Great Model of the Solar System - level 3
There's a lot that we still don't know about the universe, but what we do know is that it's really, really big, and so are the things inside it. Objects like our solar system, looking at the "bigger picture" are absolutely tiny.
To explain just how vast the solar system is, filmmaker friends Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh have made this video.
“This is Alex, and I’m Wylie. He’s going to be behind the camera. I’m going be probably making a lot of mistakes on camera.”
It's been called a “true illustration of our place in the universe”. The pair has built the first scale model of the solar system in the Nevada desert.
In the video, they highlight that every picture we have seen of the solar system is actually not to scale. Apparently if the planets that are featured on most drawings were done correctly, they would basically be invisible.
“If you put the orbits to scale on a piece of paper, the planets become microscopic and you won’t be able to see them. There is literally not an image that adequately shows you what it actually looks like from out there.”
Starting with a marble to represent Earth, they built a model of the inner planets, and used an area of seven miles to fit in all eight.
“Venus is the same size as Earth.”
“There’s a world in my pocket somewhere…”
They then used glass spheres lit by LED lights, and GPS calculations to map out the solar system, driving around each of the paths at night with a light.
“Hopefully, you’ll be able to tell, just how big they really are.”
Using this, they produced a time-lapse video filmed from a nearby mountain, showing each sphere's orbit.
Difficult words: tiny (very small), vast (very big), to scale (if things on a map are to scale, they are as small or as big as they should be compared to other things on the map), orbit (the circular way which a planet travels), literally (exactly), adequately (correctly), marble (a small ball of colored glass), inner planets (the four planets closest to the sun), sphere (ball).