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I know this would likely vary in different incarnations of Superman, but is it ever specified how far Krypton is from Earth? And is it ever placed on a star chart so we have an idea about where it is?

I started thinking about this when someone made a comment about Superman II and I remembered that a test of a nuclear weapon from Earth created shock waves that ruptured the Phantom Zone and let Zod, Non, and Ursa escape. Shock waves would be sub-light and we don't know how fast the opening to the Phantom Zone travelled as it wandered through space. We also don't know how fast the ship Kal El arrived on Earth was capable of travelling.

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    While not worthy as an official answer, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krypton_%28comics%29) touches on several versions of Krypton (with citations). These include Krypton, in Byrne's "World of Krypton" series as 50 light years away and Krypton from the "Superman: Birthright" series being cited in the Andromeda Galaxy as 2.5M light years away. Vastly different. Heh.
    – Josh
    Mar 11, 2012 at 20:14

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DC Comics has finally decided where Krypton is located. Teaming up with Neil deGrasse Tyson, a famed astrophysicist, they have agreed on a star matching the description of Rao. This news is related courtesy of CNET on November 6, 2012.

Superman meets Neil deGrasse Tyson to learn the location of Krypton.

Superman meets Neil deGrasse Tyson to learn the location of Krypton.

Tyson teamed with DC Comics to track down a Krypton-like system that matches hints from the comics. He found a fitting red dwarf in the constellation Corvus (the crow) in the southern sky, a mere 27.1 light years from Earth.Tyson even gets a cameo in Action Comics #14, "Star Light, Star Bright," when Superman makes a visit to the astrophysicist's planetarium.

You'll need a telescope to find red dwarf LHS 2520, though. If you're not on a first-name basis with Neil deGrasse Tyson like Superman is, then you can just use these coordinates and find it on your own:

J2000 Right Ascension: 12 hours 10 minutes 5.77 seconds Declination: -15 degrees 4 minutes 17.9 seconds Proper Motion: 0.76 arcseconds per year, along 172.94 degrees from due north

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    I'm going to get this issue just because Neil dGrasse Tyson is in it. Krypton's location, second reason.
    – spong
    Nov 7, 2012 at 7:05
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    Most of the canon DC answers stink. There was a comic a ways back, with Supes chained to a meteor and subjected to the blast of light of his home planet exploding, or some such. So that means the "rocket" he flew from home in moved well faster than the speed of light for one, and also that Krypton was somewhere between 30 and 40 LY away, depending on how old the depiction of Superman was. It's all bass-ackwards and poorly-written. Jun 29, 2013 at 10:42
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    What I want to know is... if you want to observe a red dwarf from Earth... why would you go to a planetarium (not an observatory) in the middle of one of the worst light polluted places in the world?
    – user11521
    May 25, 2017 at 18:11
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According to the DC wiki, post Crisis, Krypton had orbited a star named Rao, 50 light years away.

http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Krypton_%28Post-Crisis%29

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In the first season, first episode of Supergirl at around 16 minutes, Kara Zor-El says, "I didn't fly 2,000 lightyears just to be an assistant." That makes Earth and Krypton fairly close. In the Superman Movie back in 1979, the opening sequence made it seem like Superman was sent much further. His father states that by the time he reaches Earth, their world would long since have died. If Superman isn't moving faster than light, that could still be 2,000 years if Krypton is 2,000 LY away. But the suggestion by his father is that he is traveling from an alternate dimension to get to Earth, which would put Krypton out of our universe entirely. Lastly, in the first Supergirl episode, her flight to Earth was supposed to have been at the same time Superman was sent by his parents. The exploding Krypton sent her ship into the Phantom Zone, while Superman arrived 24 years after Krypton exploded. If these ships move close to the speed of light, 24 years would be 24 light years; much closer to the star Neil DeGrasse-Tyson chose for Krypton.

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  • Welcome to SFFSE! You present some really good points, but could you format your answer from a block of information into three distinct paragraphs to make it easier to read your answer? Jul 15, 2015 at 6:21
  • She didn't exactly fly in a straight line, she got lost along the way.
    – Petersaber
    Jul 15, 2015 at 6:22
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I'm fairly sure that Jor El chose Earth because it was inhabited, they saw that there were humans there, so the distance (in light years) between Earth and Krypton can't be more than half the number of years that humans have been around for - time for the light that shows we're here to reach Krypton and then time for Kal El's shuttle to reach us. It would almost certainly be a lot less than half, as Kal El's ship would be sub-lightspeed.

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    The speed of the ship was irreverent because they used the "ghost drive" or a wormhole generator to cut the distance.
    – Monty129
    Aug 5, 2013 at 9:47

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