Why Doesn't Earth Orbit alpha Centauri?

[TheRealJoeFish]

Yeah Alpha Centauri is ~4.37 ly, the sun is only ~93 million miles.

My understanding is light travels 6 million miles a year. So we are about 15.5 light years from El Sol. It is also my understanding that 15 is more than 4.37. while 4.37 X 6 is less than 93.

Light travels 6 million miles in approximately 35 seconds I think.

6 million miles / 186,000 miles per second (speed of light)

[FatAndFaithless]

Yeah Alpha Centauri is ~4.37 ly, the sun is only ~93 million miles.

My understanding is light travels 6 million miles a year. So we are about 15.5 light years from El Sol. It is also my understanding that 15 is more than 4.37. while 4.37 X 6 is less than 93.

Ehh, no.  A light year is (roughly) 6 trillion miles.  We're nowhere near a lightyear away from the sun.  It only takes light ~8ish minutes to travel from the sun to the earth, which is ~.000016 light years.


~4.37 ly to Alpha Centauri, ~.000016 ly to the sun. We're vastly, vastly closer to the sun.

[Alex K]

Yeah Alpha Centauri is ~4.37 ly, the sun is only ~93 million miles.

My understanding is light travels 6 million miles a year. So we are about 15.5 light years from El Sol. It is also my understanding that 15 is more than 4.37. while 4.37 X 6 is less than 93.

No, it travels 6 million miles in like half a minute.

Wait... What do you even mean by "el sol"? Because our Sun is like 8 light minutes away. I'm confused. If Alpha centauri were closer than the sun, we would have a huge ass second sun in the southern sky.

[Primordial Bisque]

Yeah Alpha Centauri is ~4.37 ly, the sun is only ~93 million miles.

My understanding is light travels 6 million miles a year. So we are about 15.5 light years from El Sol. It is also my understanding that 15 is more than 4.37. while 4.37 X 6 is less than 93.

Light travels roughly 6 trillion miles per year. Alpha Centauri is ~250,000 times further away from Earth than the Sun.

[LostLocke]

Yep. By NASA light travels ~671 million miles per hour... waaaay faster than 6 million miles a year.

[Neo-Scholastic]

I recently finished reading "The Three Body Problem." Excellent hard science fiction for those so inclined.

[Cyberman]

I watched the Brazzers adaptation.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yeah Alpha Centauri is ~4.37 ly, the sun is only ~93 million miles.

My understanding is light travels 6 million miles a year. So we are about 15.5 light years from El Sol. It is also my understanding that 15 is more than 4.37. while 4.37 X 6 is less than 93.

We're eight light minutes from the Sun.

[Rhondazvous]

There must be some kind of misunderstanding. Alpha Centauri is many thousand times further away than the Sun

I think it highly possible that you may be right. Big difference between 6 million and 6 trillion.

My only excuse is that in school my math teacher was arrested as a cell leader in the notorious al Gebra movement. Our classroom was littered with weapons of math instruction and I got taken out by a stealth bomber disguised as a pop quiz. It was terrible.

[Cyberman]