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Astronomical Distances Help File

  • HELP. Displays this help screen. To exit, click one of the Exit Help buttons located at the top and bottom of this screen.

    In this program you are asked to give the speed that you are travelling away from Earth on your way to explore the Universe.

  • Once you input a value for the speed, you need to select the units for the speed (for example, Meters per Second.) You may select from the following options:

    KilometersSecond
    Meters
    per
    		Minute
    MilesHour
    FeetDay
    Year

    Note that the ultimate speed limit in the Universe is the speed of light, which is approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. No physical object can travel faster than the speed of light. In fact, it would take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate a spaceship up to the speed of light!

    Some useful conversions between units are:
  • 1 mile is 5,280 feet
  • 1 mile is 1.61 kilometers
  • 1 kilometer is 1000 meters
  • 1 Light Year is 9.46 x 10 12 km
  • 1 Light Year is 5.91 x 10 12 mi
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