From left to right, top to bottom, repeated planets ignored:
-Top Third-
First Row: Earth (duh!), Venus Second Row: Mars, Mercury, Earth's Moon (because every planet except Venus and Mercury has at least one moon)
Middle Third:
First Row: Jupiter, Saturn Second Row: Uranus, Neptune Third Row: See Top Third descriptions
Bottom Third: First Row: The Sun(duh!) Second Row: See previous descriptions.
Yes, this depiction is to scale. Given how small Earth is, and how infinitesimal humans are compared to the "big picture," it's a wonder humanity considers itself such a big screaming deal.
Well of course the sun casts a shadow! What do you think holds the sun up? Duh the giant table that stands on the back of the turtle who rides along with the elephant!
Bah, these are just textured spheres rendered in 3Dmax. OF COURSE they cast shadows, because that's what the modeller specified the object properties to be.
If the Sun was not busy carrying on its nuclear fusion, it might very well cast a shadow, being mostly composed of gas, and gas giants do have dark sides--hence it could cast a shadow.
By the way, should the "to scale" tag be applied to height charts too?
I believe the smallest object (top - bottom right) is in fact, suppose to be Pluto. I have this very chart only with lables, and the moon does not look like that. Of course, I'm pretty sure that's not what Pluto looks like either (at least the color).
Some might find it odd that Saturn is presented without its rings. Ring systems aren't really fair to include as part of the "planet." It's basically a cloud of debris that is orbiting the planet, so more like moons...in tiny tiny pieces.
Well true that galaxies and etc. are vastly more distant, they're also vastly more massive as well, and give off their own light. Pluto however, is tiny and does not give off light. Nineplanets.org says: "Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Even the Hubble Space Telescope can resolve only the largest features on its surface (left and above). A spacecraft called New Horizons was launched in January 2006. If all goes well it should reach Pluto in 2015." So perhaps around that time the chart might be updated.
Oh god, we're actually having an educational discussion about science! In a place where tags like semenonfigure and bukkake rule supreme?! Is this a sign of the apocalypse?!!!
Oh, and it sucks that probes take so damn long to get anywhere. We desperately need faster than light travel--does anyone care about that at NASA?
So the tenth planet is now the ninth...my head hurts. Pluto still has cool surprises in store. Don't forget that it's "moon" Charon is nearly as big as Pluto. Binary planet, anyone?
I just had a terrible thought... since Venus is bigger than Mars, and most everyone knows the book (or at least the title) "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus"... the fanatical feminists (yes I am talking about you, Equality Now) might try to claim that they should rule Earth because their home planet is bigger... "Men are the minority! The sizes prove it!"
