1 gigametre

Click on the thumbnail image to jump to the desired order of length magnitude: top-left is 1e6m, lower-right is 1e17m. (Image description)

Upper part: Gamma Orionis, Algol B, the Sun (centre), underneath their darker mirror images (artist's interpretation), and other objects, to scale.

To help compare different distances this page lists lengths starting at 10⁹ metres (1 gigametre (Gm) or 1 billion metres).

Distances shorter than 10⁹ metres

1.4 Gm — Diameter of Sun^[1]
1.5 Gm — (proposed) Expected orbit from Earth of the James Webb Space Telescope
2.19 Gm — Closest approach of Comet Lexell to Earth, happened on 1 July 1770; closest comet approach on record
3 Gm — Total length of "wiring" in the human brain.^[2]
4.2 Gm — Diameter of Algol B
5.0 Gm — Closest approach of Comet Halley to Earth, happened on 10 April 837
5.0 Gm — (proposed) Size of the arms of the giant triangle shaped Michelson interferometer of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) planned to start observations in or around 2015.
7.9 Gm — Diameter of Gamma Orionis
9.0 Gm — Estimated diameter of the event horizon of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy

Distances longer than 10¹⁰ metres

References

↑ Sun Fact Sheet
↑ Neuroscience: The Science of the Brain p.44

Orders of magnitude for length by powers of 10

One metre (10⁰) and shorter	< −12 −12 −11 −10 −9 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0

Longer than one metre	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 <

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