A newly discovered solar system is found 150 billion kilometers from the sun. How many AU does this represent? Show your work

Question

jamesj · Answer

How far is an AU?

jamesj · Answer

Once you know that then you divide 150,000,000,000 km by that vale, also in km.

richyw · Answer

AU means astronomical unit. It about the mean distance from the earth to the sun, (about 150 million km). So it's simple from there$$150*10^{9}/150*10^{6}=10^{3}$$
so 1000AU from the sun. This makes no sense though, that is way to close for another star. Maybe your teacher was using the long scale for billion. Billion is usualyl 10^9 but also sometimes 10^12. It's better to use the SI prefix giga and tera.