Our address in the Universe

WALT... understand that the Universe is a huge place
... write our address in the Universe
... design a Planet stamp to put on your envelope

(Your name)
7 Ironside Drive
Wanaka
Central Otago
South Island
New Zealand
Southern Hemisphere
The Earth
The Solar System
The Milky Way Galaxy
The Local Group
The Local Supercluster
The Universe

How big is the universe? For a long time, people believed the universe was infinitely big and it went on forever in every direction. Today, we know that is not true. The universe does end somewhere very far way. But the end is so far away that our regular measurement units are no longer useful to measure it.
The distance from Wanaka to Auckland is 997.58 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the moon is 356,000 kilometres.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150,000,000 kilometres .
The distance to even the nearest star is more than 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres.
You can see that our regular units of distance don't work for the size of the universe.

Instead, astronomers use a unit of distance called the light-year
One light-year is the distance that light travels in one year: one light-year is equal to 9,458,000,000,000 kilometres. Using this new unit makes astronomical distances easier to express. The nearest star is 4.3 light-years away. (Remember that the star is still the same distance away, whether we express it as 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres or 4.3 light-years).

WOW!