If the Sun were one meter across, what would be the
relative sizes of the planets and their orbits?
Body.............Diameter.......Orbit.........Diameter........Orbit
(km) (km) (meters) (meters)
Sun 1392000 1.0
Mercury 4800 58 million 0.003 41.7
Venus 12000 108 million 0.008 77.6
Earth 12700 150 million 0.009 107.8
Mars 6700 228 million 0.005 163.8
Jupiter 140000 778 million 0.100 558.9
Saturn 120000 1427 million 0.086 1025
Uranus 52000 2871 million 0.037 2062
Neptune 50000 4497 million 0.036 3231
Pluto 2300 5913 million 0.002 4248
The scale is 1 millimeter = 1392 kilometers for the above solar system
model. Neptune would be 3.6 centimeters across at a distance of
3.2 kilometers from the 1 meter ball representing the Sun.
Note the orbit of Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune for a
portion of the time, but the above orbit distance is a mean distance.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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