Voyager distances on a human scale
Kilometres become hard to picture at Voyager distances. Shrink every astronomical unit to one metre and use the live tracker to place each probe on an imaginary path from the Sun.
One astronomical unit becomes one metre
The astronomical unit (au) is defined as exactly 149,597,870.7 km. On this model the Sun is the starting point and Earth's average orbital distance is about one metre. The model changes distances only; it does not show the physical sizes of planets or their current positions.
Where the outer planets fit
Using approximate mean distances from the Sun, Jupiter lies 5.20 m away, Saturn 9.58 m, Uranus 19.20 m and Neptune 30.05 m. These are average orbital distances, not the distance between a planet and a Voyager at this moment.
Place today's Voyagers yourself
Open the homepage tracker and read each probe's distance from the Sun in au. The same number gives its distance from the Sun in metres on this scale: 170 au means 170 m. A real light-day is about 173.145 au, or 173.145 m on the model. Use the changing tracker value rather than a fixed number printed here.
Mean solar distance on the 1 au = 1 m model
| Earth | 1 m |
|---|---|
| Jupiter | 5.2 m |
| Saturn | 9.58 m |
| Uranus | 19.2 m |
| Neptune | 30.05 m |
| One light-day | 173.145 m |
Planetary values are approximate orbital means; the light-day value follows from the defined au and speed of light.