How far away is the Nearest Star?

RichardB1983

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Published 2018-08-26

Distances in space are huge, but it's difficult to visualise just how far things are away, so I thought I'd have a go at showing how far away the nearest star to the Sun is, by creating a scale model, shrinking the Sun down to the size of a golf ball. The scale is roughly 33 billion:1.

All distances shown are straight line distances from my start location just south of Manchester in England. The actual distance travelled is larger. The nearest star is actually quite some distance away! And this is just the nearest star - some of the visible stars are many hundreds of times further and the centre of our own galaxy is 7,000 times further away just for starters.

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All Comments (21)

@marinanjer4293 5 years ago

Wife: Where were you the past 4 days? Me: I was looking for the nearest star system.
@PauIdenino 5 years ago

I thought you were just gonna throw the ball to the other side of the park... But no, you drove from England to Spain.
@S-I-T 2 months ago

What blows my mind is that the space between stars is so huge, 2 galaxies could pass through each other and the chances of 2 stars colliding from those galaxies is pretty much zero. Space is the perfect name for it.
@isaacmallinson2654 2 months ago

Yet another valiant attempt to explain the scale of the universe that my mind fails to comprehend
@elihughes9842 5 years ago

Drove 700+ miles to make a 5 minute video. My hat goes off to you sir.
@dogsareawesome9197 2 years ago

He went across the continent to hold a golf ball infront of a camera. Give this man an applause
@richardgoff6739 2 months ago

Thanks for showing this distance so we can understand.
@kipperrepublic3568 2 months ago

Thanks for demonstrating this. Mind blowing how vast our Galaxy is and of the universe. Our brains cant even comprehend the vastness of it all.
@PassportGaming 5 years ago

Son: Dad, how far is the Andromeda Galaxy? This man: Come, son. Let’s go for a drive
@sagarock5528 5 years ago

1200 km drive for one video, now that deserves a like
@OddNotes 1 month ago

As we see the galaxies as a thick flurry of stars, we easily think they are quite dense. In fact they are not, as this fine demonstration shows. Our sun is not exceptionally far away from other stars - I think its quite the contrary. So there is plenty of empty space inside the galaxies. Not to mention the complete emptiness of the space between them!
@skyless7304 2 months ago

Mind-blowing, I couldn't visualise the distance until you showed us. Thank you!
@crimson7062 5 years ago

Seems like Youtube Recommendations has brought us all together again.
@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj 8 months ago

Not only a great visual representation of the sheer distances involved, but a genius way to write off a road trip.
@bruceyung70 1 month ago

Thank you for making the video. I keep watching it over and over for amazement.
@sudipdutta72 10 days ago

this is a good way to show the distances between stars... ppl can relate and feel this way much better than light years numbers
@im7aymood320 6 months ago

i don’t think anyone in the comment section understands just how truly horrifying the distance is and this is just the nearest star
@Nako3 7 months ago

I cant believe you went to Proxima Centauri with just your car.
@SlwRpr 2 months ago

Now that puts it in perspective. Good job.
@mrwakacorp 4 days ago

I've shown this video to so many people since its release I can't even count. Such a powerful representation of the size of our universe!