How far apart are the planets?
Why every poster lies to you
Textbook solar systems show planets shoulder-to-shoulder because the truth is un-drawable: the gaps between planets are thousands of times wider than the planets themselves. When Voyager 1 photographed Earth from 6 billion km away, the famous Pale Blue Dot, our whole world covered less than a single pixel, a "mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam".
This site's 1:1 mode is the un-lied version: one scale for sizes and distances alike. The planets become sub-pixel specks on enormous orbit lines, and finding them takes real effort. That feeling, slightly lost, surrounded by nothing, is the most accurate model of the solar system you will ever experience. Try it.
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Every figure on this page is a real, rounded value checked against primary sources. Found something out of date? See how we keep it accurate.