Gaze into the night sky, contemplating the vastness between stars. To reach the closest, Alpha Centauri, we'd need to travel 26 trillion miles. Let's imagine shrinking our Sun to a quarter and the space around it; the distance would still be 429 miles. The space between stars is truly incomprehensible, akin to driving from Jacksonville to the Florida Keys, a stellar road trip indeed. Space lives up to its name! ๐โจ
Transcript:
Look up tonight and gaze at the dark space between those stars. How far are they from each other?
Well, to get to the closest one to us, Alpha Centauri, weโd need to travel 26 trillion miles.
That vast distance is hard for most of our puny brains to comprehend, so letโs do this - Think hard and shrink our Sun down to the size of a quarter. Observe it in your palm as its enigmatic light glows.
Now that weโve reduced the Sun in our mindโs eye, letโs also shrink the space around it.
A quarter-sized Sun correspondingly allows for the 26 trillion miles to Alpha Centauri to shrink toโฆ 429 miles.
Thatโs a long way.
Imagine driving from Jacksonville to the Florida Keys. Maybe 6 hours on the Interstate โฆfrom one small shiny quarter to the next.
Now thatโs a stellar road trip.
While stars might look close to each other in the night sky, remember that the space between them isโฆ
Wellโฆ letโs just say, space is well named.