Galactus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Marvel super villain Galactus is notorious for being the Devourer of Worlds. He travels the cosmos decimating planets, but his attempts to eat Earth have so far been unsuccessful. He sends his Silver Surfer to scout out planets and prepare them for supper. Unlike in the second Fantastic Four movie, he is not a cloud…he is a giant human figure in purple armor.
Surprisingly, the actual features of Galactus fall short of the hype surrounding him. Let’s start with his height. Although it changes based upon his hunger, it is generally only 28 feet tall. If he’s only that tall how does he eat planets? Well. he does not eat it with a fork and knife. Galactus uses an Elemental Converter machine with his armor to drain the resources of the planet. The planet still dies along with everyone on it, and I suppose it is a more practical approach than having him eat it one bite at a time.
Since he is only 28 feet tall, then how tall would he have to be to eat Earth? Let’s assume that Galactus would eat it in one bite, as if it was a meatball. A meatball is only about 2 inches in diameter, and this will be used to scale Earth. The Earth has a diameter of 7,918 miles. So with this scale then 1 inch is equivalent to 3,959 miles.
From this measurement we can figure out the giant’s height. The average height for a person is 5 feet 10 inches, which is 70 inches. After multiplying 70 inches for the average height by 3,959 miles the product is 277,130. This means that a person would have to be 277,130 miles tall to eat a planet the size of Earth as if it were a meatball. He would be able to cup the Earth in his two hands and block out the sun. That giant’s feet would be 47,508 miles each, meaning the planet could probably fit between his toes. Now that’s a real super villain.
All the Calculations 
Pretty poor research on the topic. What humans see as Galactus is what they are capable of perceiving. In fact Galactus is so much more than that. However, cosmically speaking, human minds are tiny and incapable of understanding Galactus’ true form. He is not in actuality a 28 foot tall human looking alien. He is a cosmic force.
To better back up my point, so that I am not making baseless accusations, here is the link to the Marvel wiki on Galactus:
http://marvel.com/universe/Galactus
The very last line in the article specifically says “Although Galactus is usually represented in humanoid form, each sentient being perceives him having a form resembling that of his own race; humans see him as humanoid and Skrulls as Skrullian.”
Very true about Galactus’ size. I was just using Galactus as a reason to do some neat math.