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Q74 (IAS/2007) Science & Technology › Basic Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) › Astronomy and astrophysics Answer Verified

What is the average distance (approximate) between the Sun and the Earth?

Result
Your answer: —  Â·  Correct: D
Explanation

The average distance between the Earth and the Sun is defined as one Astronomical Unit (AU). Standard references give this mean Earth–Sun distance as approximately 149.6 million kilometres (about 149,598,000 km), which is customarily rounded to 150 million km for simplicity [1]. Textbook descriptions explicitly state that 1 AU ≈ 150 million km, reinforcing this rounded value used in many educational and scientific contexts [3]. Among the given choices, 150 x 10^6 km (option 4) matches the accepted value for the average Earth–Sun distance and is therefore the correct answer.

Sources

  1. [1] FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, Geography Class XI (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 2: The Origin and Evolution of the Earth > The Star Formation > p. 14
  2. [2] Physical Geography by PMF IAS, Manjunath Thamminidi, PMF IAS (1st ed.) > Chapter 2: The Solar System > 2.4. Planets > p. 25
  3. [3] https://www.britannica.com/topic/How-Far-Is-the-Sun-from-Earth
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