There are a few large sunspots that I caught on camera this week. While sizing the photo I thought I'd grab a picture of the earth and throw it in for scale. A quick google shows the radius of the earth at 6,378 kilometers and the sun at 695,000 kilometers. So I scaled each image such that a pixel represents a thousand kilometers. Actually I did some creative rounding on the Earth, promoting it to seven pixels.

Creative rounding is a method used by business executives and government officials alike. It is very similar to pricing items with .99 cents at the end. 19.99 isn't really twenty bucks, is it? A set of numbers used by the company president can be rounded up or down to best fit the audience and desired outcome. Trying to light a fire under the sales team? Sales of 800,000 is barely three quarter million. Trying to wow investors or analysts? The 800,000 is promoted to an easy million.

Creative rounding or not, this little 7 pixel blue ball we call home is pretty dinky in the overall scheme of things...

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