Solar System Size

On this scale, the Sun, by far the largest thing in our solar system, is only a ball about two-thirds of an inch (17 millimeters) in diameter sitting on the goal line — that's about the width of a U.S. dime coin. Considering a typical honeybee is about half an inch long, the fans are going to need telescopes to see the action.

Our Solar System is staggeringly big in human terms. If you look through a small telescope at the bright shape of Saturn, you will see a planet that is well over a billion kilometres away. To travel that distance on Earth, you'd need to go all the way around the globe nearly 800,000 times.

There is no universally accepted definition of how far the Solar System extends. A preferred model defines the true size of the Solar System by the reach of its gravity; how far away an object can still be said to orbit the Sun. This is about 2 light-years, or almost half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.

The Sun is much much bigger than all the planets, in fact, you could fit over a million Earths inside the Sun! The next biggest object in the Solar System is Jupiter, a gas giant planet. Its mass is about 318 times that of the Earth. A solar eruption captured by SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory). The Earth is shown here for size comparison.

All sizes are calculated based on the diameter of the Sun of 720 pixels. Your path through the Solar System is accompanied by facts and trivia. If you get tired of scrolling or if you are in a hurry, there will be shortcuts after Mars. The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System.

The solar system consists of the Sun; the eight official planets, at least three “dwarf planets”, more than 130 satellites of the planets, a large number of small bodies (the comets and asteroids), and the interplanetary medium. (There are probably also many more planetary satellites that have not yet been discovered.)