Kuiper Belt size and scale context

The Kuiper Belt is a broad disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune, marking the outer realm of the Sun’s main planetary system. It contains dwarf planets such as Pluto and countless smaller frozen objects, preserving material from the early Solar System in a region shaped by Neptune’s gravity and orbital resonances. Read its scale context, comparisons, and journey links on the canonical object page.

Eta Carinae ALuminous blue variable star·334 million km

BetelgeuseRed supergiant star·1.05 billion km

VY Canis MajorisRed hypergiant star·1.98 billion km

Stephenson 2-18Extreme red supergiant candidate·~2.99 billion km

Solar SystemPlanetary system·9 billion km

Kuiper BeltCircumstellar disc·16.5 billion km

M87*Supermassive black hole·38 billion km

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Planetary systems

Solar System

The Solar System’s main planetary span extends from the Sun out to Neptune’s orbit, not to its far larger comet reservoirs. Beyond the planets it continues through the Kuiper Belt and, much farther out, the Oort Cloud, so the familiar planetary layout is only the compact inner start of the Sun’s domain.

Scale fact9 billion kmorbital diameter

Object class: Planetary system
Host: Sun
Estimated age: ~4.6 billion years

Planetary systems

Kuiper Belt

Scale fact16.5 billion kmextent

Object class: Circumstellar disc
Composition: Icy bodies, dwarf planets, comets, rock and frozen volatiles
Estimated age: ~4.6 billion years
Host: Sun

Black holes

M87*

M87* is the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87. The Event Horizon Telescope’s 2019 image of its glowing ring became the first direct image of a black hole’s immediate surroundings, turning a previously inferred boundary into a measurable true-scale object.

Scale fact38 billion kmevent horizon diameter

Object class: Supermassive black hole
Host: Messier 87
Mass: ~6.5 billion solar masses