Solar System / Scale

If You Squeezed the Entire Solar System, This Is What You'd Be Left With

2026-09-09
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Collect every planet, moon and asteroid. You've got 0.2%.

Collect every planet, moon and asteroid that has ever orbited the Sun — pile them together, every last fragment of rock and ice in the solar system — and you still haven't reached a single quarter of one per cent of the total mass. The Sun holds the other 99.8% on its own. About 1.3 million Earths could fit inside it by volume. Every second, it fuses around 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium, and that relentless burning is precisely what keeps every planet locked in its orbit. Jupiter, Saturn, the whole lot — they exist because the Sun permits it. We tend to think of the solar system as this rich collection of worlds. Really, it's one enormous star with some dust around it. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, served straight.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM'S MASS

  • Sun: 99.8%
  • Everything else: 0.2%

SCALE CHECK

  • ~1.3 million Earths
  • fit inside the Sun

EVERY SECOND

  • 600 million tonnes
  • of hydrogen fused

WHY ORBITS EXIST

  • That fusion energy
  • holds every world in place

THE REAL PICTURE

  • One vast star
  • with dust around it
Imagery: NASA (public domain) · View original on NASA ↗
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