# Traveling at the speed of light away from the sun **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 2, 2016, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448 "2016-10-02T06:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2016, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/1 "2016-10-02T06:49:27Z")
… doesn’t seem that fast: [Riding Light on Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/117815404) The video underscores how big the sun and how incredibly far all the planets are from each other. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/2 "2016-10-03T02:33:33Z")
That was pretty cool. But tedious. I ended up hyperspaceing myself to the next planets after sitting through from the Sun to Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/3 "2016-10-03T03:21:06Z")
Fantastic, thanks. Really well done. I’ll try it out on my almost-6-year-old child soon…he knows the order of the planets, but (like most of us) doesn’t realize how far apart they are. I think I’ll just present it to him as a ride from the Sun outward, though, and save the “light travels at a certain speed” idea for when he’s a bit older. (Best to start with sound – an echo, say, or a base hit from across a stadium.) ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/4 "2016-10-03T05:45:08Z")
[Here](http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html) is model of the solar system you can scroll through. Scrolling speed seems be about 10x light speed, so you can scroll through to Pluto in about 35-40 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/5 "2016-10-03T05:59:22Z")
I watched the whole thing until around Jupiter. Then I got bored. I’ll get back to it later, though. It’s less tedious than some Tarkovsky movies I’ve seen. Don’t post any open spoilers about the ending, OK? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/6 "2016-10-03T06:05:36Z")
Scale Solar System on a [dry lakebed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg) ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/7 "2016-10-03T15:18:34Z")
The Voyager spacecraft are the most distant things we have launched IIRC, and they aren’t even a light day out yet. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/8 "2016-10-03T15:27:01Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Scale Solar System on a [dry lakebed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg) They missed one.🙂 And either way, Neptune is not “the edge of the solar system”. Adding the Oort cloud would really show how big it is. (You don’t have to model every comet - just show the boundaries.) ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/9 "2016-10-03T16:38:27Z")
Wow. That reminds me. [QUOTE=Hitchhiker’s Guide] Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/10 "2016-10-04T01:04:41Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > I watched the whole thing until around Jupiter. Then I got bored. > > I’ll get back to it later, though. It’s less tedious than some Tarkovsky movies I’ve seen. Don’t post any open spoilers about the ending, OK? The video ends at Jupiter. To get to Saturn from Jupiter would take almost as much time as it took to get to Jupiter from the Sun. Or am I being whooshed? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/11 "2016-10-04T04:41:21Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > The video ends at Jupiter. To get to Saturn from Jupiter would take almost as much time as it took to get to Jupiter from the Sun. > > Or am I being whooshed? Actually, something was in the way of the video progress bar on my screen while I was watching, and I didn’t notice that the video stopped at Jupiter. Not sure how that happened, but I suppose that I wasn’t really paying attention. The point where I got bored was, apparently, just before the ending. I was hoping to get all the way out to Pluto, but I suppose I’ll have to wait for the sequel. Or for a few sequels. BTW, that video, much like Citizen Kane, is excellent for watching on a date. Eventually, you’ll end up turning to hanky-panky just to relieve the boredom. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/traveling-at-the-speed-of-light-away-from-the-sun/767448/12 "2016-10-04T22:06:50Z")
According to the Googles, traveling from the Sun to Pluto at light speed would take 5.5 hours on average. That’s a really, really great session of hanky-panky.