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The Science 360
Simulation · True scale

Zoom out to the edge of the universe

Start beside a spacewalking astronaut and zoom out through 27 powers of ten. Every picture is a real space image drawn at its true size. Scroll, drag, pinch or press Play.

Open full screen ↗ · Read the guide: how big everything really is

Jump to a stop

  1. A spacewalker about 2 m
  2. International Space Station 109 m
  3. Earth 12,742 km
  4. The Moon’s orbit 384,400 km
  5. The Sun 1.39 million km
  6. The planets 60 AU
  7. Voyager 1 about 170 AU
  8. The Oort cloud up to ~100,000 AU
  9. The nearest stars 4.37 light-years
  10. Orion Nebula 1,350 light-years away
  11. Pillars of Creation 6,500 light-years away
  12. The Milky Way 100,000 light-years
  13. Magellanic Clouds 160,000 to 200,000 light-years
  14. Andromeda and the Local Group 2.5 million light-years
  15. Virgo Cluster 54 million light-years
  16. Laniakea Supercluster 520 million light-years
  17. The observable universe 93 billion light-years

Sizes and distances are to scale. Directions use each object’s galactic longitude, and the planets’ positions in their orbits are simplified. The Milky Way is a NASA illustration because no camera has left our galaxy. All other pictures are real images from NASA, ESA/Hubble, ESA/Webb and WMAP; full credits are under “Image credits” inside the simulation.