The planets at their true sizes
The Sun a giant ball, taller than a front door, 2.3 m across
- Mercurya pea
- Venusa cherry
- Eartha grape
- Moona peppercorn
- Marsa blueberry
- Jupitera basketball
- Saturna volleyball
- Uranusan orange
- Neptunean apple
- Plutoa lentil
And how far apart, at the same size
Stand the giant Sun at one end of a football field, then walk out. The bars are to scale too:
The Moon, a peppercorn, would go round the grape Earth 65 cm away, about an arm's length. Pluto, a lentil, would be 9.9 km out. Space is mostly empty: that is why books squeeze the planets together.
Drawn at their real sizes, Jupiter is about 11.2 Earths wide and the Sun about 109.2. Even light, the fastest thing there is, takes minutes to reach the planets, and a car would take lifetimes.
How many Earths wide?
| Mercury | 4,879 km across: 0.4 Earths |
|---|---|
| Venus | 12,104 km across: 0.9 Earths |
| Earth | 12,756 km across: 1 Earth |
| Mars | 6,792 km across: 0.5 Earths |
| Jupiter | 142,984 km across: 11.2 Earths |
| Saturn | 120,536 km across: 9.4 Earths |
| Uranus | 51,118 km across: 4 Earths |
| Neptune | 49,528 km across: 3.9 Earths |
| Sun | 1,392,684 km across: 109.2 Earths |
How big is the Sun compared to Earth?
The Sun is 1,392,684 km across, about 109.2 Earths wide; it would not fit on this page at the scale above, where it would be a circle about 9.7 times as wide as Jupiter. If the Sun were a front door, Earth would be about the size of a coin. To walk the distances too, try Planet Walk.
How long would it take to get there?
From the Sun out to each planet's average distance, at three speeds (NASA's distances, no stops).
| Planet | By car | By jet | At light speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 66 years | 7 years | 3 minutes |
| Venus | 123 years | 14 years | 6 minutes |
| Earth | 171 years | 19 years | 8 minutes |
| Mars | 260 years | 29 years | 13 minutes |
| Jupiter | 888 years | 99 years | 43 minutes |
| Saturn | 1,634 years | 182 years | 80 minutes |
| Uranus | 3,271 years | 363 years | 3 hours |
| Neptune | 5,151 years | 572 years | 4 hours |
A car at 100 km/h, a jet at 900 km/h, light at 299,792 km a second. Sizes and distances: NASA planetary fact sheets, checked 2026-10-29.
The planets at their true sizes
The Sun would be a circle about 9.7 times as wide as Jupiter here. Sizes: NASA planetary fact sheets.