Distances in Space
Doing a little research for a game idea I have, I came across this page on interstellar distances. I love this page.
It is impossible to make a physical model that shows Man, the planets, and the stars on the same scale. If we make the Earth a quarter (one inch or 2.5 cm in diameter), the Moon becomes a pea 29 inches (74 cm) away. The Sun is 9 feet (2.7 m) across and 1000 feet (300 m) away. Pluto is 7 miles (11 km) away, and the nearest star is still off the real Earth: 49,000 miles (79,000 km) away.
If we let the Sun be a quarter, the Earth is a speck 1/100 inch (1/40 cm) in diameter and ten feet (3 m) away. Pluto is more than a football field away: 350 feet (110 m). And at last we can begin to show stars in our scale model. The nearest one is about 500 miles (900 km) away, and it, too, is the size of a quarter, with a pea-sized companion star about 200 feet (60 m) away. Placing a single coin in each State capital covers the U.S. with coins more densely than space is filled with stars.
It is impossible to make a physical model that shows Man, the planets, and the stars on the same scale. If we make the Earth a quarter (one inch or 2.5 cm in diameter), the Moon becomes a pea 29 inches (74 cm) away. The Sun is 9 feet (2.7 m) across and 1000 feet (300 m) away. Pluto is 7 miles (11 km) away, and the nearest star is still off the real Earth: 49,000 miles (79,000 km) away.
If we let the Sun be a quarter, the Earth is a speck 1/100 inch (1/40 cm) in diameter and ten feet (3 m) away. Pluto is more than a football field away: 350 feet (110 m). And at last we can begin to show stars in our scale model. The nearest one is about 500 miles (900 km) away, and it, too, is the size of a quarter, with a pea-sized companion star about 200 feet (60 m) away. Placing a single coin in each State capital covers the U.S. with coins more densely than space is filled with stars.