If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel

A tediously accurate, to-scale map of the solar system, built by web developer Josh Worth: https://www.joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

The premise is simple and unforgiving. If the Moon is shrunk to a single pixel, the map holds to that scale all the way out to Pluto – which means scrolling, and scrolling, past almost nothing at all. Worth’s own conclusion, arrived at the hard way: “I guess this is why most maps of the solar system aren’t drawn to scale.” The emptiness is the point; by the page’s own reckoning, the universe is something like 99.9999999999999999999958% empty space, a figure too long to actually hold in mind – which is rather the thing an intellectual grasp of “interconnection” tends to miss, and a felt sense of scale can sometimes supply instead.

It sits well alongside the site’s own Earth as Peppercorn exercise – Guy Ottewell’s thousand-yard walk using a peppercorn for Earth and a bowling ball for the Sun – the same recognition arrived at by different means: on foot and outdoors, rather than by scrolling a screen.