Ten videos to understand the true speed of light and the rotation of the planets

For the many numbers of distances and sizes of stars that exist, Seeing the solar system on a real scale is still amazing. used to classic illustration From the solar system, when we see reproduction that respects the true distances and sizes of the planets, it is when we truly realize how insignificant we really are in the universe (this picture trying to represent it), but simply in the solar system.

Astronomer James O’Donoghue has in Your YouTube channel A series of interesting representations of the solar system and its members. These are representations based on actual measurements that allow us Putting a better context for how things work around the sun. They are perfect videos to understand the volume, although if we wanted to we could too Hallucinations space for her beauty.

Eternal days on Venus, transient days on Jupiter

The 24-hour day, at least here on Earth, is what we’ve been taught since we were kids. Although this is not entirely correct from a technical point of view, a day lasts 23 hours and 56 minutes on Earth. But if we go to other planets or moons in the solar system, things are more different. The rotation speed of each star in the solar system variesVenus is the slowest and Jupiter is the fastest orbiting planet.

In one of the videos posted by James O’Donoghue, we can see the planets of the solar system (along with Ceres and Pluto) Turning on themselves and scale in scale all. Two Curiosities: Venus’ Velocity and Uranus’ Inclination. Here is the video:

We can also see this Rotating on a two-dimensional map Show bar from each planet. Each real hour corresponds to approximately one second of the video:

And if you want to see it in three dimensions, this is it Eight planets ball It also rotates each bar with respect to each planet:

Sailing at the speed of light

Leaving aside the planets’ rotation a bit, it’s time to find out how fast light travels. We know that his speed is 300,000 kilometers per secondAlthough again approximate, the true velocity is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, it’s the distance a photon travels in a vacuum in one second. Either way, it’s still just numbers, so let’s put it back into context.

Let’s start with something “small”, let’s see How fast is light rotating on Earth?. If the plane were to orbit the world around Ecuador at the speed of light, it could complete seven and a half revolutions in one second. This is a video showing it:

To give the light more time, let’s see how long it takes to complete The distance between the earth and the moon. It separates us 384,400 kilometers, so if light traveled at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second, it would take a little more than a second. In other words, when we see light we are actually seeing what it was like 1,255 seconds ago. In this video, you can see the speed of light traveling from the Earth to the Moon and vice versa:

We also add the planet Mars to the visualization. If the Moon seems far away, wait to add Mars, which is 54.6 million km away (that is, when its orbit is at its closest to us). A beam of light takes just over three minutes Go to Mars from Earth:

If we look “the other way” and want to see What separates us from the sun (and in between) the distance is greater. The distance between us and our star is about 150 million km (149.6 million km, also known as the 1st astronomical unit). To travel this distance, light needs 8 minutes and 17 seconds, which is how long it takes the sun’s rays to reach us. Again, this means that if we look at the sun we will see what it was like 8 minutes ago. The video with Mercury and Venus between them:

And now the mother of all representations, The entire solar system, from the Sun to Pluto. To make this journey, the light would have to take roughly five and a half hours, depart from the sun and reach Pluto in 5 hours and 28 minutes traveling at 300,000 kilometers per hour (it took us decades to cross the solar system with Voyager sensors). Here’s a video of exactly 5 hours and 28 minutes at the true speed of light:

Imagine you are traveling at the speed of light, how do you see the planets passing by? In fact, human relativity would feel this step as a moment, although if we put a camera to record this trip, these would be the views when approaching each planet:

Before we finish, here is another interesting video: The escape velocity of all the planets in the solar system. What is the escape velocity? It is the speed at which an object needs to move indefinitely away from a more massive object or system to which it is bound only by gravity. Come on, how fast you have to go to escape gravity.

As an extra ball, a recent video clip once again shows the true speed of light. This time we see How does it distance itself from the sun through the orbits of the different planets and stars?. In all times, the distance traveled, the time it took and what is left until the next celestial body appears. The video ends on Jupiter, so it’s about 45 minutes long. enjoy the trip: