5. CLOSEST NEIGHBOUR
We see them at night twinkling and beaming down on us, little dots of lights lost in the dark blue of the night sky.
In our mind we couldn’t have imagined just how far and far away these little lights were from us. We couldn’t fathom that most of the little stars we see in the night sky were by far larger, denser and hotter than our sun.
Our sun is one out of billions of others in our home galaxy the Milky Way galaxy.
In the interstellar neighbourhood the closest star system to our own solar system is the Alpha centauri.
The alpha centauri is 4.3light years away from us, this means it will take light (which is the fastest thing we know) 4 years to travel that distance.
Alpha centauri is a triple star system with Two average stars Alpha centauri A and B and a smaller red dwarf Alpha centauri C.
1 light year is approximately 9trillion kilometers in earth’s standard of measurement.
N.B: It takes light approximately 8 minutes to travel from the sun to earth.
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