To write the number 15,300 miles in scientific notation, we need to express it as a number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10.
15,300 can be rewritten as:
1.53 × 10^4
This is because 1.53 is between 1 and 10, and when we move the decimal point two places to the left to convert 15,300 into 1.53, we increase the exponent of 10 by 4 (since we are essentially multiplying by 10,000).
So the correct answer is:
1.53 * 10 ^ 4