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> "A primitive solar system object that’s more four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) away passed in front of a distant star as seen from Earth." Did they
by rodiger 9y ago
> "A primitive solar system object that’s more four billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) away passed in front of a distant star as seen from Earth." Did they forget a "than" after "more" and before "four"? Or is it "a mere"?
- gordon_freeman 9y agoshould have been "more than". "Mere" does not make sense with a huge figure such as "four billion miles" IMO.
- rodiger 9y agoAgreed. Four billion miles could be nothing in space-talk though, as most distances I see are in light-years.
- lomnakkus 9y agoI think "mere" kind of makes sense at these scales? I mean the nearest known star (Proxima Centauri) is 40,208,000,000,000 km away. (Guess it depends on whether you're using "American" Billions or not...)
- greglindahl 9y agoGiven that you're talking about an object in our solar system, I think almost all astronomers would not use "mere" or parsecs.
- lomnakkus 9y agoAh, missed the "in our solar system" bit :).
- gordon_freeman 9y agoThey just fixed it on their article. It is "more than".
- weberc2 9y agoWhat are "American" Billions? I'm an American and AFAIK our 'billions' is the same as anyone else's.
- lomnakkus 9y agoI think it's answered by this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion (I can't vouch for the specific wording, but search for "American".)