• Question: How far is the closest star?

    Asked by Lebron James to Col Op, Elie, Floris, Jenn, RocketRich on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Elie Allouis

      Elie Allouis answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Well, technically it is about 150 million km…and it is our Sun 🙂 that’s the closest star..

      ..but I guess you are wondering about the closest outside our solar system. It is Alpha Centauri, at just about 4.37 light years from the Sun…that’s 4.37 years traveling at the speed of light.

      Can’t picture the distance? Well, imagine the sun and Alpha Centauri are both the size of a grapefruit. The distance between the two would be about 2500miles… or 3 times the whole length (North/South) of the UK or the width of the US coast to coast.

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