Scale in the Solar System

In 1969, millions of people watched as humans

visited the Moon for the first time. Since then,
many astronauts have visited the area of space
that’s just outside Earth’s atmosphere. We’ve
even built the International Space Station,
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which circles Earth and allows astronauts to

live and do research in space! We have also
explored more distant areas of the solar system
using probes—spacecraft without people on
board. However, humans have never set foot
anywhere else in the solar system. Technology
that helps humans travel and survive in In the night sky we can see objects in our solar
space has improved since that first trip to the system, like planets, and objects outside our solar
Moon—so why haven’t we traveled to any other system, like stars.

planets? The answer lies in size and distance.

Compared to the rest of our solar system, Earth There are eight planets in our solar system, and
is just a tiny dot surrounded by a whole lot of they vary widely in size. Planets close to the sun
empty space. are smaller, while planets far from the sun tend
to be larger. In comparison with the rest of the
Objects in the Solar System planets, Earth is near the middle: it’s the third
Come in Different Sizes planet in distance from the sun and the fifth-
largest planet in size. The smallest planet in our
Earth is just one object in the group of objects solar system is Mercury—if Earth were hollow,
we call our solar system. Our solar system about 18 Mercurys would fit inside. The largest
includes the sun, the planets that move around planet in our solar system is Jupiter. It’s so big
the sun, and the moons that move around that more than 1,000 Earths could fit inside!
the planets. Some of the objects in our solar
system, like the sun and the planet Jupiter, Many of the planets in our solar system have
are so big that they’re hard to imagine. Others moons—objects that travel around planets.
aren’t very big at all: some moons are only 3 or Earth has one Moon, which you sometimes
4 kilometers all the way around! see in the night sky and during the day as well.
If Earth were hollow, about 49 Moons would
The sun is by far the biggest object in our solar fit inside. Mars has two moons, and Jupiter
system: it’s so big that about 1.3 million Earths and Saturn have many more than that: Jupiter
could fit inside it! If the sun were the size of a has at least 63 moons and Saturn has 62,
basketball, Earth would be the size of a grain of but scientists are still identifying more. Most
rice and Mercury would be the size of a pinhead. moons aren’t very big, but even moons vary a
Even planets that are much bigger than Earth, lot in size. Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, is the
Scale in the Solar System

like Jupiter and Saturn, would only be about the largest moon in our solar system. It’s larger
size of table-tennis balls. than the planet Mercury!

Scale in the Solar System 1

 Jupiter Saturn

Uranus Neptune
Mercury
Venus Earth Mars Pluto

sun

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The planets in our solar system come in a variety of sizes, but they are all much smaller than the sun.
To show the sizes of the planets accurately, this illustration shows them much closer together than they
really are.

Different Planets Are Different to explore other planets, they must think about
where each planet will be at a certain time and
Distances from the Sun when it will be easiest to reach. Even when our
The objects in our solar system don’t just vary closest neighbor planets are as close to Earth as
in size; each is also a different distance from the they can get, they’re still very far away: Earth’s
sun. The closest planet to the sun is Mercury; neighbor planet Mars is so far away that it would
it’s about 57 million kilometers from the sun. take 6 months to get there by rocket. Other
That may seem pretty far, but it’s nothing planets are much farther from Earth than Mars
considering how big the solar system is and is—a spacecraft launched from Earth would
how far away some of the other planets are. The take about 12 years to reach Neptune!
farthest planet from the sun is Neptune—it’s 4.5
billion kilometers from the sun. The distance of With all this empty space around us, it’s no
each planet from the sun makes a big difference wonder humans haven’t traveled very far
in its climate and whether it can support life. from Earth. Sending people into space and
Planets that are close to the sun, like Mercury bringing them back safely is complicated:
and Venus, get a lot of energy from the sun and scientists must take into account the amount
are too hot to be habitable. Planets that are very of fuel needed to stay in space for months or
far from the sun, like Uranus and Neptune, get years at a time, the weight of all the food and
much less energy from the sun and are much equipment astronauts need for a long trip, the
too cold to be habitable. On these planets, water way the human body might react to conditions
exists only as ice. Earth is about 149 million on other planets, and lots of other important
kilometers from the sun, which is good news information. Still, many people are working on
for living things. Earth can support life partly solving these problems in hopes of sending
because it has liquid water—and it has liquid humans to other planets someday. The National
water because it’s just the right distance from Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
the sun. currently estimates that humans may make it to
Scale in the Solar System

Mars around the year 2030.

Since all the planets in the solar system
(including Earth) are always moving around the
sun, the distances between them are always
changing. When scientists send spacecraft out

2 Scale in the Solar System