The Peppercorn Model of the Solar System

The Peppercorn Model, also known as the Thousand Yard Model, is a scale model of the solar system which shows the relative sizes of the planets and the distances between them at the same time using the same linear scale.

At this scale the Sun is about the size of a soccer ball, the Earth is about the size of a peppercorn, and Pluto is a grain of salt about 1000 yards from the Sun.

As you walk among the planets you will not just see but also feel the vast emptiness of space even in our own solar system.

Solar System Object	Model Object and Diameter		Distance^† (in AU)	Added Distance	Total Distance
	Object	inches	mm	AU	yards	meters	yards	meters
Sun	a soccer ball	8.7''	22 cm	0.00			0 yd	0 m
Mercury	a pin head	0.030''	0.8 mm	0.39	+10 yd	+9 m	10 yd	9 m
Venus	a peppercorn	0.075''	1.9 mm	0.72	+9 yd	+8 m	19 yd	17 m
Earth	a peppercorn	0.079''	2.0 mm	1.00	+7 yd	+7 m	26 yd	24 m
Mars	a pin head	0.042''	1.1 mm	1.52	+14 yd	+12 m	39 yd	36 m
^*Ceres	half a grain of salt	0.006''	0.15 mm	2.77	+32 yd	+29 m	72 yd	65 m
Jupiter	a walnut, or chestnut	0.89''	23 mm	5.20	+63 yd	+57 m	134 yd	123 m
Saturn	an acorn or hazelnut	0.75''	19 mm	9.58	+113 yd	+103 m	247 yd	226 m
Uranus	a coffee bean	0.318''	8 mm	19.2	+249 yd	+228 m	497 yd	454 m
Neptune	a coffee bean	0.308''	8 mm	30.1	+281 yd	+257 m	777 yd	711 m
^*Pluto	a grain of salt	0.015''	0.38 mm	35.1^† ↑	+129 yd	+118 m	906 yd	829 m
^*Quaoar	a grain of salt	0.007''	0.17 mm	42.7^†	+196 yd	+179 m	1102 yd	1008 m
^*Haumea	a grain of salt	0.010''	0.25 mm	49.9^† ↓	+187 yd	+171 m	1290 yd	1179 m
^*Makemake	a grain of salt	0.009''	0.23 mm	52.7^† ↑	+71 yd	+65 m	1360 yd	1244 m
^*Eris	a grain of salt	0.014''	0.37 mm	95.6^† ↓	+1109 yd	+1014 m	2470 yd	2258 m
^*dwarf planets	Model Object	Diameter	Distance (in AU) ^† semi-major axis	Added Distance	Total Distance

Scale: 1 inch = 100,000 miles -- On this scale the next nearest star, Proxima Centauri, would be about 4,000 miles away!

1 AU = 1 Astronomical Unit = average (mean) distance between the Earth and the Sun
1 AU = 1.4960 × 10¹¹ meters = 9.2956 × 10⁷ miles
^† The orbits of the planets are elipses. The distances reported for the major planets are the semi-major axis of the orbit. The distances for the dwarf planets are the actual distance from the Sun at some recent time and will be updated occasionally. The arrows ↑ and ↓ indicate whether the object's distance from the sun is currently increasing or decreasing.