If the Sun Were the Size of a Door, Where Would the Moon Be

Scaling the Sun to a door
If we imagine the Sun shrunk down to the size of a typical door about 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall we’re creating a scale model to help understand astronomical distances. The real Sun is about 1.39 million kilometers in diameter so this scale dramatically compresses the solar system while keeping proportions accurate.

Where the Earth would be
At this scale, the Earth would be incredibly small about the size of a peppercorn (roughly 2 mm). Its distance from the door sized Sun would be about 215 meters (around 700 feet) away. That’s roughly two football fields showing how much empty space exists even between the Sun and Earth.

The size of the Moon
The Moon is about ¼ the diameter of Earth so in this model it would be tiny around 0.5 mm comparable to a grain of sand. Even though the Moon looks large in our sky, it’s actually very small compared to planetary bodies.

Where the Moon would be located
Still at this scale, the Moon would orbit the peppercorn sized Earth at a distance of only about 5–6 mm away. That’s roughly the thickness of a stack of coins. This highlights how close the Moon really is to Earth compared to the vast distances elsewhere in space.

Why this is surprising
Most people expect the Moon to be much farther from Earth in scale models but this comparison shows the opposite. The Earth Moon system is relatively tight while the distance from Earth to the Sun is enormous. Space is mostly empty even in our own cosmic neighborhood.

Why this model is useful
Using everyday objects like a door, a peppercorn and a grain of sand helps turn abstract numbers into something visual and memorable. It’s a powerful way to understand why space travel takes so long and why gravity, light and distance behave the way they do on a cosmic scale .