How large are the objects in our solar system compared to the
distances between them?
Diagrams of the solar system in textbooks may have lead you to believe that
the planets are not that far apart. You may have wondered, "If we could send
men to the moon, why haven't we already sent somebody to Mars? Mars is
right next to us." But in reality if textbooks displayed the actual size of the
planets relative to their distances, they would be much too small to see. So
textbooks tend to magnify the planet images.
Consider even the Earth and the Moon. About how many moons would fit
across the Earth?
4
12
100
500
25
1000