Solar system scale model measurements along a park walk

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1 / 9 A Sun 1.39 m wideThis ball is the Sun at one billionth of its size: 1.39 m across. Every metre of the path stands for a million kilometres. Walk with WASD or the arrow keys, or use the buttons to walk or jump to the next stop. The field guide lists 70 things along the way.

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01
A Sun 1.39 m wide
This ball is the Sun at one billionth of its size: 1.39 m across. Every metre of the path stands for a million kilometres. Walk with WASD or the arrow keys, or use the buttons to walk or jump to the next stop. The field guide lists 70 things along the way.
02
Earth, a marble 150 m away
The 1.27 cm marble is Earth, 149.6 m from the Sun ball. The 3.5 mm bead beside it is the Moon, 38 cm away. Sunlight covers this distance in 8 minutes 19 seconds.
03
The Sun seen from Mars
Look back from Mars, 228 m out. The Sun ball now looks 0.35° wide, exactly as big as the real Sun looks from Mars, because sizes and distances share one scale.
04
Gates of the asteroid belt
Most asteroids orbit between these two gates, 329 m and 479 m from the Sun. Even the largest, Ceres, would be a grain under a millimetre here, so the belt is almost empty.
05
Jupiter and its four big moons
The four rocky planets all sit in the first 230 m. Jupiter, a 14 cm grapefruit, waits at 778 m. On the rail beside it stand Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, each a few millimetres wide.
06
Saturn and its rings
Saturn is 11.6 cm across and its rings span 27 cm. It stands 1.43 km out, nearly twice as far as Jupiter. Sunlight needs about 80 minutes to get here.
07
Neptune, 4.5 km out
Neptune is a 4.9 cm ball 4.51 km from the Sun. Walking here at 1.4 m/s takes 54 minutes, and sunlight takes 4 hours 11 minutes. Look back and the Sun is a bright dot.
08
Pluto and the Kuiper belt
Pluto, a 2.4 mm dwarf planet, stands 5.87 km out with Charon 2 cm beside it. You are now inside the Kuiper belt, which runs from the gate at 4.49 km to the gate at 7.48 km.
09
Where the path runs out
The path ends 10.3 km from the Sun, just past Eris. The signposts say how far the rest would be. Voyager 1 would be 25.7 km away and Proxima Centauri 40,208 km, about once around the Earth.

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