Astronomy Picture of the Day -- To Scale: The Solar System

NASA ^ | December 25, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Want to build a scale model Solar System? A blue marble 1.4 centimeters (about half an inch) across would be a good choice for a scale model Earth. Since the Sun is 109 times the diameter of Earth, a 1.5 meter diameter balloon could represent the Sun. But the distance between the Earth and Sun, 150 million kilometers, would translate to just under 180 meters (590 feet) at the same scale. That would mean the completed project, including the orbits of the outer planets, is probably not going to fit in your backyard. Still, you might find enough room on a dry lakebed. Check out this video for an inspirational road trip through the Solar System to scale.

[SunkenCiv]

[Video Credit & Copyright: Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh]

[SunkenCiv]

Merry Christmas!

The Big One

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[UCANSEE2]

Merry Christmas to you, and to all.

[Lurker]

Cool.

L

[cripplecreek]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg&feature=player_embedded

[PIF]

One of the largest stars known is UY Scuti at 1,708 solar radi (diameter of Sol) or 432,450 miles X 1708 = 738,624,600 miles which makes its outer shell fall at the midpoint between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

Playback restricted at the UMG site link.

Youtube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg&feature=player_embedded

[soycd]

How big can be so small ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVqMXPFYwI

[Psalm 73]

Thanks for the post - Merry Christmas!

[o_1_2_3__]

I was impressed that some millenials were curious enough to inquire, motivated enough to satisfy their curiosity, and somehow able to not conclude that global warming and george w. bush were ruining everything for everyone, forever.

[beef]

At the scale where the sun is the size of a grapefruit, the nearest star, Alpha Centari, is about 2500 miles away. There is a reason they call it space.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks PIF.

[SunkenCiv]

Imagine a produce place where the grapefruit was that far from the cash register, for that matter. ;’) Thanks beef.

The Grand Rapids museum has a rotating globe of Earth that came over from the old museum site (moved from State St to the current site on the western bank of the Grand River). There’s a same-scale model of the Moon hanging way up on the opposite end of the place, visible from the model Earth, using the same scale, to show the relative distance (avg is about 237134 mi).

[SunkenCiv]

The wild wild web has undermined the meme-building and consensus-manufacturing older media, clearly that's a good thing.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[JoeProBono]

[o_1_2_3__]

The wild wild web has undermined the meme-building and consensus-manufacturing older media, clearly that's a good thing.

I think we're in the sweet spot.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for this link of a while ago, and Merry Christmas!

http://www.nowykurier.com/toys/gravity/gravity.html

[Verginius Rufus]

An astronomical unit is the distance from the earth to the sun. There are approximately as many astronomical units in one light year as there are inches in a mile.

So a model of the solar system that puts the earth one inch away from the sun would have the next-closest star, Proxima Centauri, about four and a quarter miles away. Other stars would be as many miles away as they are in fact light years away.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks VR.