an indication of the relative size of the various objects in our solar system.

solar system.JPG
 
Selassie I

Selassie I

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RamzFanz said:
I was ready to buy tickets to the last shuttle launch and bring the family there to see it. I don't remember why, but it fell through. Ticket lottery maybe? If only I had know we could bring our dogs and guinea pigs and all stay with you. :whistle:

I've never seen a launch. I would almost kill to go there for a Delta IV or V and to see the shuttle in the museum. My sister now lives in Orlando so I'm thinking this summer if they launch from there.

I envy you. Except the Columbia breakup, that made me heartsick.

One small gripe is that there are 3 shuttles on the East coast, 1 on the west, and none in between. WTH? St Louis is home to Boeing, has skunkworks and DARPA installations, and we can't get a Shuttle 'round hea'? Right across the state line is the stealth bomber base. The Gulf coast tested the damn engines and nothing? I hate politics.
Click to expand...


You gotta go see everything they have over at the Cape when you visit. Short drive from here in O-Town. Space Disney.
 
RamzFanz

RamzFanz

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RamzFanz said:
I was ready to buy tickets to the last shuttle launch and bring the family there to see it. I don't remember why, but it fell through. Ticket lottery maybe? If only I had know we could bring our dogs and guinea pigs and all stay with you. :whistle:

I've never seen a launch. I would almost kill to go there for a Delta IV or V and to see the shuttle in the museum. My sister now lives in Orlando so I'm thinking this summer if they launch from there.

I envy you. Except the Columbia breakup, that made me heartsick.

One small gripe is that there are 3 shuttles on the East coast, 1 on the west, and none in between. WTH? St Louis is home to Boeing, has skunkworks and DARPA installations, and we can't get a Shuttle 'round hea'? Right across the state line is the stealth bomber base. The Gulf coast tested the damn engines and nothing? I hate politics.
Click to expand...

Correction, Delta IV or IV Heavy.
 
Ramhusker

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Short answer is BIG! But as far as stars go, our sun is a puny little fella.
 
Rynie

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What's crazy is there are stars that make the sun look like mercury in that photo. The Earth, in comparison, is almost a germ at that point.
 
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