reply to post by smugmushroom
......but the "edge of the solar system" is much much much farther out than you presume.
Of course,
I know that....you do too, and also about a billion other people (I hope....well, perhaps maybe a few less).
Sadly, though....there are many who are not fully "up to speed" (pun) on the topic, and have not yet wrapped their minds around the distances, and
physics, and realities. The scale of size is daunting of course, and well outside the common experience in a person's life on Earth. One has to
stop, and really ponder, to even begin to comprehend just a tiny bit of it.
But, as I pointed out (buried in my text, previously)....I used Neptune to give the Original author of this thread the benefit of the doubt, in the
"definition" of
"edge of the solar system" (I always capitalize it, personally. Just to differentiate it as "ours", I
guess.....though, technically "Solar" denotes our Sun by name...."Sol", so that defines ownership already. If there were a planetary system around,
say......Orion? Then, it would be the "Orion System", to my mind. Or, whatever "they" would call it, if anyone lives there.

** ).
So, by "defining" it as the distance to Neptune, making it closer to help out the OP....it still was insufficient. All was also to illustrate the
absurdity of
any very large celestial body, claimed to be
at least Jupiter-sized (or larger), being in close proximity. Since,
to reiterate.....we CAN see Jupiter, and Saturn, in the night sky quite easily, even with the naked eye.
It is the logic that prevails, on this topic. Not the imagination. Imagination is fine and dandy, but should never be mistaken for facts, unless
there is overwhelming evidence to confirm it.
(**)...of course, speaking of "imagination"....in
Star Trek lore, there is a race of green-skinned Humanoids living there. So again, what fun
it is to just make stuff up!!
edit on Wed 30 November 2011 by ProudBird because: (no reason given)