Scale of the Solar System
One of the favourite challenges faced by astronomy teachers is to try and explain to an audience how big the Solar System actually is. Space is vast on a scale that the human mind simply cannot accept. It’s impossible for anybody to really fully understand the distances involved, in the way that we grasp the scale of something like our home town. Nevertheless, if we can get across some sense of things then we can help people to understand many ideas more easily. Knowing the size of the Solar System means that we aren’t surprised at the long travel times for space missions, and it helps us understand why certain popular hoaxes (Photographs of Nibiru, anybody?) are so laughably wrong.
The latest attempt is actually quite succesful. Produced by Karl Tate of Space.com, it’s a simple diagram showing the orbits of the most significant objects in the Solar System, with a number of inserts showing the sizes of many of these bodies. Have a look at the image below, and start scrolling…
The latest attempt is actually quite succesful. Produced by Karl Tate of Space.com, it’s a simple diagram showing the orbits of the most significant objects in the Solar System, with a number of inserts showing the sizes of many of these bodies. Have a look at the image below, and start scrolling…
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration