Space is only 62 miles (100 km) above your head right now
The Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, is 100 kilometres above sea level. If you could drive straight up in a car at highway speed, you'd be in space in about an hour. The space between you and the universe is shorter than many cities are wide. The ISS orbits at about 400km — less than the driving distance from London to Edinburgh. These comparisons make space feel psychologically closer than the 'vastness' framing suggests.
Space is presented as impossibly distant — the 'final frontier'. Discovering that the boundary of the universe is only 100km above you — less than many road trips — makes the cosmos feel startlingly accessible, and the fact that we can't simply drive there feel like an engineering problem rather than a distance problem.
“Space is only 62 miles (100 km) above your head right now. If you could drive straight up at highway speed, you'd be in space in about an hour. The ISS is less far away than London to Edinburgh. 🚀 #OddlyHuman”