Scale Model Of The Solar System

Falmouth High School Science Honor Society Scale Model Of The Solar System

To Scale: The Solar System

The solar system is huge! And thats an understatement. Even traveling at the speed of light, it would take about four hours to get from the Sun to Neptune a distance of about 2.8 billion miles. Because of the great distances between planets and the planets relatively small sizes compared to those distances, its difficult and sometimes impossible to create a visual representation on a computer screen or the page of a book that accurately represents the size of the planets and the distances between them.

A scale model a model with sizes and distances proportionally reduced or enlarged is a great way to correctly display the size of and distance between planets, giving people a better visual representation of the solar system than they could otherwise get from an image in a book or on a computer.

Some scale models show just scale distances, some show just scale planet sizes, while some display both. An accurate size and distance scale model in which Mercury, the smallest planet, is 1 mm across would require about half a mile to properly display the distance from the Sun to Neptune. There are scale solar systems all over the world. Some are just a few blocks long, but the largest, in Sweden, stretches more than 140 miles !

Here are links to some other scale models:

Scale Model Of Solar System

The solar system is so large that it cant be shown to scale on a standard image. If the planet sizes are shown to scale, then the distances will be too large to fit in the image. On the other hand, if the distances are to scale then the objects will be too small to be visible.

The best way to understand the true dimensions of the solar system is to create a scale model. Use the tool below to visualize the solar system at various scales.

Video By Alex Gorosh Wylie Overstreet

A group of friends discovered there were no proportional models of the solar system with complete planetary orbitsâmost portray the planets and moons as too close together. So, they decided to build one. On a dry lakebed in Nevada, the group constructed a model by drawing circles in the desert around a 1.5 meter sun and a marble-sized Earth small enough to get lost in filmmaker Wylie Overstreet’s pocket. The result is a stunning work of land art that allows viewers to see the full circle of the Earth with their own eyes.

For more of the filmmakers’ work, visit wylieoverstreet.com and alexgorosh.com.

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Solar System Calculator Resources

If you need a solar system scale model calculator to help you as you are working on these activities with your class, Ive got you covered. You can find one through Think Zone that also helps you create a map or this resource, Build a Solar System Model, that contains not only a calculator but lots of other great resources to help you too! Youll definitely want to check both of those resources out.

If youre looking for other great solar system resources to supplement your solar system unit, check out my solar system resources on Teachers Pay Teachers here.

A Model Based On A Classroom Globe

7 Options for Creating Solar System Scaled Models

If the Earth were reduced to the size of a typical classroom globe, 41 cm in diameter, the Moon would be a 10 cm baseball floating 12 metres away. The Sun would be 14 stories tall ” rel=”nofollow”> Spaceship Earth ride at Epcot) floating 5 kilometres 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 would look like this:

Body
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 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 Alpha Centauri would be 1/3 of the way to the Moon.

Some planetaria and related museums often use a scale model of the Solar System featuring a planetarium dome representing the Sun. Examples of this can be seen in planetaria like the Adler Planetarium, the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, the Clark Planetarium, the Griffith Observatory, the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum, the Adventure Science Center, etc.

^Power & Light District to Union Station

Making Your Solar System Model To Scale

As the distances between the Solar System planets are so big, its almost impossible to have both accurate planet sizes and distances in one scale model.

If we scaled the distances based on the Suns size we used in this model, Neptune would be half a kilometre away!

This is not something you can squeeze into most gardens.

For this project, we are creating a model that shows the distances at a scale that can fit into a garden or park.

The radius of our Solar System has been scaled down to 10m. If our Sun and planets were at the same scale, the Sun would have a diameter of 3cm, but Mercury would be a microscopic 0.1mm, Earth 0.2mm and the largest planet Jupiter just 3mm.

Obviously we cant replicate that for our model. Instead, well be using polystyrene balls of different sizes to show that the planets vary in diameter, but they arent at any specific scale relative to each other or to the distances.

We opted for:

Venus, Earth and Mars at 3cm
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune at 4.5cm

Well place our planets in a straight line, but they would really extend out by 10m in all directions from our star.

The distance between the Sun and the Earth is 150,000,000km this is 1 Astronomical Unit .

To make the maths simple when calculating the distances for our model, begin by working with a scale of 1 AU to 1 metre.

With Neptune at 30 AU, it means the model would be 30m, which is still larger than most gardens. Indeed, we only had 10m to work with.

Procedure: Scale Model Of Relative Diameters Of Planets

First, we need to compare the diameter of the Earth to that of the other planets. Remember that diameter is the length of a straight line going through the middle of a circle. The Earths diameter is 12,750 km. We can divide the diameter of the Earth into the diameters of all the planets, to get a relative comparison. The Sun, with a diameter of 1,393,000 km, is over a million times bigger than Earth and would be too big to draw on a piece of paper for this activity.

Planet

3 cm

Use the ruler to draw a line for the diameter. Start with drawing the relative diameters of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Using the compass, draw circles around the diameters.

Fit in the smaller planets around where you drew the bigger planets.

Label the planets, so you dont forget which is which when you are cutting them out. For tiny planets, you might have to use an abbreviation.

Cut your planets out.

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A Brief Voyage History

The Voyage exhibit has been a huge undertaking, ultimately involving great efforts by many dozens of people. Indeed, putting Voyage on the National Mall has essentially required going through the same approval process followed by other monuments, such as the forthcoming World War II Memorial. The many people and institutions involved are too numerous to list here, but the efforts of four individuals have been especially critical: Voyage team leader Jeff Goldstein , along with Carolynne Harris Knox , Jodi Schoemer , and Martha Sewall .

My own involvement in Voyage began way back in 1981, at a time when I was teaching astronomy to both elementary school children and college students, and recognized the need for a way to convey the true scale of the cosmos. In 1984, three students from my Honors astronomy class at CUKen Center, Matt Carter, and Ron Bassvolunteered to help me create a model solar system for the Boulder campus. My Ph.D. thesis advisor, Tom Ayres, volunteered to lead the effort through the university bureaucracy and budgeting, and also ended up doing the physical design and blueprints for the model. The five of us worked together to create the Colorado Scale Model Solar System, which was dedicated in May 1987 to the memory of the Challenger astronauts.

Calculate Scale Planet Sizes

Pair make first to-scale Solar System model in Nevada desert

If you’re making a scale-size model, keep reading for two different methods of calculating the scale sizes of the planets. For a scale-distance model, see Step 4 above.

Calculate manually:

Choose the size you want Earth to be in your model .

For each planet, multiply the size you chose for Earth by the multiplier value on the chart. The multiplier is a planets size compared with Earth. This will give you the scale size of each planet.

Calculate using a spreadsheet:

Choose the size you want Earth to be in your model .

Create a formula in your spreadsheet that will calculate the diameter of each planet in centimeters. The formula should multiply the size you chose for Earth by the multiplier value for each planet. The multiplier is a planets size compared with Earth.

A spreadsheet multiplication formula follows this format: =B3*10, where B3 is the cell with a planets multiplier and 10 is the size you chose for Earth. B refers to the cell column and 3 refers to the cell row.

Try different values for Earth to make your scale planets larger or smaller depending on the materials you have available to represent the size of each planet.

Once you’ve done your calculations, go to Step 9 to find out how to make a sidewalk chalk scale model. You can also come up with your own creative display using your choice of materials.

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Options For Creating The Solar System Scale Model

Before you get started with models in the classroom, consider asking your students these questions:

What makes something a model?

How are the models used?
Why are the models used?

Then consider having students create their own scaled models first as a way to predict the size and distance. This will make the impact much greater afterward. After creating models , give images of the solar system and discuss why they are inaccurate models.

These options are in no particular order and you do not have to use just one. In fact, creating multiple models will help students comprehend more.

1.) If the Moon Were Only a Pixel Website. I absolutely love this website. Just by simply scrolling this website to the right your students can see how far away everything is in space and their relative sizes. The creator of this website includes a little humor as you are scrolling through his site. Its definitely worth the visit! You can visit the If the Moon Were Only a Pixel Website here.

Mercury 4,879 km

Venus 12,104 km
Earth 12,742 km
Jupiter 139,820km

Saturn 116, 460 km
Uranus 50,724 km
Neptune 49,244 km

Sun 1.391 Million km

3.) National Geographic Video. In this video, a group of friends works together to create a scale model in 7 miles of the desert. It really helps provide a visual of the distance between planets and their sizes in comparison to one another. The clip is relatively short and would be a great way to introduce the topic to students.

Learn About Sizes And Distances In Our Solar System

Distances in the solar system can be huge! The distance from the Sun to Neptune is nearly three billion miles . Because the distances between planets are so great, astronomers sometimes describe distances in terms of astronomical units . One AU is equal to the average distance between the Sun and Earth, about 93 million miles . This allows scientists to describe and calculate distances more efficiently. For example, instead of saying, “Mars is 130 million miles from the Sun,” scientists can say, “Mars is 1.5 AU from the Sun.”

It’s not just the distances between planets that are large. There are also huge differences in the size of each planet. Because of this, it can be difficult or even impossible to display both planet size and distance accurately, especially in smaller scale models like an image.

Watch this video about the size of planets and the distances between them to see how far they are from each other, how they differ in size, and how difficult it is to display both their size and distance accurately.

Watch en Español: Seleccione subtítulos en Español bajo el ícono de configuración. | Watch on YouTube

More solar system size and scale resources:

Solar System Sizes and Distances reference guide
Solar System Trading Cards

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Choose Where Your Model Solar System Will Go

Worlds Largest Scale Model of the Solar System

Pick a place to set up your solar system model. This could be across a bedroom wall, along the floor of a hallway or large room, outside in a yard, or down a sidewalk.

Keep your choice in mind as you calculate the size of planets and distances between them in the next steps. You’ll need to have enough materials, and your model will have to fit within the place you choose.

Instructions for building a model out of beads and string, sidewalk chalk, or yard markers are included below, but you can use any materials or any space you like!

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Make A Scale Model Of The Solar System And Learn The Real Definition Of Space

Fill in the diameter of the Sun you want your model to be scaled by. You can fill in either the red bordered inches box or the green bordered millimeters box. Important: Only fill in one box. If both are filled in you will get a dialog box asking you to clear one of the boxes. Use the Clear button to clear the entire form.

Notice that the distances and sizes of the planets will automatically fill in. I’ve also provided some other interesting scale comparisons at the bottom of the chart.

You can now build your scale model. You can do this with a long tape measure, or you can measure the size of your pace and walk it off counting the number of steps you take. To mark a planet’s place you can use a piece of paper on a post that you stick into the ground, or you can use a flag, or even a person. Be prepared for a long walk!

If you build your solar system on a roll of toilet paper, you can make the Sun about .4 inches across and still fit the entire solar system on the roll. A standard roll of toilet paper has about 450 sheets that are about 4.375 inches long, hence the roll is about 164 feet long. You should check your toilet paper for length. Some are longer.

You can click on the names of the planets and satellites to go the the Nine Planets web site page about them. LOTS of info there!

I’ve only given you the sizes and distances to the planets. If you’d like to see the satellites of the planets as well, for a much more extensive page

Colorado Scale Model Solar System

Have you ever wondered just how big space really is? Its huge. In fact, its astronomical!

The Colorado Scale Model Solar System depicts the Sun, the planets, and the distances between them all on the same scale of 1 to 10 billion. That is, the real objects and distances are 10 billion times larger than the objects and distances in the model.

On this scale, Sun is about the size of a large grapefruit, while Earth is the size of the ball point in a pen. Its 15 big steps from the Sun to Earth, about 75 yards to marble-size Jupiter, and less than a half-mile walk to Pluto, the most distant object shown in the model.

Available in iOS only. Android version coming soon.

Wanderers CU is a responsive sound experience delivered via a mobile app that responds to the visitors movement as sensed by GPS. A complement to the Colorado Scale Model Solar System represented by plaques that extend from the Fiske Planetarium to Colorado Boulevard on the CU Boulder campus, Wanderers CU offers another mode of experiencing this model where visitors are free to explore the sonic, temporal and spatial dynamics of our Solar System as a responsive soundscape that extends in all directions from the Sun, located in front of the Fiske Planetarium.

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