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Planets
Welcome to your home planet and your neighbours in the solar system.
Distance from the Sun
AS you can see the distance, when measured in km or miles the distance soon gets very large, so we have another unit of measure we can use, the astronomical unit (Au). This is the mean distance of the Earth to the Sun. Therefore, as you get closer to the sun the distance is less than one, and as you get further away the higher the number.
| Distance from the Sun | Diameter | |
|---|---|---|
| Sun | 0 km (0 Au) | 4,370,005.6 km |
| Mercury | 57,910,000 km (0.387 Au) | 4,879 km |
| Venus | 108,200,000 km (0.723 Au) | 12,104 km |
| Earth | 149,600,000 km (1.000 Au) | 12,756 km |
| Moon | 3,476 km | |
| Mars | 227,940,000 km (1.524 Au) | 6,805 km |
| Asteroid Belt | ||
| Jupiter | 778,330,000 km (5.203 Au) | 142,984 km |
| Saturn | 1,424,600,000 km (9.523 Au) | 120,536 km |
| Uranus | 2,873,550,000 km (19.208 Au) | 51,118 km |
| Neptune | 4,501,000,000 km (30.087 Au) | 49,528 km |
| Pluto | 5,906,376,272 km (39.5 Au) | 2,270 km |
ps, the Voyage spacecrafts are now over 148 Au from the Earth, having been travelling since 1977. It takes light more than 17 hours for light to get to the craft.
The relative size of the planets from Mercury – on the left – to Neptune on the right. Earth is the third from the left, quite small compared to most of the others.
