Model scope and corrections — read first

A scale model must use consistent reference values and rounding: with a 1m-diameter Sun, Earth is about 107.5m away and roughly 9mm across; Neptune is about 3.2km away and approximately 35mm across. If Jupiter were a 24cm basketball, Earth would be only about 2.2cm across, smaller than a standard golf ball. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, whereas Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Voyager 1's quoted '23 billion km/153AU' is a historical snapshot, not a live distance; travel times toward another star depend on trajectory and direction. Claims about the fraction of empty space need a defined Solar System boundary.

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Solar SystemScale model
Module 11 · Solar System Scale
Key concepts
Distance scale
Logarithmic scale: show all planets.
Linear scale: true distances — the outer planets are barely visible!
Size scale
Quick jump
Eight planets
Counterintuitive insight
Switch tolinear scale: If the Sun were a basketball (24cm in diameter), Earth would be about 26 meters away and Neptune about 800 meters away — nearly a kilometer; Earth would be the size of a mung bean (2.2mm).

The Sun contains 99.86% of the Solar System's mass; all the planets combined account for less than 0.14%.