Earth as a Peppercorn in Vassallo Park

The Sun of this model: a ball 22 cm across, placed on the Vassallo Park stage.

Generate the scaled solar system. Explore. Make markers to remind yourself how big the universe is. Make markers to pique others’ curiosity.

Put the Sun on the stage and the whole solar system lands on the village. The inner planets stay inside the park; the giants sweep over rooftops, churches, and ball fields; and light itself slows to a crawl you can outwalk.

1 : 6,327,270,000Model scale

22 cmThe Sun, on stage

170.6 m/hModel speed of light

Bring the planets with you. This is the same 1:6.3-billion scale as our printable one-page Earth as a Peppercorn sheet — print it at 100% and every body on the page is the true size for this walk, peppercorn Earth included.

Start at the Sun. Take ordinary steps — about 1 m each. Steps is the count from the previous stop; Total is the running count from the Sun. Every planet on this page is printed at its true model size.

The Walk

Planet	Steps	Total
Mercury	10	10
Venus	9	19
Earth	7	26
Mars	14	40
Asteroid Belt	31	71
Jupiter	95	135
Saturn	112	247
Uranus	249	496
Neptune	281	777
Pluto	~242	1019

Pluto is 1,019 steps out — nearly a kilometer of walking to cross a solar system whose Sun fits under your arm. Notice how the first four planets huddle within 40 steps, then the giants stretch away by the hundreds.

Actual Size at This Scale

On-screen sizes are approximate — the printed sheet is exact.

Mercury — 0.77 mm a pinhead

Venus — 1.91 mm a peppercorn

Earth — 2.01 mm the peppercorn

the Moon — 0.55 mm, orbiting 6 cm away: the farthest humans have gone

Mars — 1.07 mm a large pinhead

Asteroid Belt scattered grains of dust

Jupiter — 22.6 mm a large bouncy ball or a walnut

Saturn — ball 18.4 mm a small bouncy ball or a grape
rings would span 43 mm, thinner than this paper

Uranus — 7.42 mm a coffee bean

Neptune — 7.18 mm a coffee bean

Pluto — 0.36 mm a grain of salt

The Map Tour

Aerial view of Vassallo Park and the surrounding village blocks of Croton-on-Hudson — The center of the universe: the Vassallo Park stage.

Notice the size of Vassallo Park

Asbury Methodist Church

The Blue Pig

Orbit rings of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars drawn over Vassallo Park — The inner planets — all four fit inside the park.

Blue is Earth’s orbit, red is Mars’s

Mercury circles just 9 m from the stage; Mars, 36 m

Orbit rings of Jupiter and Saturn drawn over the village center of Croton-on-Hudson — Zoomed out — the giant planets take over the village.

The orange ring is Jupiter’s orbit — it reaches almost to Asbury Church

The yellow ring is Saturn’s orbit — it goes to Dobbs park (top right) and the High School baseball field (bottom right)

The blue and red rings — Earth and Mars — how small they have already become

All planetary orbit rings out to Pluto drawn over Croton-on-Hudson, reaching the Hudson River — All the way out — the whole solar system over Croton.

Pluto’s orbit goes to the Hudson river and Spencer Field

Earth and Mars orbit rings are barely visible at this “whole solar system” view

Real Distances, Model Distances

Body	Diameter (km)	Orbit radius (km)	Sunlight (light-min)	Model diameter	Model orbit
Sun	1,392,000	—	—	22 cm	—
Mercury	4,879	57,910,000	3.2	0.77 mm	9.15 m
Venus	12,100	108,200,000	6.0	1.91 mm	17.1 m
Earth	12,740	149,600,000	8.3	2.01 mm	23.6 m
Mars	6,779	227,900,000	13	1.07 mm	36 m
Ceres — Asteroid Belt	950	413,800,000	23	0.15 mm	65.4 m
Jupiter	139,800	778,600,000	43	2.21 cm	123 m
Saturn	116,500	1,433,000,000	80	1.84 cm	226 m
Uranus	50,720	2,877,000,000	160	8.02 mm	455 m
Neptune	49,250	4,503,000,000	250	7.78 mm	712 m
Pluto — Kuiper Belt	2,372	5,874,000,000	330	0.37 mm	928 m

Orbits of objects beyond Neptune are highly eccentric ellipses, not circles. At this scale light travels 170.6 meters per hour — a comfortable stroll moves about thirty times the speed of light.