Astronomical distances-friend or foe

My dad showed my saturn and jupiter through our telescope and I thought about how far it looked. How do you measure the distance between us and them?

Astronomical What?

Astronomical distances are measured in Astronomical units or AU.The distance between us and the sun is 93 million miles or one AU. That is a long way I wonder if it's a good or bad thing? It is a good and bad thing! It is good because we can sustain life here and it is bad because we can also be a target of the sun’s fury. But we can’t do much about solar storms because it takes eight minutes for light to reach Earth. Jupiter is 4.2-6.2 AU from us because of its and Earth’s orbit. Jupiter can help us (see previous article), but it can also hurl asteroids at us. Those asteroids can either help us or cause major damage on earth. With all these reasons are astronomical distances friend or foe?

Just how far will we go with AU?

So, with astronomical distances, we will answer if it is friend or foe with these facts and reasons. First of all, something close to us might be doing something dangerous. That would be really bad! The good thing is that there is nothing going on except for coronavirus and neowise. The planets and sun are not doing anything alarming. If anything other than the sun is too far from us then that is okay. The only problem is if the sun is too far from us life as we know it will cease to exist. Even though we are safe, the sun can strike us at any minute. If the sun strikes now then we are in trouble. We are in trouble because with covid we will not be able to prepare if the sun strikes us. The same thing applies to jupiter. The only thing separating us and Jupiter apart is the asteroid belt. Jupiter can launch asteroids like grenades!

Side story-Stars

Stars are giant balls of gas that are held together by themselves. They are born in nebulas and then scattered across the galaxy. Most stars are called binary stars. This means that they have another star orbiting around them. There are different sizes of stars. Some can be only 20-40 kilometers in diameter and some can be 1,500 times bigger than the sun. Some can also be the size of Earth. When stars like the sun die, they become a red giant, then a white dwarf and then become invisible. Stars that are heavier than the sun become red supergiants when they die. Sometimes they try burning different fuels when they die, but this lasts for only a few million years. Some stars burst into novas where they leave their cores and their surface bursts. I don’t think they actually die when they burst into novas. Other stars burst into supernovas where they leave a neutron star or a black hole.

Side story 2-asteroids

Asteroids are rocks that orbit the sun like planets but they are not exactly planets. Some asteroids actually were going to become planets but they were stopped by jupiters rampage (see previous article). Some planets and stars can hurl asteroids at us. The planets jupiter and neptune actually did hurl asteroids at us. Neptunes asteroids actually did help jumpstart life on earth and Jupiter also gave us comets with water to help life. But Jupiter was also responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs.

How far will we go with our question on AU?

So astronomical distances are friend and foe! Take the sun for example. We can sustain life on earth because of it, but we are also a target of solar storms and maybe asteroids. Jupiter can also throw asteroids at us as well. We are also in danger of getting by other stars that throw asteroids and maybe even novas and supernovas. So look out for my next mystery article and story. The Mystery of the Dead Jellyfish! Bye-bye!