All things · The Machinery of Life

Coronavirus: how big is it?

Coronavirus is about 90 nm. In everyday terms, that is ≈ 849 hydrogen atoms.

Size

90 nm

In metres

9.00 × 10⁻⁸ m

Everyday comparison

≈ 849 hydrogen atoms

Chapter

The Machinery of Life

Did you know?

The virus behind COVID-19. Its crown of spike proteins gave coronaviruses their name — ‘corona’ is Latin for crown.

How it compares

• About 3.6× bigger than Ribosome (25 nm).
• About 1.3× smaller than Flu virus (120 nm).

Other things of a similar size

• Haemoglobin 5.5 nm
• Antibody 12 nm
• Ribosome 25 nm
• Flu virus 120 nm
• Wavelength of green light 530 nm
• Mimivirus 750 nm

Sizes are rounded, typical values drawn from standard reference sources, including NIST/CODATA physical constants and NASA's planetary fact sheets. Real objects vary; see About for how sizes are chosen.