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One AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance from the Sun to the Earth - about 93 million miles or 148 million kilometers. It is used as a convenient unit of measure within the Solar System. When we say, for example, that Saturn is 9.5 AU from the Sun, we can see right away that it is about ten times farther out than we are. Saying that Saturn is about 880,000,000 miles out carries no such obvious information and requires us to absorb too many digits.

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