Cosmic distances
Earth - Sun = 150 million km
= 8 light minutes
Next nearest star = 4 light years
Earth - centre of Milky Way
= 26,000 light years
Next nearest galaxy (Andromeda)
= 2.5 million light years
= 0.8 Mpc (Megaparsec)
1Mpc is typical inter-galaxy
distance (3.1 x 10
22
m)