Page 27 - A Chain of Miracles

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H Harun Yahya
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DISTANCES BETWEEN COSMIC OBJECTS

As we know, our Planet Earth is part of a solar system of

nine planets, the Earth being the third planet orbiting our
medium sized star.
First, let’s understand the scale of this system. The Sun’s di-
ameter is 103 times the Earth’s. To enable a comparison, image
the Earth (whose true diameter is 12,200 kilometers, or 7,500
miles) as the size of a marble. In comparison, our Sun would be
a sphere twice the size of a football. But what is really interest-

ing is the distance between the two. On this scale, it would be
280 meters (920 feet). Planets at the outer reaches of the system
would be many kilometers away from the sphere representing
the Sun.
Yet the solar system’s huge size is actually modest when

placed in context with the rest of our Milky Way Galaxy. It con-
tains an estimated 250 billion stars (or suns), the nearest of which
is Alpha Centauri. If Earth and Sun are 280 meters (920 feet)
apart, as in the above example, then on the same scale, Alpha
Centauri would be a whopping 78,000 kilometers (48,500 miles)
away.
Let’s shrink this scale down until the Earth becomes a dust

particle barely visible to the naked eye. The Sun would then be
the size of a walnut, three meters away from the Earth. On this
new scale, Alpha Centauri would be 640 kilometers (400 miles)
away. Yet the Milky Way Galaxy consists of 250 billion stars with
even more phenomenal distances in between them. Our solar
system is a mere speck in this spiral galaxy.

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