Astronomy Homework #1: Scales of the Universe

Name______Class Meeting Time ______

Turn this cover sheet in with your assignment.

Please, answer the following Review Questions at the end of Section 1.1 from Nick Strobel’s Astronomy Notes. Please write or type out the question and use complete sentences to answer the question. Mathematical work can be done by hand.

Review Questions 1. Compared to the distances between the planets in the solar system, how far apart are the stars from each other? For this comparison find out how many astronomical units there are between two typical stars (e.g., the Sun and the next nearest star Proxima Centauri). Is the answer closer to 10, 100, 1000, 10000, 100,000, 500,000, or 1,000,000?

3. How far away is the nearest star outside of the solar system in kilometer units and light year units?

4. Where is our solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy?

6. How old is the Earth compared to the age of the universe?

7. How many times older is the Earth than the first civilizations?