It would take approximately 177 years to drive a car to the sun at highway speeds.
How Long Would It Take to Drive to the Sun?
Imagine hopping in your car for the ultimate road trip: a journey to the sun. You've got a full tank, your favorite playlist queued up, and absolutely no regard for the laws of physics. The question is, how long would this cosmic commute actually take?
The answer? Roughly 177 years if you're cruising at a steady 60 mph.
The Math Behind the Madness
The sun sits about 93 million miles away from Earth—a distance astronomers call an astronomical unit (AU). At highway speeds of 60 mph, you'd be looking at approximately 1.55 million hours of drive time. That breaks down to about 64,583 days, or if you're keeping track, 176 years, 343 days, and 8 hours.
And that's assuming you never stop. No bathroom breaks, no refueling, no overnight stays at questionable roadside motels. Just pedal to the metal, 24/7, for nearly two centuries.
Putting It in Perspective
To understand just how ridiculously far the sun is, consider this: light itself takes 8 minutes to make the same trip. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second—that's about 671 million mph. Your car, even if it could somehow survive the journey, would be taking the scenic route by comparison.
If you bumped up your speed to 100 mph (ignoring speed limits in the vacuum of space), you'd still need over 106 years. The sun is just that far away.
The Reality Check
Of course, this is all purely theoretical. In practice, driving to the sun presents a few logistical challenges:
- There's no road (space doesn't have asphalt)
- Your car would vaporize long before arrival
- The sun is constantly moving, as is Earth
- You'd run out of snacks pretty quickly
But the calculation serves an important purpose: it helps us grasp the sheer scale of our solar system. The sun looks so close in the sky, dominating our view with its warmth and light. Yet it's so distant that even traveling at speeds we consider fast on Earth, it would take multiple human lifetimes to reach it.
Next time you're stuck in traffic, remember: at least you're not trying to drive to the sun.