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The Atlas

A small collection of cosmic diagrams.

Original schematic art generated from analytic geometry and publicly-documented orbital and astronomical figures. Each diagram is designed to be read at a glance and verified against primary literature. Click through to the research notes that use them.

PLATE I

The Solar System

The eight IAU-defined planets on a logarithmic radial scale. From Mercury at 0.387 AU to Neptune at 30.07 AU, the inner and outer system live in the same frame because the scale compresses. Sizes are not to scale.

Featured in: Halley's Comet

MERCURY0.387 AUVENUS0.723 AUEARTH1 AUMARS1.524 AUJUPITER5.203 AUSATURN9.537 AUURANUS19.19 AUNEPTUNE30.07 AUSUNRadial scale is logarithmic in AU. Planet sizes are not to scale.
The eight IAU-defined planets, drawn on a logarithmic radial scale so all of them fit in one figure. Mercury sits at 0.387 AU from the Sun, Neptune at 30.07 AU, a span of nearly two orders of magnitude. A true linear-scale rendering would crowd the inner planets into the Sun.
PLATE II

Halley's Orbit

A wildly eccentric ellipse with eccentricity 0.967. Perihelion sits inside Venus's orbit at 0.587 AU. Aphelion sits past Neptune at 35.08 AU. The period is 75.3 years, give or take perturbations from the giant planets.

Featured in: Halley's Comet

510152025303540SUNPERIHELION0.587 AUAPHELION35.08 AUHALLEY · P = 75.3 yre = 0.967AU
Halley's Comet orbit in the orbital plane, drawn to AU scale. The Sun sits at one focus of the highly eccentric ellipse (e = 0.967). Perihelion lies just inside the orbit of Venus (0.587 AU); aphelion lies beyond Neptune (35.08 AU). One revolution takes about 75.3 years.
PLATE III

Our Galaxy

The Milky Way is a barred spiral with four major arms. The Sun is not on any of them. It sits on the inner edge of the Orion Spur, a smaller feature about 26,000 light-years from the Galactic Center, and takes 225 million years to complete one orbit.

Featured in: Mapping the Milky Way

≈ 30,000 lySGR A*SUN≈ 8 kpcGALACTIC ROTATION
Top-down schematic of the Milky Way galaxy. Four major arms (Perseus, Sagittarius, Scutum-Centaurus, Norma) wind out from a central bar. The Sun sits on the inner edge of the Orion Spur, a minor arm, at roughly 8 kpc (≈ 26,000 light-years) from the Galactic Center.
PLATE IV

The Distance Ladder

Eighteen orders of magnitude separate the Moon from the observable horizon. The ladder is climbed one rung at a time, each rung calibrated against the one below it. From radar to parallax to Cepheids to supernovae to redshift to the cosmic microwave background.

Featured in: The Cosmic Distance Ladder

10^910^1010^1110^1210^1310^1410^1510^1610^1710^1810^1910^2010^2110^2210^2310^2410^2510^26METRES (log scale)Earth–MoonLunar laser rangingEarth–Sun (1 AU)Radar, Kepler's 3rd lawPluto orbitSpacecraft trackingVoyager 1 (≈2026)Deep Space NetworkInferred Oort cloudLong-period comet statisticsProxima CentauriStellar parallax (Gaia)Pleiades clusterMain-sequence fittingGalactic CenterRR Lyrae, S-star orbitsAndromeda (M31)Cepheid variablesVirgo ClusterCepheids, Surface Brightness FluctuationsDistant SNe Ia (z ≈ 0.1)Type Ia supernova standard candlez ≈ 1 (comoving)Redshift, Hubble's lawObservable horizonCosmic microwave background
The cosmic distance ladder. Each rung uses an independent technique to extend reach, calibrated against rungs below. From radar ranging across the inner solar system to the cosmic microwave background, the full ladder spans more than eighteen orders of magnitude.

All four plates are original schematic art generated from analytic geometry and publicly-documented astronomical figures. They are not traced from any external source. The numerical values they encode (orbital elements, planetary distances, galactic parameters, distance-ladder rungs) are widely-published modern estimates with primary references listed in each accompanying research note.

Replication-ready. We welcome corrections.