How many miles wide is our solar system?

1 Answer
Mar 7, 2016

23,514,500,000,000 miles wide

Explanation:

The "end" of our solar system is the point at which the Sun's gravitational effects stops to hold objects in its orbit. That point is the end of the Oort Cloud. It happens to be about 2 light years away from the sun, which would make the width of the solar system about 4 light years, or the distance light travels in 4 years.

The number seems impossibly large because you asked "in miles", and THAT is because in only 1 second light travels about 186 thousand (186000) miles, so imagine that times 4 years. The final answer is:
23.5145 Trillion miles or 23,514,500,000,000