The Solar System is BIGGER

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You live right here. Or here. Or here.

Or somewhere on this sphere. Or

well actually somewhere on this

oblate spheroid. Earth technically

isn't a sphere because it's spin

flattens it out a little. But

that's a topic for another video.

This is the moon. A common misconception

is that the moon orbits the Earth

like this. But this is actually

entirely false. The moon isn't

anywhere near this close to the

Earth, if it were, a full moon

would look something like this.

Instead, the moon is actually

over 363 thousand kilometers

away...at the closest point in

its orbit, but because it has

an elliptical orbit, its orbit

can actually extend beyond 405

thousand kilometers away! This

is certainly far, but it's still

really easy to lose reference here.

So to put this gigantic distance

into perspective a little more,

you could fit every other planet

in the Solar System in between

the Earth and the moon, including

gigantic Jupiter! But what's more,

you could also fit all of the

5 dwarf planets in the Solar System

in there too! And what's even

more...there's still over 8 thousand

kilometers left! And what's even

more, is that you could fit the

Su...wait a minute. Actually,

the Sun just by itself can't fit

between the Earth and the moon

because the Sun is over 1.3 million

kilometers in diameter! But don't worry.

This gigantic star will very,

very quickly become comple...wait

wrong video.

Another misconception is this.

This is not the Solar System.

This is the Solar System. Ok...

that's a bit ridiculous, but it's true.

The reason the Solar System is

generally shown like this is because...

well because you can't really

see anything if you illustrate

the Solar System like it actually

is because the distances are just so far.

I mean, let's take the distance

from the Sun to Earth for example.

If you could travel at the speed

of light, you could travel from

the Sun to Earth in just...uh

about 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

Now, for comparison, light can

travel around the Earth in less

than one seventh of a second.

Well...except it doesn't generally

travel in a circle...but ignoring

that it can travel around the

Earth 7 and a half times in 1

second, which means that light

could travel around the Earth

over 3,700 times in the amount

of time it takes light to travel

from the Sun to Earth. Now...that's

great but, it's still nearly impossible

to understand since it's still

all numbers which most humans

have a difficult time fully comprehending. So...

Let's use a different scale.

Instead of 1:1, let's use a scale

of 1:25,000,000,000. At this scale,

the Earth would be about the

size of a grain of sand . Now,

find a grain of sand and stick

it on the tip of your finger,

then stick your arms out as straight

as you can. Now, find someone

else (actually you might want

to do that first), and have them

stand beside you with their arms

straight out as well. Then find

another person and have them do

the same. Then find another person

and have them do the same but

have them also balance a tomato

on their head . And that is the

Earth compared to the Sun...just

25 billion times smaller and may

be completely messed up depending

on the size of your tomato and

the armspan of each person.

Now, Jupiter is the largest

planet created in the Solar System,

but at this scale it would only

be about the size of a pea . Oh,

and it's distance from the Sun...

Well, this one's a bit harder

to actually visualize in person

because even 25 billion times

smaller it's still a pretty large

distance. Take your tomato and

throw it as far as you possibly

can and that is Jupiter compared

to the Sun. Although perhaps a

better way to visualize this (unless

you really dislike tomatoes) would

be to set your tomato on the ground

and then take the pea up onto

the roof of a 10 story building

...and that is Jupiter compared

to the Sun. Oh and Jupiter's orbit

velocity at this scale would be

less than 2 millimeters per hour

or less than 2 inches per day!

What's a little shocking is

that pea sized Saturn , even though

it's just one planet over, is

nearly double the distance from

the Sun , or about the height

of an 18 story building ! And,

at this scale, the thickness

of Saturn's rings would be about

the height of just 2 atoms ! Although,

the thickest portions of the

rings could be nearly 200 atoms

thick . Which might sound big

but that's less than half the

height of a coronavirus.

Oh, and for reference, a person

at this scale would be about 70

picometers tall. That's about

the height of a single helium

atom which is the smallest atom

we know of! If you stacked a bunch

of these tiny people on top of

each other, it would take over

7 million to stretch across a

single grain of sand! It is rather

shocking that, at a scale so small,

Neptune , the farthest major

planet from the Sun, would be

over 179 meters from the tomato

. That's nearly the height of

the Space Needle! But this is

not the edge of the Solar System!

Eris is the farthest dwarf planet

from the Sun. At our 1:25 billion

scale, Eris would be over 400

meters away from the tomato sized Sun!

Just a little less than the height

of the Empire State Building!

But this is still not the edge

of the Solar System!

Eris, Pluto, and many other

trans-Neptunian objects, lie in

the Kuiper Belt. This belt is

estimated to extend nearly 1000

times farther from the Sun than

Earth's orbit. 25 billion times

smaller, this massive distance

would be about 6 kilometers away!

That's farther than 7 Burj Khalifas

stacked on top of each other!

But this is still not the edge

of the Solar System!

It is estimated that there are

objects orbiting our Sun over

100,000 times farther from the

Sun than Earth's orbit! At our

scale of 1:25 billion that places

the edge of the Solar System 600

kilometers away from our tomato!

That's the distance from Berlin

to Amsterdam!

Remember, Earth is the size

of a single grain of sand!

Oh, and the size of the observable

universe at this scale would

be the distance all the way around

the real world Earth over 878

million times ! Or about the real

world distance from Earth to the

second closest star, Proxima Centauri.

Or the real world distance from

the Earth to the Sun and back

over 100 thousand times ! It's

just impossible to comprehend

such a massive number! And yet,

Earth is still just a single

grain of sand.