Sometimes it’s hard to get a handle on the vastness of the universe. How far is an astronomical unit, anyhow? In this list we’ve brought the universe down to a more manageable scale.
The universe is a big place, but let’s cut it down to size by making the Earth the size of a Ping-Pong ball. On that scale it would be placed 500 yards (460 meters) from the Sun.
The Sun would be a little over 14 feet (4 meters) in diameter, about the size of a large gazebo.
On this scale the Moon would be a marble 4 feet (1.2 meters) from Earth.
The planet Mercury would be the size of a large marble 2 (gridiron) football fields away from the Sun.
Venus would approximate a Ping-Pong ball placed 375 yards (340 meters; slightly less than 2 blocks) from the Sun.
Mars would be a gumball sitting 3 ¼ blocks from the Sun.
Jupiter would be a large beach ball situated 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the Sun.
Saturn would be a slightly smaller beach ball located 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) from the Sun.
The planet Uranus would be the size of a cantaloupe placed 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) from the Sun.
Neptune would be approximately the size of a medium acorn squash 8.8 miles (14 kilometers) from the Sun.
The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, has to be placed 78,450 miles (126,250 kilometers) from the Sun on this scale!
Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way galaxy would be 2,000,000 miles (3,200,000 kilometers) across!
Andromeda, the nearest spiral galaxy, would be 47,000,000,000 miles (76,000,000,000 kilometers) away on this scale!
The speed of light (in reality 186,282 m/sec) would be 2.1 miles per hour (3.4 kilometers per hour).