Video: The solar system to scale

[Panich52]

EarthSky
by Deborah Byrd in Blogs, Videos » Science Wire, Space

At first I thought I wouldn’t watch this, because it’s 7 minutes long. But then I did watch it, and I’m glad I did, because it’s a beautiful and touching depiction of the relationship between solid matter and empty space in our solar system. As the producers of the film – Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh – point out, that relationship isn’t well understood by most of us. It’s impossible to capture in all the illustrations we’ve seen of our planets and sun because the planets are just so minuscule in contrast to the vast space of our own solar system, our local neighborhood of space. Any illustrations you’ve seen on paper or your computer screen just haven’t captured the matter-to-space relationship as it truly is.

That’s why these producers went to a dry lakebed in Nevada to make their film.

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[Skinner]

1. That's was excellent.

Thanks for posting.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Unfortunately, just as people never saw the solar system to scale, it's not in 3-D either.

.


There are people who think that all of the planets orbit the sun on a single plane.

Instead, it's more like the electrons orbiting a nucleus of an atom.



If our solar system were an atom, we'd violate the octet rule, having an odd set of electrons.

.

[longship]

3. Well, the eight planets are all closely in the ecliptic.

So, to a good approximation they orbit in a single plane, and nothing like electrons in an atom.

Just ask any astronomer.

My best to you.

[gregcrawford]

5. Indeed...

... and if I'm not mistaken, the fact that Pluto's orbit does not conform to the ecliptic is one of the reasons it got demoted to "Sorta Planet-like Thingamajig," to employ the technical jargon.

[longship]

6. And the fact that Pluto does not clear out its orbit.

The barycenter of Pluto/Charon is outside of Pluto.

[gregcrawford]

7. Okaaay...

... I'll take your word for it.

Forgive me, I'm in a playful mood today after a go-round with some folks in another thread that have serious anger management issues.

Please elaborate on "Barycenter" and Pluto's orbit; I am genuinely interested in learning something I didn't know.

[longship]

8. No worries my friend.

I am just a old scope hack. And playful is fine.

Barycenter is the center of mass between two objects. It is the point around which the objects orbit. If it lies outside both objects, it means that neither object is really primary. Charon is so large compared to Pluto, and so close, that the center of mass is between the two instead of within Pluto. The two objects dance around each other rather than one really orbiting around the other. E.G., For the Earth/Moon, the barycenter is within the Earth. The barycenter of the Sun/Earth is within the Sun.

Also, Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical and at a considerable angle to the ecliptic, the approximate plane of the other planets' orbits. It also dips within the orbit of Neptune for part of its orbit.

I hope this helps.

My best to you. (Love your toons, BTW)

[gregcrawford]

11. Hey, thanks, Longship! I really appreciate that.

And I love learning something new, even at my advanced age. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.

My best to you as well!

[AlbertCat]

15. and nothing like electrons in an atom.

Electrons "orbit" in orbitals, not orbits.

[Duppers]

10. Ah, nope.

Last edited Fri Sep 18, 2015, 03:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Planets obit more or less in the same plane, within a few degrees, with the exception of Pluto, which you know is no longer considered a planet.

Why? Angular momentum.




http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/our-solar-system/57-our-solar-system/planets-and-dwarf-planets/orbits/242-why-do-all-the-planets-orbit-in-the-same-plane-intermediate


Just as the Milky Way does...




And the Universe? Yep...
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/174427-astrophysicists-create-the-first-accurate-map-of-the-universe-its-very-flat-and-probably-infinite

[gregcrawford]

4. EXCELLENT!

I loves all dat scientifical shit! No, seriously, the staggering dimensions of space are awesome to contemplate.

Well done!

[idahoblue]

9. Someone did this on our bike trail.

It was over half of my daily commute. I hope they do it again as it is gone after replacing.

[Vincardog]

12. IT would make a good science class project.

[progressoid]

21. We did something like it in my 9th grade Earth Science class.

But we scaled down to fit in a football field.

(My Dad taught the class)

[IHateTheGOP]

13. As Carl Sagan says in his book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors....

The universe is , almost entirely, black emptyness, and yet the number of suns is staggering.

[gvstn]

14. Thanks so much for this.

It wasn't perfect about showing how big space is,

I remember a movie where one of the astronauts doing some repair on their spaceship, lost their tether and started floating out into Space. That is when you realize how big and cold space really is. It is both terrifying and mind-boggling.

[Thespian2]

16. Excellent

Thank you...

[Jack Rabbit]

17. Thank you

K/R

I remember having a conversation with my dad when I was child. Altho0ugh he was only a high school graduate, he was very well read on science. I asked him about how small one would have to make the Sun to make a scale model of the solar system that would fit inside a building. He kept answering me with distances that were unimaginably long the smaller I made the Sun. By the time I asked where Pluto would be if the Sun were the size of an atom in the living room, he told me Pluto would be about the end of the block.

I though about that discussion as I watched this.

[Half-Century Man]

18. The way to end wars.

Pack the combatants on a ship and show them our blue marble, from near lunar orbit.











This is the reason science scares fundamentalists, We actually are that insignificant.
Would we hear the complaints of a single bacteria on one grain of sand in the Sahara?

[fasttense]

20. A religious fundamentalist is afraid of their own insignificance

That's a good way of putting it.

It takes a bucket load of arrogance to think you are a concern of the universe.

[lillypaddle]

19. Staggering

That's a good word.