13 OBJECTS · 3 m TO 1,392,700 km

Size It Up: Space

Space is the category where intuition simply gives up. Rockets, orbiters and planets are drawn to fit a page, never to scale, so this set is less about recall and more about learning how badly the diagrams lied. Expect Jupiter, the Moon, the ISS and a Saturn V rocket.

The Space set holds 13 measured objects, from the Perseverance rover at 3 m to the Sun at 1,392,700 km — the numbers on this page cover a factor of about 464,233,333. Each one is measured on the axis the game scores: standing height for things you would walk up to, longest visible span for everything else. Every size below links to the published measurement it came from.

THE NUMBERS

How big are these, really?

All 13 objects in the Space set, smallest to largest. Each rung is compared with the one below it, so the category reads as a single ladder rather than a list of unrelated figures.

3 m

Perseverance Rover length / span

Perseverance Rover: Perseverance is about the length of a small car. Source ↗

6.9 m

Apollo Lunar Module height

Apollo Lunar Module: It stood about as tall as a two-storey house, and only the top half ever came back. Source ↗

13.1 m

Hubble Space Telescope length / span

Hubble Space Telescope: Hubble is roughly the size of a school bus, which is exactly what the Shuttle’s cargo bay was built to hold. About 4.4× the length of the Perseverance rover. Source ↗

37.3 m

Space Shuttle Orbiter length / span

Space Shuttle Orbiter: The orbiter alone is about as long as a short-haul airliner — the launch stack was far taller. About 2.8× the length of the Hubble Space Telescope. Source ↗

109 m

International Space Station length / span

International Space Station: The ISS spans roughly 109 metres across its solar arrays. About 2.9× the length of a Space Shuttle orbiter. Source ↗

110.6 m

Saturn V Rocket height

Saturn V Rocket: Saturn V stood taller than the Statue of Liberty without its pedestal. About 16× the height of the Apollo Lunar Module. Source ↗

121 m

Starship Launch Stack height

Starship Launch Stack: The complete Starship launch stack is about 121 metres tall. About 1.1× the height of a Saturn V rocket. Source ↗

3,474.8 km

The Moon length / span

The Moon’s mean diameter is about 3,475 kilometres. About 31879× the length of the International Space Station. Source ↗

6,779 km

Mars length / span

Mars is a little over half Earth’s diameter. About 2× the length of the Moon. Source ↗

12,742 km

Earth length / span

Earth is about 12,742 kilometres across. About 1.9× the length of Mars. Source ↗

116,460 km

Saturn length / span

Saturn is more than nine times wider than Earth. Source ↗

139,820 km

Jupiter length / span

Jupiter is almost eleven times wider than Earth. About 1.2× the length of Saturn. Source ↗

1,392,700 km

The Sun length / span

The Sun is about 1.39 million kilometres in diameter. About 10× the length of Jupiter. Source ↗

PLAY IT

Play the Space set

Reading the numbers is one thing; sizing them by eye against a reference silhouette is another.

The daily puzzle mixes every category, so these objects turn up there at random. For a set built only from them, Unlimited deals five of them at a time, as often as you like. Unlimited is practice: it is unranked and never touches the daily leaderboard. New to the game? How to play covers the rules and the 0–500 scoring in two minutes.

KEEP GOING

Other categories

Every category has its own page of measured sizes. Landmarks and space produce the biggest scale shocks; sports and everyday objects are the fairest places to calibrate your eye.