Have you ever seen a model of the solar system? Most solar system models and diagrams show either the relative sizes of the planets or the relative distances of their orbits. Chances are, you've never experienced a true-scale model that shows both. Go for a ride in this activity and find out how big the solar system really is!

Check out these other models:

Solar System Scale Model Meta Page
This list of links provides "one-stop shopping" for sites related to the size and scale of the solar system. If you're a teacher, be sure to visit the link "Schoolyard Solar System."

Walk the Solar System
This site is a solar system scale model calculator! You put in the size you want the Sun to be (in inches or millimeters), and the scaled sizes and distances of all the planets are automatically calculated for you.

Powers of Ten
This site starts with a bird's-eye-view of a man and woman on a picnic blanket in a park. Keep pressing the "Larger" button and you'll zoom out by powers of ten (10 meters, 100 meters, 1000 meters, etc) away from the Earth, out past the Solar System, beyond the Milky Way galaxy and out to the furthest reaches of space as we know it. (The "Smaller" button takes you into the nucleus of the atoms that make up the man's hand...) Based on the famous film and book by Charles and Ray Eames.