Dave Thompson was a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ambassador for Schools and the following images are from his presentation at the start of a “Space and Rockets” day.
Astronomical Objects – Relative sizes
With the Earth as a starting point, Dave would ask the children “do you think this is big?”
The Earth is now diminishing in size and the question is posed again “do you think that is big?”
The Earth is now just a dot in comparison to our Sun and the question again “do you think that is big?”
The Sun now is very small and the you know what the question is going to be —–
Antares is the 15th brightest star in the sky. It is more than 1000 light years away. By this time the children are in awe. The Earth and Sun are so small they can’t be seen and trying to imagine “a light year” well —-
Knutsford SciBar 