Maine Completes Largest To-Scale Solar System Model

Neophytus writes "The University of Maine has now almost completed its solar system model, to be unveiled officially on the June 14th at Westfield. The final planet, Uranus, will be set in place on the 13th. At forty miles from Pluto to The Sun and built to a scale of 1:93,000,000, it will be the largest three-dimensional scale model of the Solar System in North America."

Uh, I think God has them beat

We're in the largest to scale model of the solar system.

Shows why "to scale" isn't always best.

The most obvius problem with building this scall model seams to be that the Sun isn't actualy a Ball.

Seriusly. I think other "partialy to scale" modelsarebetter for the simple reason that if you get the reletive sizes of all the planets right but ignore the actual distance betwean them you enable people to look over the whole thing.

As is it looks like they streached the scale large enogh so someone won't literaly poket mercury andthus ended up with acrane to lift saturn and a sun that isn't all there.

three-dimensional?

Given that the solar system isn't all in the same plane, it'd be quite a trick to make a three-dimensional model stay on the Earth's surface (even ignoring curvature). Or are they not tracing out orbits, but instead picking a point on the orbits where the planets happen to be collinear?

Re:three-dimensional?

collinear or coplanar?

The real Solar System is close to coplanar. At this scale, Pluto might be the only one where you'd notice the difference.

It looks like they're laying everything out in a single line rather than faithfully reflecting current orbital positions. Which makes sense -- would you like to have the job of moving Mercury? An illusion of collinearity is a good compromise compared to trying to build a 40-mile wide orrery.

The world's largest model...

...is located in Sweden [astro.su.se].

Here's another huge solar system model...

This one is headquartered at Peoria, IL. [bradley.edu]. I don't think this one is in 3d.

And NASA Announced...

...that it will be using this new scale model to test launch paths for future probes to other planets. A NASA engineering demonstrated by spreading out his arms and making airplane noises while running towards Mars.

Re:And NASA Announced...

...later, when he re-awoke after running face first into Mars, he grogily told reporters that "This new fangled metric system got me confused."

Placing Neptune in a dangerous area!

Well, if you look at the picture mentioned with the guys in the back of the pickup, it is to be hoped that neptune is not being situated too far from the ecliptic.

After all, have you noticed the dirty-great big power lines just above them??

Also, if this is to scale, exactly how big are real solar power-lines?

Its late, I'm drunk, I should put my sense of humor to sleep......

Sun model

When they're done, they'll be mighty proud of themselves, so they'll light up a big BBQ at the center of the model, where the sun should be, and they'll grill models of invading alien motherships in the form of hamburger patties.

Seems odd

"That Earth is located at Percy's Auto Sales (1.0 mile from Sun)..."

(Percy's must have pretty damn good air-conditioning)..

A Description of The Solar System Model

Aroostook County, in Northern Maine, is building a 40-mile long scale model of the solar system, at a scale of 1 mile equaling the distance from earth to sun. The model extends along Route 1, between the University of Maine at Presque Isle campus and the Houlton Information Center at the end of I-95. The model has ten major components, those being the sun and the nine planets from Mercury to Pluto, with moons for Earth, Saturn, Jupiter (4) and Pluto.

The model serves as an educational resource and tourist attraction. It will also draw attention to Northern Maine, the university at Presque Isle, and the Northern Maine Museum of Science located there. All planets except Pluto would be visible from the road. Educational information on the planets would be found in the brochure, available at various places along Rt. 1. The small models are mounted on tall - ten foot high above ground level - posts to be viewed from the car, with the planets included within a 1-foot diameter semicircular structure to better show the tilt of the planets.

The planets are exhibited as three-dimensional models. The two largest planetary models (Jupiter and Saturn, measuring 4-5 feet across) and the two mid-sized planets (Uranus and Neptune, measuring 21-22 inches) require rather substantial monuments. However, there is local precedent and experience for models of this size, as both Presque Isle and Caribou have built large, permanent, monuments commemorating the first two balloon crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. These include models of the balloon envelopes that are larger in size than the envisioned planets. These models were constructed largely by local technical and high schools and funded by local service organizations. The solar system model requires a similar process in which local individuals and organizations take a direct role in construction and financing.

The last planet, Uranus, will be set on its base on June 13th. The formal unveiling of the Maine Solar System Model will happen at 1:00 on Saturday, June 14th 2003.

I think we ..

can beat this if we all get together.

I'm in Michigan -- I'll hang a basketball ("Jupiter") outside of my house.

Now, we need someone in New York state to be "Saturn", and someone in Minnesota to be "Mars".

Who's with me?

I don't remember this...

Uranus, will be set in place on the 13th

I don't recall agreeing to participate.

Fun and useful additions they could make

Add Ceres and some asteroids, to communicate just how empty an asteroid belt really is compared to the pictures in books and the depictions in sf films.

They didn't put Mars on Mars Hill. Probably for good reason, but it would have appealed to me.

Then something to explain that the nearest star is about 65,000 miles away on the same scale.

Gosh, that looks like a fun project.

Re:Fun and useful additions they could make

Then something to explain that the nearest star is about 65,000 miles away on the same scale.

My numbers say that'd actually be 256,800 miles to the nearest star...

4.3 light years, divided by the 1:93,000,000 scale, comes to 1.459 light-seconds, or 256K miles...

The shame is that the Moon is 251K away at apogee. If we wait for ti to drift a little farther away, we could put Proxima Centauri on the Moon.

Does anyone know if Proxima is coming towards us or running away? It could make our job easier or harder...

Until they...

make a moving model, it's yet another grand exercise in scale conversations, road trips and beer :).

Great...

One more thing to add to my scale model of the state of Maine.

Ithica's is bigger

I used to date this girl from Ithaca when I discovered their scale solar system. On their monuments they say the marker for Pluto is in Oahu, Hawaii. Seems to me that would be slightly larger than Maine's model.

Re:Ithi(a)ca's is bigger

After spending a few miserable years in ithaca, ny and staring at the "commons" walk for many a boring afternoon, I think your memories are escaping you. Pluto, is actually at the science center (somewhere on the "main road" route 13).
Ithaca's "carl sagan" walk is probably smaller than maines actually.

In fact the map [sciencenter.org] is available on the net, if you want to take a look..

-bloo

this is not a perfect model

the curvature of the surface of earth is greater than that of space.

Re:*yawn*

Obviously, Maine has a lot of issues, and feels inferior to Texas.

If someone ever wants to build a 40-mile radius solar system that has room to orbit the planets, many Texans could loan out their back yards.

take that earth

it would be really funny to paint your car up like a big rock and drive it at 7 mph (651,000,000 mph in scale) to simulate an asteroid collision at near light speed.

When is the Model

Presumably because the model is static it is a
snapshot of the planets orbits at particular
date (with a repeating interval).

Has someone predicted when the planets will be
next be the same as the model?

They have a big globe in Maine too

Maine also has the world's largest Revolving/Rotating Globe [delorme.com], 41 feet in diameter, at the DeLorme map company office. They make the state atlases that are based on topo maps (good for camping and stuff).

Somebody overdid Jupiter

Looking at the Jupiter [maine.edu] webpage, it appears that they got carried away with the paint job. The earlier layers of painted bands look more faithful to me, then somebody put a "tomato soup" coat on it, hiding the rather even banding that is found on the real thing. Plus, the real thing is mostly light-tan, not red. I have seen the real thing through small telescopes, and Nasa tends to increase the contrast and color of their photos to bring out detail. But even those photos don't have so much red. The Mars team had extra paint or something? :-)

Further, it appears the models are round, but the larger planets are noticably "flattened" due to centrifugal rotational force.

This just in...

A small black monolith has been spotted in the vicinity of the Jupiter model.

Researchers at the University of Maine had no comment.

And if you jog from the sun to the earth..

And it takes you 15 minutes, then you are walking
at a scale speed of .5C
If you run it in 8 minutes, then you would be exceeding the (scale) speed of light.

Driving from the sun the Pluto in 1 hour would
be an scale speed of 5C (Warp Factor 1.6?)

Interesting Article From Smithsonian

This article [smithsonianmag.com] from Smithsonian Magazine describes the Maine Solar System Model and the guy who put it all together, with a budget of $0. Everything from labor to the land to house the planets on was donated.

Think we can hire him to manage some Open Source projects for us? <grin>

My Scale Model

A few years back I made an aproximate scale model of the solar system to liven up a run, using the scale 1mm for 1000km. It ended up being around 3.5 miles long. Running along along it gives a good impression of how big and empty space really is. If you ever get the chance, check out one of the scale models. They really make you feel quite small.

Summary with Metric

Everyone except the US uses metric so here are some quick conversions:

University of Maine Model of Solar System scale 1 - 93,000,000 (93 mil miles = 149,668,992 km)

Sun Diameter: 50 ft (15.12 m)

Mercury Diameter: 2.1 inches. 0.4 mi. from Sun (.643 km)
Venus Diameter: 5.2 inches 0.7 mile from Sun (1.13km)
Earth Diameter: 5.5 inches 1 mile from sun - (1.609km)
Moon Diameter: 1.5" 16ft from earth
Mars Diameter: 2.9 inches 1.5 miles from Sun (3.9km)
Jupiter Diameter: 61.4 inches (5 feet)
* Location: 5.3 mile from Sun (8.5km)
* Moons:
o Io (diameter 1.6 inches, 182 inches [15+ feet] from Jupiter axis)
o Europa (diameter 1.3 inches, 289 inches [24+ feet] from Jupiter axis)
o Ganymede (diameter 2.3 inches, 461 inches [38+ feet] from Jupiter axis)
o Callisto (diameter 2.1 inches, 811 inches [67+ feet] from Jupiter axis)

Saturn Diameter: 51.9 inches
* Location: (9.7 miles from Sun)(15.6 km)
* Inner Ring Diameter 63 inches
* Outer Ring Diameter 117 inches (10 feet)
* Moon Titan (diameter 2.2 inches,526 inches [43+ feet] from Saturn axis)

Uranus Diameter: 22 inches
* Location: 19.5 miles from Sun (31.4km)

Neptune Diameter: 21.3 inches
* Location: 30.6 miles from Sun (49.25km)

Pluto Diameter: 1 inch
Location: 40 miles from Sun 64.4
* Moon Charon (diameter 0.5 inch, 8.5 inches from planet axis)

Simulations

Now I can take my dog and pretend it is "Space Gamora" coming to destroy the earth since everything is in scale now...

Re:Why?

if you bothered to read anything, instead of assuming, you would find they had a budget of exactly $0 from outside sources other than volunteers from the community.

Re:Why?

Education
Edification
Realization
Wonder

Until you heard about this, did you have any real sense of the size and scale of our solar system?

How about the rest of Slashdot?

How about for those building this thing?

How about for those who visit this thing?

Imagine how tedious it is to walk from the earth to Mars, and then scale that to interplanetary scales, not even taking into account periphelion and aphelion, and gravity slingshots and lagrange tubes.

I mean, are you going to similarly argue that museums that only display known things is worthless?

Re:What a fucking waste of time!

Couldn't these people do something more productive with their time?

You mean, they're idiots for building a scientific and educational piece of art, and you're NOT wasting your time by surfing the web on Saturday evening? :)

Re:Why?

11 Fun and Exciting Things To Do In Maine:
1) Eat $5.00 lobster right off the boat
2) Go camping, fishing, etc., without undertaking a major operation or spending hundreds of dollars
3) Swat mosquitoes
4) Swat blackflies
5) Laugh at tourists
6) Go down to Dunkin Donuts, listen to voluble roommate talk at someone for 5 minutes, get 2-syllable reply: "Ayyuh"
7) Go to Moody's Diner, eat walnut pie. Try to remember entire dialogue to Tim Sample's "Baked bean special at Moody's Diner" routine.
8) Go up north, see moose. They're really, really big.
9) Complain about the crayfish logo on the license plates.
10) Make obscene snow sculptures
11) Ah, that first day of spring!

5 Unique Entertaining Features of the University of Maine:
1) North America's largest scale model of the solar system
2) A really ugly hockey arena (Orono camous)
3) Free education for Passamaquody, Micmac and Penobscot Indians
4) Entertainingly eccentric professors (this may not be unique)
5) Has a Sea Grant campus

All right, so these are not the most exciting or leading-edge things you could think of. So what. Maine is a place for people who don't need the more sophisticated features of, say, California. I lived there for about 9 years, and loved it, even the winters (at least the first 5 or 6 months of them).

As for the model, I completely disagree. This is a really cool idea. The planet models are large enough to see and get a feel for, and the fact that they stretch out over 40 miles along Route 1 points out just how far apart everything is. You'd have to be pretty unromantic not to like this. Imagine being a kid and coming across this and being turned on by it and becoming a scientist because of it. That's what it's all about.

Here in Petaluma, CA, someone recently made a planetary model by drawing the planets on the sidewalk with magic markers over a 6 or 7 block distance. It's not really to scale - each planet is a couple inches in diameter - but it's fun to walk downtown following it (it starts right by my house). I wouldn't mind having something like this, hanging from the phone poles, though.