I have read a lot about the sheer vastness of space in sci-fi novels and seen the figures for the relative orbital distances of the planets; but like many, for me it’s hard to get a grasp of the scale of something without seeing it with my own eyes. I thought it might be interesting to make an image showing a to-scale diagram of the sun and planets. I was anticipating a large image, but was completely unprepared for quite how big it was going to be…
The final image is displayed below. It’s an svg file to avoid destroying the internet with filesize and to allow you to zoom in if you find you’re having difficulty making out some of the planets (when rendered at 100% Mercury is less than half a pixel in diameter). I do advise using the arrow keys to scroll this one as I can not be held liable for any mice destroyed as a result of viewing the image.
