>...how far away these planets are...
I found this a year or so ago. The moon is 1 pixel and the solar system is drawn to scale based on it. Be prepared to spend some time scrolling.
http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html
Utterly mind blowing. What I find astounding is it’s pretty much similar to atoms which are mostly empty space. That’s why they were saying when it comes to something like the Voyager 1 it probably will never get his by a comet, meteor or sucked into a planets gravitational pull because the universe is mostly empty space, so quite possibly that thing could be out there for billions of years which is unreal. But Mars, I never really visualized how far that planet is. Just imagine that when you were born you were placed in a car that left for Mars, a car that went a standard 70 mph on the highway. From the time you were born till now that car has been driving non stop 24/7 and you will only be halfway there when you reach 114 years old!