8th Grade Earth Science

There is order in the universe.

2. The sun is many millions of times closer to the earth than any other star. Light from the sun takes a few minutes to reach the earth, but light from the next nearest star takes a few years to arrive. The trip to that star would take the fastest rocket thousands of years. Some distant galaxies are so far away that their light takes several billion years to reach the earth. People on earth, therefore, see them as they were that long ago in the past. (AKSci - A.3)

Examples of What Students Should Be Able to Do:

• Define the term "light year", and discuss why it is used as a unit of measure for distance in the solar system and universe.