Josh Worth

There is a website that visualizes the distances in the solar system at the scale of 1 pixel to the diameter of Moon. In the lower right corner there is a symbol with a "C" and some lines around it that makes you automatically travel at the speed of light. Start the journey, put it on an extra screen if you have one and see nothing happen for most of the time ;)

The current distance from Sun is shown in the bottom center and you can change units in the menu attached to it. "Astronomical units" or "light minutes" might be the most useful, kilometers or miles if you just want to be blown away by the order of magnitude.

https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

I also submitted it for discussion here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27573172

Edit: fixed the scale, it's 1px:diameter of Moon, not 1px:distance Earth-Moon as I initially wrote.

Yes, this is why I always liked 'planet walks' like this [1] If you see Images the planets in the solar system, the solar system itself etc. are mostly not to scale. If you walk such path one get a bit of a feel how large everything is, I think especially if the plantes on the walk are to scale too. Even our solar system is mostly empty. And the distances to moon a microscopic.

Walking such a path is is not the same, but a bit like [3] if one is patient (which is difficult on the internet) and doesn't scroll manually but only via the little "c" in the lower right corner, wich scrolls with light speed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagan_Planet_Walk (there are several other listed at the bottom of the page)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model

[3] https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

EDIT: Sorry I came back from the article to say this before reading the comments here… I should have, the top comment is already saying the exact same thing!

The speed of light isn't that fast. The website "the moon is one pixel" is a webpage where our solar system is represented at scale if our moon were 1px in diameter : https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

You can scroll through it. It's so long to go from one planet to another. So much empty space.

At some point you're tempted to click on the C button which you see on the bottom right of the page. Speed of light! Surely that will autoscroll fast! … Nope, to scale, the speed of light is waaaay slower than your scrolling was! And then you realize, at the size of the universe, how even light isn't that fast.

This article mentions that the speed of light seems fast to humans living daily lives, but is not so fast on an astronomical scale.

The best demonstration of this I've ever seen is on "If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A tediously accurate map of the solar system" [1].

If you've not seen it before, I recommend opening it, using your mouse wheel to scroll from the beginning (near the Sun) to Earth. It should take about a minute, but there's some commentary on the way. Then, to save your mouse and your finger some work, try clicking the icon in the bottom right hand corner to auto-scroll the map at the speed of light.

[1] https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

"Is Mars really the best target? Sure it's close but there are moons around Saturn that are interesting as well. Titan for example."

First, for what is worth, I share your Mars questioning. But then I can't just let you downplay the distance factor with "sure it's close" glossing-over. One can find interesting tools out there¹ that may help grasping the astronomical distances better. The bottom line is that it just makes more sense to take our chances with planets closer to us and so far, at least with the landing on Moon, the humans respected in this regard their species' "rational" self designation.

¹ http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#earthtxt