The solar system is difficult to show correctly. Why? It is difficult because the size of things are vastly different. Let me use units common in solar-system astronomy, the Astronomical Unit (or AU).

The universe, as Douglas Adams so memorably explained, is big. Really big. But so are the things inside it -- even objects like the Solar System, which on a galactic scale are absolutely minuscule. A ...

If you’ve ever seen an illustration of the solar system, the odds are good that it was wrong. Not that it messed up the order of the planets, but that the scale was completely off. "Every single ...

Still from "To Scale: The Solar System," a 7-minute video that shows the construction of a scale-model solar system in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. If Earth were as small as a marble, the solar system ...

Conventional images of the Earth and the moon place them close together, the moon hovering, seemingly, right over our planet's shoulder. Of course, this isn't accurate; we know just from looking at ...

Typical illustrations and models show the relative size of the planets but depict their orbits as far too close together. To show what our solar system truly looks like, DIY enthusiasts Wylie ...

"If our solar system is indeed moving this fast, we need to question fundamental assumptions about the large-scale structure ...

A team of LA filmmakers has created the world's first scale model of the solar system in the Black Rock desert. With the Earth the size of a marble, the model stretches out for seven miles on a dry ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

If Earth were as small as a marble, the solar system out to Neptune would cover an area the size of San Francisco — and that's just in two dimensions. That point is driven home by a new video called ...