01
Readable vs. accurate
A true-to-scale model would make Mercury through Mars unclickable dots. Every interactive solar system model — including NASA's Eyes — makes this same trade-off.
Solar system · Question
Solar system scale model: real planet distances
Choose how far Earth sits from the Sun in your model. Because Earth is 1 AU away, the same number becomes a simple ruler for every other planet — then compare that true scale with the compressed layout used by interactive diagrams.
Scale calculator
Build a walkable solar system scale model.
Set the Earth–Sun distance. The calculator multiplies that distance by each planet's average orbital distance in AU.
Sun → Earth (1 AU)
Example: if Earth is 1 meter from the Sun, Jupiter belongs 5.20 m away and Neptune 30.05 m away.
Visual model
True distance vs. the model's distance.
True linear scale (0 – 30.05 AU)
Me·Ve·Ea·Ma
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars all land within the first 5% of the width — at this resolution they're a single blur, not four distinct dots.
Space Atlas's 3D model scale (compressed)
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
The home page's 3D model spreads the inner planets out to keep them individually clickable — at the cost of no longer being a true distance scale.
Follow one planet across both distance rulers
Choose a planet. The marker follows its NASA-based mean orbital distance on a linear AU ruler, and its clickable distance from the Sun in Space Atlas's illustrative home scene. These are different coordinate systems, not two observations.
Physical mean distance0 → Neptune at 30.05 AU
SUN
Space Atlas scene radius0 → Neptune at 50 scene units
SUN
Earth: 1.00 AU (3.33% of the 30.05 AU ruler), but 14 scene units (28.00% of the 50-unit illustrative ruler).
Scene units come from the current Space Atlas visualization code. They are not AU, kilometers, or a single physical compression factor. The positions are conceptual orbit radii, not current planet locations; all real orbits change distance over time. The ruler does not compare planet diameters.
Physical orbital-distance source: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet. Model-radius source: Space Atlas's own static PLANETS dataset.
What's simplified
Compression is a trade-off, not a mistake.
02
State it, don't hide it
The honest move isn't to avoid compression — it's to say clearly that it's happening, which is why every 3D scene on this site labels "distances compressed."
Misconception check
Quick check.
Quick check
Go deeper
Keep exploring.
Next in this series →
Astronomical unit ↗
Measuring solar system distance with AU.
Size versus distance
How big are the planets?
Compare real diameters separately from orbital distances rather than mixing the scales.
Learn
Why diagrams aren't to scale
The size side of the same trade-off.