Scale Comparison

Earth vs Uranus, to scale

Uranus is smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, but a true diameter comparison shows that it is still nowhere near the terrestrial tier. Earth stays useful here as the familiar rocky anchor against which the ice-giant scale becomes readable.

Shared physical scale
28,261km
Earth12,742 km
Uranus50,724 km

Scale insight

Uranus's diameter is about 4.0 times Earth's.

This is the comparison that helps separate the giant planets internally. Uranus is plainly smaller than Jupiter, yet beside Earth it still reads as a major planetary expansion rather than a moderate step upward.

That matters because ice giants are easy to underrate between the rocky planets and the gas giants. Scale shows they are their own substantial class, not just shrunken versions of the biggest worlds.

Objects

Open each object in context

Planets

Earth

12,742 kmdiameter

Earth is the rocky planet on which we live and the most familiar anchor for planetary scale. It remains the only world known to host life, with long-lived surface oceans that have shaped both its geology and its atmosphere.

Object class
Terrestrial planet
Composition
Silicate rock and iron core
Temperature
~288 K mean surface
Estimated age
~4.54 billion years
Host
Sun
Visual creditNASA / Apollo 17 crew / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons
Planets

Uranus

50,724 kmdiameter

Uranus is an ice giant that rotates tipped over on its side, with its spin axis tilted by about 98 degrees. That extreme tilt makes its seasons unlike any other planet’s, leaving each pole pointed toward the Sun for decades at a time during its 84-year orbit.

Object class
Ice giant planet
Mass
~14.5 Earth masses
Host
Sun
Estimated age
~4.5 billion years
Composition
Hydrogen, helium, water-ammonia-methane ices
Temperature
~76 K cloud tops
Visual creditNASA / JPL-Caltech / Public domainSource: Wikimedia Commons

Between the smallest and the largest, perspective is everything.

About

Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.

Guides turn parts of that scale into curated essays, while focused views let you explore the same range through specific groups of objects.

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