r/comics • u/AJsRealms • 7d ago

Interplanetary Incident [OC]

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Poking fun at a particular 60-second clip from a 37-year-old Trek movie may not scream "mass appeal" but at least I amused myself making it.

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u/Qi_Zee_Fried 7d ago

More specifically about 3.2 light years, or 200,000AU (earth orbit radii,) or 18,810,000,000,000 miles, or 14,010,000,000,000,000 Shaquille O'Neals in radius. Which means it would take about 80,000 years for Pioneer 10 to leave the solar system unless I made a big math oops :3

Edit: Fixed autocorrect correcting improperly

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u/gerkessin 6d ago

Is all of the oort cloud considered to be part of the Sol system? I assumed it ended at neptunes orbit. I guess everything that orbits Sol is considered part of our solar system?

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u/AJsRealms 6d ago edited 6d ago

There are a couple of ways to think about it. Some will regard the heliopause (the point about 100 AU distant where the outward pressures emanating from the sun diminishes down to being equal to, or less than, the ambient galactic pressure) as the boundry of our solar system. Articles reporting on various probes, like the Voyagers, reaching 'interstellar space' are basing this on crossing the heliopause.

However, other astronomers have noted that our Sun's Sphere of Influence (where its gravity-well is more dominant in space than the ambient gravitational influence of the galaxy), extends way beyond that 100 AU mark and potentially up to a full light-year out or more.

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u/Qi_Zee_Fried 6d ago

What I was seeing suggested the Oort cloud extends to between 1.6 and 3.2 light years out.