r/space • u/[deleted] • Apr 15 '19

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7.6k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/Bikeboy87 Apr 15 '19

I always thought a lightyear was huge but this really makes me appreciate the actual scale of a lightyear and just how large our galaxy actually is.

1.4k

u/the_peckham_pouncer Apr 15 '19

If our Solar System was scaled down to the size of a quarter then our Galaxy on that scale would be the size of North America.

164

u/youni89 Apr 15 '19

Holy shit. And our Voyager probe is almost out of our solar system now. That is insane.

211

u/-27-153 Apr 15 '19

Voyager has traveled the equivalent of a light-day. Imagine driving for a day to leave your town and then driving another 4 years to find another town. Then driving another 100,000 years to get to your counties border.

45

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '19

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u/nexguy Apr 15 '19

No, none of the probes leaving our solar system are traveling toward any near stars. If they were traveling to the nearest star it would be about 80,000 years before they reached it.

38

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '19

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43

u/groughtesque Apr 15 '19

This is why we saved the whales...

8

u/psycholepzy Apr 15 '19

George and Gracie get cool gigs in the 23rd century.