AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Asteroid Belt, Astronomical Unit, Milky Way

• School: UTSG
• Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• Course: AST101H1
• Professor: Eryan Apsnler, Michael Reid

Document Summary

Our cosmic address": earth > solar system > milky way galaxy > local group (galaxy. Compared to other sciences, astronomy is disadvantaged by how the closest thing to actual evidence in their field is photographs. Earth is about 1/10th the diameter of jupiter, jupiter is about 1/10th the diameter of the sun. Most of the solar system as we know it is comprised of empty" space. Emptiness" is cosmically minute amounts of gas and dust. 1 astronomical unit (au) represents the average distance between the earth and the sun. This average distance is generally ~150,000,000,000 km. Inner solar system: all planets within the perimeter of the asteroid belt is about a few au from the sun at any given time.