Ever wonder exactly how far away the planets really are?  Here’s the reason they usually don’t how the planets and their orbits to scale – they would need a sheet of paper nearly a mile long!

To really get the hang of how big and far away celestial objects really are, find a long stretch of road that you can mark off with chalk.  We’ve provided approximate (average) orbital distances and sizes for building your own scale model of the solar system.

When building this model, start by marking off the location of the sun (you can use chalk or place the objects we have suggested below as placeholders for the locations).  Are you ready to find out what’s out there?  Then let’s get started.

Materials:

• measuring tape (the biggest one you have)
• tape or chalk to mark off the locations
• 2 grains of sand or white sugar
• 12″ beach ball
• 3 peppercorns
• golf or ping pong ball
• shooter-size marble
• 2 regular-size marbles

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Download Student Worksheet & Exercises

All distances are measured from the center of the sun. (In some cases, you might just want to use the odometer in your car to help you measure the distance!

Sun (12″ beach ball) at the starting point.

Mercury (grain of sand) is 41 feet from the sun.

Venus (single peppercorn) is 77 feet from the sun.

Earth (single peppercorn) is 107 feet from the sun.

Mars (half a peppercorn) is 163 feet from the sun.

Jupiter (golf or ping pong ball) is 559 feet from the sun.

Saturn (shooter-size marble) is 1,025 feet from the sun.

Uranus (regular-size marble) is 2,062 feet from the sun.

Neptune (regular marble) is 3,232 feet from the sun.

Pluto (grain of sand) is 4,248 feet from the sun.

Nearest Star (Alpha Centauri) is 5500 miles from the sun.

Is Your Solar System Too Big?

If these distances are too large for you, simply shrink all objects to the size of the period at the end of this sentence and you’ll get your solar system to fit inside your house using these measurements below.

First, draw a tiny dot for the Sun.  The diameter of the sun for this scale model is 0.1″, but we’re going to ignore this and all other planet diameters so we can fit this model within a 35′ scale.

We’re going to ignore the sizes of the planets and just focus on how far apart everything is. All distances listed below are measured from the sun.  Start by marking off the position of the sun with the tip of a sharp pencil.

Here are the rest of the distances you need to mark off:

Mercury is 4 inches from the sun.

Venus is 7.75 inches from the sun.

Earth is 10 inches from the sun.

Mars is 1′ 4″ from the sun.

Jupiter is 4′ 8″ from the sun.

Saturn is 8′ 6.5″ from the sun.

Uranus is 17′ 2″ from the sun.

Neptune is 26′ 11″ from the sun.

Pluto is 35′ 5″ from the sun.

Our nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is approximately 46 miles from the sun.

Did You Notice…?

Are you mind-boggled yet? Did you notice how the solar system is really just ’empty space’? Our models shown here are too small to start bringing in the moons, but you can see why posters showing the planets are not drawn to scale.  What are your thoughts on this experiment? Tell us in the comment area below!

For Advanced Students:

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If you really want to play with the different distances on your own, use this orbital calculator online to help convert the distances for you.

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