Atomic Universe
From the cosmos to you
Scroll through 24 layers, largest to smallest. Tap any layer to open its facts. Sizes are powers of ten in meters: ~ means about, > more than, < less than.
Scroll to descendScales, largest to smallest
A funnel of 24 layers, from the multiverse down to strings. Each layer shows its typical size in meters. Open a layer for facts.
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more than 10 to the power of 27 meters
Unknown. Possibly infinite. Hypothetical
No observation has confirmed that other universes exist. The idea comes out of theories such as cosmic inflation and string theory.
If other universes exist, they lie beyond anything light could ever carry to us.
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about 10 to the power of 27 meters
About 93 billion light-years across (observable)
The observable universe is about 93 billion light-years across and about 13.8 billion years old.
Galaxies are strung along a vast cosmic web of filaments, with huge empty voids between them.
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about 10 to the power of 25 meters
About a billion light-years long
The Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, which contains our own supercluster, stretches about a billion light-years.
Structures this large trace the filaments of the cosmic web.
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about 10 to the power of 24 meters
About 520 million light-years (Laniakea)
Our home supercluster, Laniakea, spans about 520 million light-years and holds roughly 100,000 galaxies.
Its name is Hawaiian for "immeasurable heaven".
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about 10 to the power of 23 meters
About 10 million light-years (Local Group)
The Milky Way belongs to the Local Group, a few dozen galaxies about 10 million light-years across.
Andromeda, the group’s largest member, is about 2.5 million light-years away.
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about 10 to the power of 21 meters
About 100,000 light-years across
The Milky Way holds an estimated 100 to 400 billion stars.
The Sun takes about 230 million years to circle the galaxy’s center once.
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about 10 to the power of 13 meters
About 9 billion km across Neptune’s orbit
Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes 20 seconds to reach Earth.
Neptune, the outermost planet, orbits about 4.5 billion km from the Sun.
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about 10 to the power of 7 meters
12,742 km across
About 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water.
Earth turns once on its axis every 23 hours and 56 minutes.
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about 10 to the power of 7 meters
Thousands of km across
Asia is the largest continent, at about 44.6 million square kilometers.
By the most common count there are seven continents.
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about 10 to the power of 6 meters
Hundreds to thousands of km
There are 195 countries by the most widely used count: 193 UN members plus two observer states.
Russia, the largest country, spans 11 time zones.
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about 10 to the power of 5 meters
Hundreds of km
The United States has 50 states. Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories.
Many states and provinces are a few hundred kilometers across.
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about 10 to the power of 4 meters
A few to tens of km
More than half of the world’s people live in urban areas.
A large city can hold more people than many countries.
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about 10 to the power of 3 meters
About 1 km, a short walk
A neighborhood is usually walkable: about a kilometer, or a 15-minute walk.
This is the scale where streets, schools and shops are shared.
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about 10 to the power of 1 meters
A home, about 10 m
A typical home is around ten meters across.
It is the first group most people belong to.
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about 10 to the power of 0 meters
About 1.7 m tall
Your body is made of roughly 30 trillion human cells.
No one else has your exact combination of genes and experiences.
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about 10 to the power of minus 1 meters
About 12 cm (an adult heart)
An adult heart is about the size of a fist.
It beats about 100,000 times a day.
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about 10 to the power of minus 3 meters
About a millimeter
The body has four basic tissue types: epithelial, connective, muscle and nervous.
Skin is built from several tissue layers, a few millimeters thick in all.
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about 10 to the power of minus 5 meters
10 to 100 micrometers
Most human cells are 10 to 100 micrometers across.
Uncoiled, the DNA in one human cell would stretch about 2 meters.
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about 10 to the power of minus 6 meters
About 1 micrometer (a mitochondrion)
A mitochondrion is typically 0.5 to 1 micrometer wide.
Mitochondria make most of a cell’s chemical energy, in the form of ATP.
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about 10 to the power of minus 9 meters
About a nanometer
A water molecule is about 0.28 nanometers across.
One drop of water holds about 1.7 sextillion water molecules.
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about 10 to the power of minus 10 meters
About 0.1 nanometers
Atoms are about a tenth of a nanometer across.
The nucleus is about 100,000 times smaller than the atom around it.
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about 10 to the power of minus 15 meters
About a femtometer
A proton has a radius of about 0.84 femtometers.
Electrons have no measured size. They behave like points.
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less than 10 to the power of minus 18 meters
Smaller than any experiment can resolve
A proton holds three quarks, bound together by gluons.
Quarks are never found alone. Physicists call this confinement.
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about 10 to the power of minus 35 meters
Near the Planck length, 1.6 × 10⁻³⁵ m Hypothetical
String theory proposes that every particle is a tiny vibrating string.
If strings exist, they are near the Planck length, far below anything we can test.
Every scale holds the next one
NextHiggs FieldEvery layer above is made of particles with mass. Where does that mass come from?About / Info
What this is
A map of scale you can scroll through. It runs from the largest structures anyone has described down to the smallest one anyone has imagined, with you near the middle. Scroll to descend. Tap or click any layer to open its facts.
How to read the sizes
Each layer shows its typical size as a power of ten in meters. 107 m is ten million meters, about the width of Earth. Sizes are approximate powers of ten, so neighboring layers can share a value.
What is known and what is not
Two layers are hypothetical: the multiverse at the top and strings at the bottom. Everything between them has been measured, though the largest structures are still being mapped.
Drawn live
Every illustration here is drawn in your browser as you scroll. This site serves its own fonts and code. Our host, Cloudflare, counts visits with its Web Analytics, which it says sets no cookies.
Jump to a layer
- Multiverse
- Universe
- Supercluster complex
- Galactic supercluster
- Galactic cluster
- Galaxy
- Star system
- Planet
- Continent
- Country
- State / Province
- City
- Local community
- Family
- You
- Organ
- Tissue
- Cell
- Organelle
- Molecule
- Atom
- Subatomic particle
- Quarks & gluons
- Strings
Layout after the infographic The Bigger Picture: From the Cosmos to You.