Use the links below to find out more about the Earth and Beyond at The University of Manchester...
It is very difficult to imagine just how big the Solar System really is.
One way of getting a feel for its size is to build a scale model.
The Exploratorum in San Francisco has an excellent calculator that lets you work out the size of a scale model.
The starting point is the size of the Sun - you choose whether to make the Sun the size of a football, a marble or a pea - whatever you like - and the calculator works out how big the planets are and how far away they would be from the Sun in your model.
You can find the Exploratorium calculator here.