Size of our world (not drawn to scale)

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by KennyJC, Jul 1, 2006.

  1. KennyJC Registered Senior Member

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  3. Pete It's not rocket surgery Registered Senior Member

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    Pop quiz - take a guess before you look it up.

    If that Earth is marble-sized (say 1cm, or 3/8" across), and Jupiter is softball sized (say 10cm, or 4" across), then how big would the Sun be? About basketball size? Bigger? Smaller?
     
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  5. Communist Hamster Cricetulus griseus leninus Valued Senior Member

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    About the size (or larger) of one of those giant marble balls which are placed on pedestals which pump out water so as to rotate the sphere.
     
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  7. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    About 4 times bigger than the universe??

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  8. TheHeretic Registered Senior Member

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    that is truly amazing
     
  9. redarmy11 Registered Senior Member

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    It's the comparisons between our sun and the other stars that blew my mind. Some of those red giants are, well... pretty big.

    Possibly even bigger than the universe. :bugeye:
     
  10. orcot Valued Senior Member

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  11. Lucas Registered Senior Member

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    There're near 200 extrasolar planets known, and some of these are larger than Jupiter.
    There's this list from 2005
    http://www.citebase.org/cgi-bin/ful...pdf&identifier=oai:arXiv.org:astro-ph/0508317
    The biggest planet in that list is HD209458b with a radius of 1.43 Jupiter radius. The great part of the planets in that list have unknown radius. Does somebody know if some extrasolar planet has been determined to have a radius superior to 1.43 Jupiter radius?
     
  12. superluminal I am MalcomR Valued Senior Member

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    How could that be? Please read a bit about the universe and the stars within it. It will help you greatly.
     
  13. Guru Registered Senior Member

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    Some of the Books in my Library are bigger than my library ..

    I believe redarmy11 meant solar system instead of Universe..
     
  14. Communist Hamster Cricetulus griseus leninus Valued Senior Member

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    I believe he was joking, imitating a stupid person to comedic effect.
     
  15. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    No-one answered this exactly yet, although Communist Hamster is right..
    The Sun is almost exactly ten times the diameter of Jupiter, so would be a metre across; three foot three.
     
  16. eburacum45 Valued Senior Member

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    That is about the maximum size for a planet, no matter how massive; if it gets any more massive the planet simply becomes more dense. Larger than 13 Jupiter masses or thereabouts the planet would technically be a brown dwarf, although a small brown dwarf would not be much different to a large Jupiter.
     
  17. Communist Hamster Cricetulus griseus leninus Valued Senior Member

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    That was what i was referring to.
     
  18. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    I think selling a planet set to scale could be good business.

    I think there are 8 official planets, and Pluto is an unofficial planetoid.
     
  19. lixluke Refined Reinvention Valued Senior Member

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    What single star has the largest diameter?
    I was not sure if VV Cephei is the largest single star or the largest binary system.
     
  20. Pete It's not rocket surgery Registered Senior Member

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    The problem is in the huge range. if Mercury is the size of a tic-tac, then the Sun is about a metre.

    Placing them at the right distances is even worse - at that scale, Earth is maybe a hundred metres from the Sun, and Neptune is several kilometres away!
     
  21. Lucas Registered Senior Member

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    Actually Pluto is considered a planet with full rights by the IAU (against my will..). This can be changed in September 2006, when an official definition of what constitutes a planet will be announced by the IAU
     
  22. Genji Registered Senior Member

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    I hope the change will state that to be defined a planet it has to have a surface. Gasballs are just that and don't deserve a classification as a planet.
     
  23. Communist Hamster Cricetulus griseus leninus Valued Senior Member

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    They have a rocky core.
     

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