Solar_System_model - Wikiparency

# Solar System model  **Microsim — three.js (Wikitube framework):** *Distances at true scale (Solar System explorer)* <div class="wt-sim" data-src="https://wikitube-3d-microsims.netlify.app/solar/Solar_System.html?view=scale&embed=1" data-title="Distances at true scale (Solar System explorer)"></div> *The Solar System explorer locked on this article's state (`?view=scale`); every object and population of the [[PORTAL_Solar_System|Solar System portal]] has its own state in the same scene.*  *Try: press l to label the planets and scroll in toward the Sun until Earth's orbit fills the view, then scroll back out to Neptune and see how the inner planets crowd into a speck at the centre; drag the view to look along the plane; set the speed to paused to hold the planets still while comparing the spacing of their orbits.* A **Solar System model** is a physical or virtual representation of the [[PORTAL_Solar_System|Solar System]], built to show the relative sizes, distances or motions of the [[Sun]] and planets. Mechanical models called orreries, which turn the planets around the Sun at their relative speeds, have been made for centuries, but they are almost never to scale in size or distance. The difficulty is the emptiness of the system: the distance from [[Earth]] to the Sun is about 11,700 times Earth's diameter (derived), so a model with planets large enough to see needs kilometres of ground.[^nasa-fs] Many towns and institutions have therefore laid out true-scale models along streets, trails and highways, with the Sun and planets as sculptures or markers at scaled distances.[^swedensolar][^mainesolar] The explorer at the top of this page shows the same system at true scale in distance. At that scale light, travelling at 299,792.458 km/s, takes about 8.3 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun, 43 minutes to reach [[Jupiter]] and 4.2 hours to reach [[Neptune]] (derived).[^bipm2019][^nasa-fs] ## Permanent true scale models A true-scale model divides every size and distance by the same factor, so its scale sets everything else. At 1:20,000,000 the [[Sun]] is a sphere about 70 m across and [[Earth]] a ball of 64 cm, 7.5 km away; at 1:1,000,000,000 the Sun shrinks to 1.4 m, Earth to 1.3 cm, and the distance between them to 150 m (derived).[^nasa-sun][^nasa-fs] Choosing a scale is a trade between planets big enough to find and a model small enough to walk, cycle or drive. The largest is the Sweden Solar System, begun in 1998, which uses the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, a spherical building about 71 m across, as its Sun at a scale of about 1:20,000,000; its planets and outer bodies are spread across the country, and Pluto's marker stands about 300 km from Stockholm.[^swedensolar] The Maine Solar System Model, completed in 2003 around Presque Isle in Aroostook County, uses a scale of 1:93,000,000, so that one mile in the model stands for one [[Astronomical_unit|astronomical unit]]; its Earth is about 14 cm across and 1.6 km from the Sun (derived).[^mainesolar][^bayly2021] At 1:1,000,000,000, a scale adopted by many walking and cycling trails, the Melbourne model on the St Kilda foreshore places [[Pluto]] about 5.9 km from its Sun and marks the nearest star, [[Alpha_Centauri|Proxima Centauri]], by a scaled distance of about 40,000 km, a trip around the Earth via the poles.[^stkilda] The Voyage model on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built at 1:10,000,000,000, puts the whole planetary system within a walk of about 600 m: its Sun is about 14 cm across, and Earth is a speck just over a millimetre wide some 15 m away (derived).[^nasa-voyage] Copies of it have been installed elsewhere.[^bennett2020] | Model | Scale | Sun diameter | Earth diameter | Sun–Earth | Sun–Pluto | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Sweden Solar System | 1:20,000,000 | 70 m | 64 cm | 7.5 km | 295 km | | Maine Solar System | 1:93,000,000 | 15 m | 13.7 cm | 1.6 km | 64 km | | Melbourne (St Kilda) | 1:1,000,000,000 | 1.4 m | 1.3 cm | 150 m | 5.9 km | | Voyage, Washington | 1:10,000,000,000 | 14 cm | 1.3 mm | 15 m | 590 m | Sizes and distances in the table are computed from each model's stated scale and NASA's mean values for the Sun's and Earth's diameters and the mean distances of Earth and Pluto from the Sun; individual installations round them differently.[^nasa-sun][^nasa-fs] ## Other models of the Solar System: historic, temporary, virtual, or dual-scale Not every model keeps a single scale or stays in place. The planetarium that Eise Eisinga built into the ceiling of his house in Franeker in the 1770s is a working orrery, with the planets to [[Saturn]] turned by clockwork at their true relative speeds; it is scaled in time rather than in distance, and a later monument in Visvliet, a village where he lived, reproduces the planets to Saturn at about 1:870,000,000.[^visvliet] Some public models have been temporary. The Boston Museum of Science's Community Solar System Trail, established in 1997 at about 1:400,000,000, placed bronze planets in public buildings, with a [[Jupiter]] about 36 cm across (derived) in the South Station waiting hall some 2 km from the model Sun at the museum; it was removed in 2015.[^medium2021] Other models use two scales, one for size and a smaller one for distance, so that the planets stay visible without the trail becoming too long; this makes the gaps look smaller than they are.[^avaruuspuisto] The simplest models need no installation. Guy Ottewell's Thousand-Yard Model, at 1:6,336,000,000 (one inch to 100,000 miles), turns the Earth into a peppercorn about 24 m from a Sun some 22 cm across, with Pluto about 930 m away (derived), and is meant to be paced out by a class with everyday objects.[^ottewell][^noirlab] Virtual models, including the explorer on this page, can show the true scale by zooming: at true distance scale the planets themselves are too small to see, which is why the explorer's planets are drawn larger than scale while their orbits are placed from JPL elements.[^jpl-t1] ## See also - [[Astronomical_unit]] - [[Kepler's_laws_of_planetary_motion]] - [[Planetary_system]] - Orrery · Numerical model of the Solar System (plain text: not yet on Wikitube) ## References [^nasa-fs]: NASA NSSDCA. "Planetary Fact Sheet". https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ (fetched 2026-09-18). [^nasa-sun]: NASA NSSDCA. "Sun Fact Sheet". https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html (fetched 2026-09-18). [^bipm2019]: Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (2019). *The International System of Units (SI)*, 9th ed. (speed of light in vacuum fixed at 299,792,458 m/s). https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure [^jpl-t1]: JPL Solar System Dynamics. "Approximate Positions of the Planets", Table 1. https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/approx_pos.html [^swedensolar]: Sweden Solar System. https://www.swedensolarsystem.se/ [^mainesolar]: Maine Solar System Model. https://www.mainesolarsystem.com/ [^bayly2021]: Bayly, J. (18 August 2021). "Here's how you can visit the solar system in Maine, no rocket ship required". *Bangor Daily News*. http://www.bangordailynews.com/2021/08/18/homestead/heres-how-you-can-visit-the-solar-system-in-maine-no-rocket-ship-required/ [^stkilda]: City of Port Phillip. "Solar system trail" (self-guided trail leaflet). https://stkildamelbourne.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Solar_System_Self_Guided_Trail_web_friendly.pdf [^nasa-voyage]: NASA Solar System Exploration (27 November 2017). "The Voyage scale model Solar System". https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/365/the-voyage-scale-model-solar-system [^bennett2020]: Bennett, J. (2020). "Voyage Mark II — Scale model solar systems at moderate prices". *American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts* 235: 239.06. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020AAS...23523906B [^visvliet]: "Eise Eisinga Visvliet". https://eiseeisinga.visvliet.com/ [^medium2021]: Marquez Dulcey, S. (15 August 2021). "Greater Boston used to have a scale model of the Solar System". *Medium*. https://medium.com/@shirleymarquezdulcey/greater-boston-used-to-have-a-scale-model-of-the-solar-system-that-was-sponsored-by-the-museum-of-d3206fc12337 [^avaruuspuisto]: Avaruuspuisto. "Kierrokset" (Aurinkokuntapolku, Piikkiö). https://www.avaruuspuisto.fi/kierrokset/kierrokset-yleiso/ [^ottewell]: Ottewell, G. "The Thousand-Yard Model, or, The Earth as a Peppercorn". Universal Workshop. http://www.universalworkshop.com/guy-ottewell/the-thousand-yard-model-or-the-earth-as-a-peppercorn/ [^noirlab]: NOIRLab. "The Thousand-Yard Model, or, The Earth as a Peppercorn". https://noirlab.edu/public/products/educational-programs/eduprog032/ ## External links - NASA Solar System Exploration: The Voyage scale model Solar System. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/365/the-voyage-scale-model-solar-system - NOIRLab: The Thousand-Yard Model. https://noirlab.edu/public/products/educational-programs/eduprog032/ - Sweden Solar System. https://www.swedensolarsystem.se/ - NASA NSSDCA Planetary Fact Sheet. https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ ## Wikipedia : Wikitube **Strict pair:** [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model) : [Wikitube](https://en.wikitube.io/wiki/Solar_System_model) · pinned revision [1365200512](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1365200512) · 2026-09-18 ## Previous hub tags Hubs: `Life_Physics`. Portals: [[PORTAL_Solar_System]]. --- *Solar System portal child articles, wave 1 · 2026-09-18 · drafted · row SOL-043 · explorer state `?view=scale`.*