Five steps beyond the familiar
Five comparisons, from Ceres to a giant star. Each step makes the last one feel different.
Body diameters to scale. Positions and surface artwork are illustrative; Saturn’s rings are excluded.
A change of perspective
3.699× the diameter. See how the two worlds measure up.
Diameter is a distance across an object. Volume grows with the cube of that distance.
Choose a size to bring this comparison down to Earth.
Ceres: Twice the source mean radius; body diameter only, excluding rings.
Moon: Twice the source mean radius; body diameter only, excluding rings.
How we measure size →1 / 5 · A small beginning
Move to the next step when you are ready. Each scene fits a fresh pair to the screen, so the screen scale changes between steps; within each scene, both objects share one diameter scale.
The final step uses a deliberately rounded, approximate Betelgeuse model. Awe does not require pretending that an uncertain stellar boundary is an exact measurement.
Follow your curiosity