9 planets montage: our solar system

(This page and this entire website are excerpted from You and the Universe, a personalized, handmade fine art book on astrology, mythology and astronomy thru which is woven each recipient's complete astrological reading; this montage is the second page of that book.) From top to bottom are Mercury, Venus, Earth (and Moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is not included.  The spacecraft responsible for these images are:

• Mercury: Mariner 10,

• Venus: Magellan,

• Earth and Moon: Galileo,

• Mars: Mars Global Surveyor,

• Jupiter: Cassini, and

• Saturn, Uranus and Neptune: Voyager.

The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, and Mars) are roughly to scale to each other; the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are also roughly to scale to each other. The two sets, however, are NOT to scale to each other. The outer planets are shown 1/4^th their actual diameters relative to the inner planets. The planets' actual diameters are:

• Sun 864,000 mi./1,390,000 km

• Mercury 3,032 mi./4,879 km

• Venus 7,521 mi./12,104 km

• Earth 7,926 mi./12,756 km

• Moon 2,159 mi./3,475 km

• Mars 4,221 mi./6,794 km

• Jupiter 88,844 mi./142,984 km

• Saturn 74,896 mi./120,536 km

• Uranus 31,762 mi./51,118 km

• Neptune 30,774 mi./49,528 km

• Pluto 1485 mi./2,390 km