Advanced Intermediate Beginner Home English Spanish

Big, Bigger, Biggest

Although the Sun looks small from Earth, it is really much, much bigger than our planet (and any other planet in the solar system). The Earth is actually one of the smaller planets compared to the giant planets in the outer solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The table below lists the diameters of the planets and the Sun compared to the Earth.


Body Diameter
(Earth = 1)
Sun 109
Mercury .38
Venus .95
Earth 1
Mars .53
Jupiter 11.19
Saturn 9.40
Uranus 4.04
Neptune 3.88
Pluto .18




Credits Settings Sponsorship Membership Contact us About the site Site map Help Myths People News Arts, books and film Images and multimedia Tours Life Geology Physics Space weather Space Missions Solar system Astronomy and the Universe Shop for science stuff Games Ask a scientist Journal Comets Dwarfs Neptune Uranus Saturn Jupiter Asteroids Mars Earth Venus Mercury Sun Teacher resources Kids Space Search Home
Last modified January 5, 2004 by Lisa Gardiner.
The source of this material is Windows to the Universe, at http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). © The Regents of the University of Michigan. Windows to the Universe® is a registered trademark of UCAR. All Rights Reserved. Site policies and disclaimer