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If the Sun fit on your table, how far away would the nearest star be?

Shrink the Sun to a ball 10 centimeters across and Earth would be roughly 11 meters away. Keep that same scale and the nearest star beyond the Sun would still be thousands of kilometers away. The hard part of a scale model is often finding enough space between its objects.

3–5 min

Questions you could explore

  • Which distances could fit on a familiar map at the same scale, and which would fall beyond it?
  • How do ratios preserve both star sizes and interstellar distances in the same scale model?

Start reading

  • NASASun Facts

    Provides the sizes and distances needed to calculate one consistent scale model, including Proxima Centauri at about 4.24 light-years.

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Space

A crescent Moon is not a partly switched-off Moon

Sunlight illuminates half the Moon, while its changing position around Earth changes how much of that lit half we can see. A phase is different from an eclipse, where one body blocks light from reaching another.

3–5 min

A crescent Moon is not a partly switched-off Moon

Space3–5 minSunlight illuminates half the Moon, while its changing position around Earth changes how much of that lit half we can see. A phase is different from an eclipse, where one body blocks light from reaching another.

Space

Two eclipses, two different shadows

A solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse both involve the Sun, Earth, and Moon, but the shadow falls in a different place. In one, the Moon’s shadow reaches Earth; in the other, the Moon moves into Earth’s shadow. The Moon’s tilted orbit helps explain why these alignments do not happen every month.

5–7 min

Two eclipses, two different shadows

Space5–7 minA solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse both involve the Sun, Earth, and Moon, but the shadow falls in a different place. In one, the Moon’s shadow reaches Earth; in the other, the Moon moves into Earth’s shadow. The Moon’s tilted orbit helps explain why these alignments do not happen every month.

Space

What can century-old photographs reveal about stars today?

A star photographed on a glass plate a century ago can become a new measurement when compared with later observations. Harvard's DASCH project digitizes an astronomical plate archive, alongside dates and logbooks. Explore how calibration makes those old images useful for investigating changes across decades.

8–10 min

What can century-old photographs reveal about stars today?

Space8–10 minA star photographed on a glass plate a century ago can become a new measurement when compared with later observations. Harvard's DASCH project digitizes an astronomical plate archive, alongside dates and logbooks. Explore how calibration makes those old images useful for investigating changes across decades.

If the Sun fit on your table, how far away would the nearest star be? | Speech Topic | speaking.app