Give students a primer on the size of planets and distances in the solar system, providing examples from the Background section above. For example, Mars is 1.5 au from the Sun and Neptune is 30 au from the Sun. This allows scientists to describe distances using smaller relatable numbers rather than tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions of kilometers. One au is equal to the average distance between the Sun and Earth, about 150 million kilometers. Some just a few blocks long, but the largest, in Sweden, stretches more than 140 miles!īecause the distances between planets are so great, astronomers sometimes describe distances in terms of astronomical units (au). There are scale solar systems all over the world. An accurate size and distance scale model in which Mercury, the smallest planet, is 1 mm across would require about half a mile to properly display the distance from the Sun to Neptune. Some scale models show just scale distances, some show just scale planet sizes, while some display both. Because of the great distances between planets and the planets’ relatively small sizes compared to those distances, it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to create a visual representation on a computer screen or the page of a book that accurately represents the size of the planets and the distances between them.Ī scale model – a model with sizes and distances proportionally reduced or enlarged – is a great way to correctly display the size of and distance between planets, giving students a better visual representation of the solar system than they could otherwise get from an image in a book or on a computer. Even traveling at the speed of light, it would take about four hours to get from the Sun to Neptune – a distance of about 2.8 billion miles. The solar system is huge! And that’s an understatement. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image In this artist's rendering, the planets are shown orbiting the Sun, however, the size of the planets, their distance from each other, and the shape and inclination of their orbits are not-to-scale.
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