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Indeed. We can't even agree on whether or not there's an extra Neptune-sized gas giant out beyond the orbit of Pluto, and that's right here in our OWN solar sy
by StevePerkins 3y ago
Indeed. We can't even agree on whether or not there's an extra Neptune-sized gas giant out beyond the orbit of Pluto, and that's right here in our OWN solar system!
- eru 3y agoSo? Even ten extra Jupiters or thousand extra suns would take up only a tiny amount of space compared to the size of the solar system out to Pluto: The distance from the sun to Pluto is about 5.9 billion km. The radius of the sun is about 696,340 km. The ratio of radii is about 8,473. Cube that to get the ratio of volumes, and you get 608,263,848,559 for the ratio of volume in a sphere out to Pluto vs volume of the sun. (Doing the numbers, I'm actually surprised: I had expected the ratio of radii to be bigger than 8,473. But I'm not surprised that the sun barely takes up any space.)
- denton-scratch 3y ago> The radius of the sun is about 696,340 km Arguably, the entire heliosphere is part of the Sun's atmosphere, and it reaches well beyond Pluto. If I were in a relativistic spaceship, I think I'd want to apply the brakes well before slamming into the heliosphere. What do you call the heliosphere of a star that isn't the Sun? The stellosphere?
- denton-scratch 3y agoReplying to self (sorry). "Stellosphere" is wrong, because "stella" is Latin, and "sphere" is from Greek. It should be "asterosphere", but that's a word I've never seen nor heard.
- eru 3y agoWe have been mixing up Latin and Greek for quite a few terms already, so I don't think that should keep you from using a term.