01Size214,000 kmDist4.24 lyTemp3,000 K (≈ 2,700 °C)
Proxima Centauri
The closest known star to the Sun — and still impossibly far.
StarRed dwarfCosmos
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The Solar System's largest planet — a failed star, almost.
NASA / Juno / Kevin M. Gill
Jupiter Sun
Drawn to true scale.
Jupiter Sun Distance from Earth
Jupiter is roughly 5.20× farther from Earth than Sun.
Picture this
Jupiter is so massive that it doesn't orbit the Sun directly — the two share a common centre of mass, called the barycentre, that sits just outside the Sun's surface. It's the only planet in our system where this is true.
If you scale the distance
Jupiter is on average about 5.2 times farther from Earth than the Sun is. If our Solar System out to Jupiter fit on a basketball court, Earth would sit just 5 metres from the Sun-basketball at centre court — and Jupiter would be at the far end-line, 26 metres out.
By weight
Jupiter contains 2.5 times more mass than every other planet in the Solar System combined. The wobble it induces in the Sun is the strongest single planetary signal in our system — and is one of the standard ways astronomers find Jupiter-sized planets around other stars.
Jupiter is a gas giant more massive than all the other planets combined. Its atmosphere is a turbulent ocean of hydrogen and helium, marked by storm belts and the Great Red Spot — an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth and still have room left over. It also has 95 confirmed moons; four of them, the Galilean satellites, were the first objects ever shown to orbit something other than Earth.
Glossary
Did you know?
If Jupiter had grown about 80 times more massive, hydrogen fusion would have ignited in its core and it would have become a small star. We would live in a binary system instead of a planetary one.
Last updated 2026-05-17
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Scale
The Solar System's largest planet — a failed star, almost.
Size
139,820 km
Tap a dot to preview it. Use the Open stop link to read its full page. Stops are arranged from smallest on the left to largest on the right.
The closest known star to the Sun — and still impossibly far.
A self-sustaining fusion engine at the heart of our system.
Our reference grain of sand.