Actually it might not be a top factoid to anyone who already knows it, but it might be to those who don't.

The utter vastness of space - as in the inky blackness all around - is pretty much impossible to attempt to comprehend at the best of times.

Here's a thing which might provide a slightly better grasp of the relative size of our infinitesimally teeny part of it.

On average - because it varies a bit - it's about 250,000 miles from Earth to the moon.

That's the kind of mileage an old Mercedes taxi in Cairo would probably do in its lifetime, and isn't beyond what a regular car could achieve if it was looked after properly.

Not a huge distance by any means, and in the bigger context of our little bit of space, smaller than microscopic.

Despite that proximity, if you could arrange all the planets in the Solar System in a row, like playground marbles, they would all fit between Earth and the moon - that quarter of a million miles - with a couple of thousand miles or so left over.

Even the whoppers like Jupiter and Saturn. The whole lot.

Using current technology it would take round about 12 years to get from Earth to Neptune, for example. That's twelve years travelling through an awful lot of nothingness before you get there.

It's a long, long, long way away.

I think that gives a pretty good idea of just how much nothing there is, even in our indescribably minute part of the whole of everything.

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Quote: Pepé Le Pew wrote in post #1

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Using current technology it would take round about 12 years to get from Earth to Neptune, for example. That's twelve years travelling through an awful lot of nothingness before you get there.

It's a long, long, long way away.

I think that gives a pretty good idea of just how much nothing there is, even in our indescribably minute part of the whole of everything.

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Quote: Julie Grafo wrote in post #3

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You seem to have time on your hands...

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Quote: Williebraveheart wrote in post #7

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I had thought of going to Neptune for a picnic this weekend. Anyone know a shortcut?

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