Nano Solar System: For a few months now, I've had an idea kicking around my head for a one-billionth scale model of the solar system, a nano-solar system, if you will. Searching around the web, I found a link to a page called Interstellar Scale with the same idea, and a handy table at the bottom with the scale sizes of everything. Earth is about 1/2 inch across, Pluto is almost four miles from the sun. I am drumming up support to build such a model in Seattle, with the sun located in some prominent place, and the planets in schools or public buildings at an appropriate distance from the sun. This would be useful as an education tool and to give children and adults a sense of the awesome size of space. Seeing how tiny Earth is compared to the sun and the distance between will counter the impression left by most science fiction movies that everything is close together and easily travelled to.
Posted by awm at July 5, 2002 04:33 PM