Orders of magnitude

It is a cliché to observe that the space between objects in outer space is much, much larger than our intuition might expect. But there are several levels of structure:

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0. people

1. planets/moons/stars 10^3 - 10^5 km (diameter of earth or jupiter)

2. stars 10^6-10^7 (sun or supergiant)

2. solar systems 10^9 km (distance to Pluto)

3. oort clouds 10^13 km (200k AU)

3. galaxies 10^17 (100k ly)

4. galaxy clusters 10^20 (30m ly

It's true that the orders of magnitude stretch on, but the biggest magnitudes are the ones:

between nucleus of atom and the electron shell diamater

AND

between distance between planets and distance between stars.

the other distances are actually not too bad.

nucleus of atom is 2 × 10 -15 m

diameter of atom is 1 x 10 - 10 m (5 orders of mag!!!)

diameter of sun vs diameter of pluto orbit (boost 3 orders of mag)

distance between planets: 10^8 to 10^9 km

distance between stars: 10^12 to 10^13 km (boost 3 orders of mag)

distance between galaxies relative to size of galaxy:

(100k ly vs 3m ly is only 1 order of mag!)