The Planets 2

Mars is on the three-yard line of our imaginary football field. The red planet is about 228,000,000 km (142,000,000 miles) on average from the Sun. That's 1.5 AU. On this scale, Mars is about 0.08 mm.

Asteroids roam far and wide in our solar system. But most are contained within the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. On our football field, you'd find them scattered like so many slow-moving linebackers between the four and eight yard lines. In real distances that's an average of roughly 300,000,000 to 600,000,000 km (186,000,000 to 372,000,000 miles) from the Sun, or 2 to 4 AU.

On this imaginary scale, these so-called "linebackers" are more like microscopic specks than the real hulking linebackers that play for the NFL. (If you could lump together all the thousands of known asteroids in our solar system, their total mass wouldn't even equal 10 percent of Earth's moon.)

Jupiter remains pretty close to our end zone on the 10.5-yard line. Our solar system's largest planet is an average distance of 778,000,000 km (484,000,000 miles) from the Sun. That's 5.2 AU. Jupiter is the largest of the planets, spanning nearly 1.75 mm in diameter on our football field scale. Jupiter's diameter is about equal to the thickness of a U.S quarter in our shrunken solar system.

Saturn is on the field at 19 yards from the goal line. The ringed world is about 1,427,000,000 km (887,000,000 miles) from the Sun, or 9.5 AU. Saturn's size on this scale: 1.47 mm.

Uranus is about the point where our cosmic coach would call in an interplanetary field goal kicker. The gas giant is about 38 yards from our end zone. In real a distance, that’s an average of 2,871,000,000 km (1,784,000,000 miles) - 19 AU - from the Sun. That's quite a kick. It's little wonder only one spacecraft has visited Uranus. At 0.62 mm on this scale, Uranus is just a little smaller than the letter "R" in the word "TRUST" on a penny.

Neptune is where things start to get way out. It is 60 yards from our solar goal line on the imaginary football field. That's an average of 4,498,000,000 km (2,795,000000 miles) or 30 AU from the real Sun. Neptune, a little smaller than Uranus, is 0.6 mm on this scale.

Tiny Pluto is much closer to the opposing team's end zone. It's about 79 yards out from the Sun or 5,906,000,000 km (3,670,000,000 miles) on average in real distances. That's 39.5 AU.

Next- Planet Mercury part1