How Big is the Solar System?

Recently I had a conversation about the relative size of the solar system. If the sun were the size of a basketball, how big would the earth be and how far away from the basketball would it be?

The earth would be about the size of a pinhead, and it would be about 90 feet (or about a third of the length of a football field) away from the basketball.

I was about to create a spreadsheet to stretch this out to the rest of the solar system and beyond, but I had a hunch that somebody probably already did that. I found John Silveira did a great job, so rather than just rehashing things here myself, I recommend you read his article and walk away in awe.

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