Expert: Ed - 5/26/2008

Question
If your traveling ten km per sec how long will it take to get to any nine of the planets

Answer
Cierra,

That's pretty fast.  You're going to burn up a lot of gasoline that way.  Isn't that too expensive???

Just kidding, ha ha.

The distance to the other planets in our solar system is usually measured in AU (astronomical units), not in kilometers.  One AU is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth.  It is also 149,597,870.7 kilometers.  So, if you are travelling at 10 kilometers per second, then you will travel one astronomical unit in 14,959,787.07 seconds.  That is approximately 173.1 days, which is almost six months.  That is how long it would take, travelling at the speed you descibe, to travel from the Earth to the Sun.

For the distances to other planets, measured in Astronomical Unites, scroll down near the bottom of this webpage:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar/action?sys=-Si

Look for the column that says Distance (AU).  Multiply the number in that column by 173.1, to get the number of days that it would take you, travelling at the speed you mentioned, to reach that specific planet.

I hope this is helpful.  Keep Looking Up!
-Ed