I think we would all like to banish the United States to Mars. Well now you can thanks to a new size comparison map.
There have been a lot of (what are probably mostly vibe-coded) ‘true-size of' maps lately. The True Size of Countries definitely has the AI-map template aesthetic often associated with large language model–designed maps, however it also offers a fresh twist on a familiar theme.
Standard “true-size” maps allow users to drag country outlines across a Mercator projection to see how they actually compare in scale. Perhaps the most famous example is The True Size Of … by James Talmage and Damon Maneice.
Now The True Size of Countries introduces a new cosmic perspective: it allows you to drag those same country outlines across the surfaces of all the planets in our solar system. This “cosmic perspective” is perhaps most useful for understanding the true scale of the actual planets. If you drag the United States onto the surface of Jupiter, you might actually struggle to find it. The “lower 48” becomes a tiny, insignificant speck against the gas giant’s swirling bands – a cool reminder that you could fit over 1,300 Earths inside Jupiter.
Conversely, placing the USA on Mercury offers a different perspective. A large proportion of the planet’s surface suddenly “flies the stars and stripes.” This makes sense when you consider that Mercury is only about one-third the width of Earth; in fact, you could fit about 18 Mercurys inside our own planet – while it would actually take more than 24,000 Mercurys to fill the volume of a single Jupiter.
