Solar System model
Solar System models, especially mechanical models, called orreries, that illustrate the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons in the Solar System have been built for centuries. While they often showed relative sizes, these models were usually not built to scale. The enormous ratio of interplanetary distances to planetary diameters makes constructing a scale model of the Solar System a challenging task. As one example of the difficulty, the distance between the Earth and the Sun is almost 12,000 times the diameter of the Earth.
If the smaller planets are to be easily visible to the naked eye, large outdoor spaces are generally necessary, as is some means for highlighting objects that might otherwise not be noticed from a distance. The objects in such models do not move. Traditional orreries often did move and some used clockworks to make the relative speeds of objects accurate. These can be thought of as being correctly scaled in time instead of distance.
Scale models in various locations
Several towns and institutions have built outdoor scale models of the Solar System. Here is a table comparing these models.
| Name | Location | Scale | Sun dia. | Earth dia. | Sun–Earth | Sun–Pluto | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual statistics | 1:1 | 1.392 Gm | 12.76 Mm | 149.6 Gm | 5.914 Tm | ||
| Sweden Solar System |  Sweden |
1:20,000,000 | 71 m | 65 cm | 7,600 m | 300 km | permanent; country-wide (begun 1998) |
| Solar System Drive |  Coonabarabran, New South Wales |
1:38,000,000 | 37 m | 34 cm | 4,100 m | 205 km | permanent; drivable (est. 1997) |
| Maine Solar System Model |  University of Maine at Presque Isle, Maine |
1:93,000,000 | 15 m | 13.7 cm | 1,600 m | 64 km | permanent; drivable (est.2003) |
| Scale Model of the Solar System | Peoria, Illinois |
1:125,000,000 | 11 m | 10.0 cm | 1,200 m | 47 km | permanent; drivable (est. 1992?) |
| Planet Lofoten |  Lofoten |
1:200,000,000 | 7 m | ? | ? | 30 km | under construction |
| Light Speed Planet Walk | Anchorage, Alaska |
1:350,000,000 | ? | ? | ? | 16.6 km | permanent; drivable (est. 2005) |
| Moab's Scale Model of the Solar System | Moab, Utah |
1:400,000,000 | 142 inch | ? | ? | 9.5 miles | permanent; Walk & Drive (est. 2007) |
| Solar System Stroll | Perth, Western Australia |
1:5,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 30 m | 1.2 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2016) |
| Community Solar System Trail | Boston, Massachusetts |
1:400,000,000 | 3.5 m | 3.2 cm | 380 m | 15.3 km | permanent; drivable |
| The Solar System to Scale |  Estremoz |
1:414,000,000 | 3.4 m | 3.1 cm | 361 m | 14.3 km | permanent; drivable; bikeable |
| Somerset Space Walk |  Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Somerset |
1:530,000,000 | 2.5 m | ? cm | ? m | 11 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 1997) |
| York’s solar system model | York, England |
1:575,872,239 | 2.4 m | 2.2 cm | 260 m | 10.3 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 1999) |
| Nine Views |  Zagreb |
1:680,000,000 | 2.0 m | 1.9 cm | 225 m | 8.7 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 2004) |
| Walk the Solar System |  Fort St. John, British Columbia |
1:682,353,000 | 2.0 m | 1.9 cm | 219 m | 8.6 km | under construction |
| McCarthy Observatory | New Milford, Connecticut |
1:761,155,000 | 1.8 m | 1.7 cm | 195 m | 7.1 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 2009) |
| Model of the Solar System |  Helsinki |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.2 cm | 149.6 m | 6.1 km | permanent; bikeable |
| Planetenmodell Hagen |  Hagen |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 1971) |
| Planetenweg Schwarzbach | Kriftel |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 1998) |
| Uetliberg Planetenweg |  Zurich |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable |
| Planetenwanderweg | Ehrenfriedersdorf, Drebach and Heidelbachtal |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable |
| Planetary Trail |  Hradec Králové |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 2005) |
| Melbourne Solar System | Melbourne |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 2008) |
| Scale Model Solar System | Eugene, Oregon |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.2 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | permanent; bikeable (est. 1997) |
| Planet Walk | Munich |
1:1,290,000,000 | 1.1 m | 1.0 cm | 116 m | 4.6 km | permanent; walkable (est. 1995) |
| Strolling at the speed of light | La Malbaie, Quebec |
1:1,500,000,000 | 0.9 m | 0.8 cm | 100 m | 3 km (Neptune) | permanent; walkable (est. 2009) (temp?) |
| Rymdpromenaden ("Spacewalk") | Gothenburg |
1:2,000,000,000 | 0.7 m | 0.6 cm | 75 m | 3 km | permanent; walkable (est. 1978) |
| Elmhurst Scale Model of the Solar System | Elmhurst, Illinois |
1:3,044,620,000 | 18 in | 0.1647 in | 161.2 ft | 6,330 ft | permanent; walk & drive (est. 2013) |
| Wooster Planet Walk | Wooster, Ohio |
1:5,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 30 m | 1.2 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2014) |
| Voyage | National Mall, Washington, D.C. (2001) Power & Light District to Union Station, Kansas City, Missouri (2008) |
1:10,000,000,000 | 0.1 m | 0.1 cm | 15 m | 0.6 km | |
| New Jersey State Botanical Garden | Ringwood, New Jersey |
1:10,000,000,000 | 8.7 in | 0.079 in | 26 yd | 1014 yd | walkable |
| Solar System Walking Tour | Gainesville, Georgia |
1:2,000,000,000 | 0.7 m | 0.6 cm | 75 m | 2.9 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2000) |
| Montshire Museum of Science | Norwich, Vermont |
1:2,200,000,000 | 0.6 m | 0.6 cm | 68 m | 2.7 km | permanent; walkable |
| Ride to Pluto: Boise's Solar System | Boise Greenbelt, Boise, Idaho |
1:2,200,000,000 | 0.5m | n/a | 2.4 km | permanent; walkable & bikeable; | |
| The Solar walk | Longview, Washington |
1:?? | 0.6 m | 0.6 cm | ? m | 2.7 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2001) |
| Milky Way path |  Westerbork |
1:3,700,000,000 | ? | ? | ? | 2.5 km | permanent; walkable |
| Solar Walk | Gainesville, Florida |
1:4,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 37.4 m | 1.5 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2002) |
| Otford Solar System Model | Otford, England |
1:4,595,700,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 32 m | 0.9 km | permanent; walkable |
| The Sagan Planet Walk | Ithaca, New York |
1:5,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 30 m | 1.2 km | permanent; walkable (est. 1997) |
| The Solar Walk | Cleveland, Ohio |
1:5,280,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.2 cm | 28.4 m | 1.1 km | permanent; walkable |
| Delmar Loop Planet Walk | University City, Missouri |
1:5,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.2 cm | 30 m | 0.87 km (Neptune) | permanent; walkable (est. 2009) |
| Colorado Scale Model Solar System | Fiske Planetarium, Boulder, Colorado |
1:10,000,000,000 | 0.1 m | 0.1 cm | 15 m | 0.6 km | permanent; walkable (est. 1987) |
| Anstruther Model Solar System | Anstruther, Scotland |
1:10,000,000,000 | 0.1 m | 0.1 cm | 15 m | 0.6 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2014) |
| Le Chemin Solaire |  La Couyère, Brittany |
1:10,000,000,000 | 1 m | 0.1 cm | - | 0.45 km | permanent; walkable (est. 2011) |
| Sunspot Solar System Model | Sunspot, New Mexico |
1:250,000,000 | 18 ft 3 in | 2 in | 60.3 in | 14.68 mi | permanent, drivable |
| Name | Location | Scale | Sun dia. | Earth dia. | Sun-Earth | Sun-Pluto | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Solar System Project | Scotland |
1:8,200,000 | 170 m | 156 cm | 18,300 m | 551 km (Neptune) | (virtual) |
| Spaced Out Project | England |
1:15,000,000 | - | - | - | - | under construction; country-wide. Partially dual scale (No scale model of the sun.) |
| Sorghvliet | The Hague, Netherlands |
1:696,000,000 | 2.0 m | 1.8 cm | 215 m | 6.5 km (Neptune) | (temporary) |
| Sol Chicago | Illinois, Chicago |
1:73,660,000 | 19 m | 17.3 cm | 2,050 m | 61 km (Neptune) | (temporary) proposed |
| Le Chemin des planètes | Saint-Luc, Switzerland |
1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | uses two different scales for distance and size |
| The Madison Planet Stroll | Madison, Wisconsin |
1:4,000,000,000 | 0.3 m | 0.3 cm | 37 m | 1.5 km | (virtual) |
| The Thousand-Yard Model | (virtual) | 1:6,336,000,000 | 0.2 m | 0.2 cm | 25 m | 1 km | (virtual) |
| (dismantled) | Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Quebec |
1:10,000,000,000 | 0.1 m | 0.1 cm | 15 m | 0.6 km | (dismantled) (est. 1985) |
| Lafayette Walk | Detroit, Michigan |
1:6,336,000,000 | 23 cm | 0.2 cm | 25 m | 983 m | A Walking Demonstration of (un)imaginable distances. "It's nowhere near Graham's Number." |
| Planets on the Path | Chicago, Illinois |
1:2,195,000,000 | 1500 ft | 11.4 m | (2015, temporary) | ||
| The Solar System, to scale, for a school yard | PDF for printing | 1:11,945,400,000 | 11.6 cm | 0.1 cm | 12.5 m | 492 m | PDFs, A4 and 8½″×11″, to be printed, affixed to cards which are affixed to sticks; then to be held by children standing in a school yard. Includes major moons and asteroids. |
Several sets of geocaching caches have been laid out as solar system models.
A model based on a classroom globe
Most classroom globes are 41 cm (16 inches) in diameter. If the Earth were reduced to this size, the Moon would be a 10 cm (4 in) baseball floating 12 metres (40 feet) away. The Sun would be a beach ball 14 stories tall (somewhat smaller than the Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot) floating 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) away. While a complete model to this scale has never been built, a Solar System built centered in Washington DC, London, or Sydney, to that scale (approximately 1:31 000 000) would look like this:
| Body | Diameter | object comparison | Semi-major axis | scale model location (U.S.) | scale model location (U.K.) | scale model location (Australia) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | 44.6 m (146 ft) | 14 story tall sphere, Spaceship Earth (Epcot) | zero | White House, Washington DC | Buckingham Palace | Sydney Opera House |
| Mercury | 15 cm (6 in) | large grapefruit | 1.9 km (1.2 mi) | National Air and Space Museum | Covent Garden | Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales |
| Venus | 38 cm (15 in) | beach ball | 3.5 km (2.2 mi) | John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame, Arlington National Cemetery | Regent's Park | Sydney Football Stadium |
| Earth | 41 cm (16 in) | classroom globe | 4.8 km (3.0 mi) | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport | Tower of London | Rozelle Hospital |
| Moon | 10 cm (4 in) | baseball | 12 m (40 ft) from Earth | |||
| Mars | 23 cm (9 in) | dodgeball | 7.2 km (4.5 mi) | Rock Creek Park Golf Course | King's College London | Bondi Beach, New South Wales |
| Ceres | 3 cm (1 in) | golf ball | 13.3 km (8.3 mi) | |||
| Jupiter | 4.55 m (15 ft) | Commercial van | 24.9 km (15.5 mi) | George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia | London Heathrow Airport | Scotland Island, New South Wales |
| Saturn | 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in) | Roundabout (merry-go-round) | 45.5 km (28.3 mi) | Marine Corps Base Quantico, Triangle, Virginia | Luton, Bedfordshire | Copacabana, New South Wales |
| Uranus | 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) | average 8th grade boy | 92.2 km (57.3 mi) | Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, Maryland | Waterlooville, Hampshire | Bombo, New South Wales |
| Neptune | 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) | average 6th grade boy | 144.4 km (89.7 mi) | Newark, Delaware | Leicester, Leicestershire | Nelson Bay, New South Wales |
| Pluto | 7 cm (3 in) | baseball | 190 km (118 mi) | Wildwood, New Jersey | Hereford, Herefordshire | Bulahdelah, New South Wales |
| Eris | 8 cm (3 in) | baseball | 325 km (202 mi) | Brooklyn, New York | Blackpool, Lancashire | Port Macquarie, New South Wales |
| α Centauri A | 49.5 m (162 ft) | Spaceship Earth (Epcot) | 1,323,500 km (822,400 mi) | over 3 times the distance to the moon | over 3 times the distance to the moon | over 3 times the distance to the moon |
If the scale of the above model is increased to 1:310 000 000, i.e. all distances and sizes reduced by a factor of 10, then the Earth and Venus can be modeled by ping pong balls, the Moon and smaller planets by various size marbles or lumps of modeling clay, the gas giants by balloons or larger playing balls, and a circle the diameter of the Sun can be drawn on the floor of most classrooms. The scale distance to α Centauri would be 1/3 of the way to the Moon.
Some planetaria and related museums often use this type of scale model of the Solar System, with a planetarium dome representing the Sun. Examples of this can be seen in planetaria like the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, the Clark Planetarium, the Griffith Observatory, the Louisiana Arts and Sciences Museum, the Adventure Science Center, etc.
See also
References
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Solar System models. |
- A list of websites related to Solar System models
- Otford Solar System model
- An online scale model (does not work in some browsers)
- An online 3D model
- An article on the Solar System in Maine
- An article about a temporary exhibit in Melbourne, Australia
- A map with Solar System models in Germany
- A tool to calculate the diameters and distances needed for an accurate scale model
- To Scale: The Solar System - video of model built in desert with Earth as the size of a marble.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
