In elementary school, I charted out the average distance of each planet (yeah, in those days I called Pluto a planet) from the sun on common scale on an adding machine tape. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars were all very close to the beginning end of the tape. The outer planets were far, far away, and the tape wrapped around several walls of my elementary school classroom. Yep, space is big.
And all the distances within the solar system are beggared by the distances between distinct stars in our galaxy, not to mention the distances among different galaxies. Arthur C. Clarke wrote an essay about these facts, titled "We'll Never Conquer Space."
And all the distances within the solar system are beggared by the distances between distinct stars in our galaxy, not to mention the distances among different galaxies. Arthur C. Clarke wrote an essay about these facts, titled "We'll Never Conquer Space."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#We.27ll_Never_...