[bee_rider]

Sometimes it is hard to think of big space is, especially because we tend to do that while sitting around inside (this is where we have most of our thoughts, after all). Of course space distances are nothing like the distances inside our rooms, no frame of reference.

Instead, go out to the ocean on a clear day, and observe how absurdly vast the ocean is. Just ocean, as far as you can see. Look around and realize you’ve gained absolutely nothing in terms of comprehending the vastness of space, to which the difference between your room and the most sweeping views on Earth are just totally insignificant.

[GolfPopper]

The single best depiction of the Solar System to help grok size and distance is Josh Worth's "If the Moon were only 1 pixel":

https://www.joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsys...

[rickydroll]

An even better visualization of the size of the Solar System. It shows traveling from the Sun out to forever at the speed of light. Be prepared to spend hours watching the paint dry. I suspect traveling in space will be like war, long periods of boredom punctuated by brief moments of sheer terror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AAU_btBN7s

[edit] arrgh. brain spaz forgot to put in the URL

[rtsil]

> long periods of boredom

Not if it's at the speed of light, the journey will be instantaneous for the (massless) traveller.

[7thaccount]

They can't go C though, just 0.99999 C or whatever. So almost frozen in time :)

[Archelaos]

I like planetary trails, where the orbits of the planets (or other celestrial objects) are proportionally reduced and placed in the landscape.

For example, this image from a park in Halle (Germany) shows the inner solar system: https://dubisthalle.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Planetenwe... -- but one has to walk 500 meters to reach Pluto.

The German Wikipedia has quite a long list of planetary trails: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetenweg

[tambeb]

I also like this solar system model from NASA, https://science.nasa.gov/learning-resources/how-big-is-the-s....

They compare it to a US football field.

"On this scale, the Sun, by far the largest thing in our solar system, is only a ball about two-thirds of an inch (17 millimeters) in diameter sitting on the goal line — that's about the width of a U.S. dime coin. ...

The inner planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are about the size of grains of sand on a football field scale. They would be dwarfed by a typical flea, which is about 3 millimeters long.

Closest to the goal line is Mercury, just under a yard from the end zone (.8 yards to be specific). ... At this scale, Mercury's diameter would be scarcely as large as the point of a needle.

Venus is next. It is 1.4 yards from the end zone. ...

On to Earth, sitting pretty on the 2-yard line. ...

Mars is on the three-yard line of our imaginary football field. ...

Jupiter remains pretty close to our end zone on the 10.5-yard line. ...

Saturn is on the field at 19 yards from the goal line. ...

Uranus ... is about 38 yards from our end zone.

Neptune is where things start to get way out. It is 60 yards from our solar goal line on the imaginary football field. ...

Tiny Pluto is much closer to the opposing team's end zone. It's about 79 yards out from the Sun ...

On this scale, our little friend Voyager 1 has left the game and is well out in the stadium parking lot or beyond."

[dmd]

It's illegal to mention the solar system and football without mentioning one of the greatest pieces of science fiction on the two, Jon Bois' 17776 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17776

[synlatexc]

Primo Levi wrote a short story [1] about this. Our words/measurements are inadequate when tasked with describing the cosmos.

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/02/12/a-tranquil-sta...

[madmask]

And the horizon you see standing on the beach is just about 5km or 3 miles away!

[goopypoop]

No no no no no.

"If life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion." -DNA