Relax and Let This 45 Minute Video of the Solar System Show You Just How Slow the Speed of Light Is

Alphonse Swinehart’s video Riding Light doesn’t show us what it would look like if we moved away from the sun at the speed of light, because once you get to that speed things get… well. Weird. But it does give you a sense of just how BIG our solar system is, so big that it can’t even be dwarfed by the fastest thing in the universe. This video is forty five minutes long, and only manages to get a few light minutes past Jupiter.

Also it’s full of Philip Glass-type music, so if, like me, you can be driven into a frothing rage by that sort of thing, take a few deep breaths beforehand. What can I say, I had a bad experience once with Koyaanisqatsi.

(via IFL Science)

Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

twitter