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.