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Space Education Science

Maine Completes Largest To-Scale Solar System Model 211

Posted by timothy from the can't-get-theayah-from-heayah dept.
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."
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Maine Completes Largest To-Scale Solar System Model More

Maine Completes Largest To-Scale Solar System Model

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  • Uh, I think God has them beat (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:00PM (#6140225)
    We're in the largest to scale model of the solar system.

  • three-dimensional? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Trepidity ( 597 ) <delirium-slashdot@NoSpAm.hackish.org> on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:01PM (#6140227)
    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?
    • It looks like the area they used has hills in the right places.(Mars Hill on their map gives me this thought)

    • Re:three-dimensional? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:30PM (#6140342) Journal
      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.

      • Yeah, but the orrery would be real cool. Heh, imagine the traffic reports: "inbound traffic on the highway blocked this morning because pluto is crossing. Commuters are advised to take a detour."

      • 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.

        All that have to do is say "this is a snapshot of the solar system during the Harmonic Convergence" and it's all taken care of.
      • Actually, they just drove south down Highway 1 from Presque Isle and, when they get to (say) the scale location of Saturn, negotiated with whoever owns the property to get the rights to put up the planet.

        I understand that Earth is in a car dealership's lot and Pluto is on the wall of a tourist information center, or some such.

  • The world's largest model... (Score:5, Informative)

    by neonstz ( 79215 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:01PM (#6140228) Homepage
    ...is located in Sweden [astro.su.se].
  • I guess they have room for something like that.

  • Here's another huge solar system model... (Score:4, Informative)

    by $$$$$exyGal ( 638164 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:03PM (#6140237) Homepage Journal
    This one is headquartered at Peoria, IL. [bradley.edu]. I don't think this one is in 3d.
  • in the list of roadside americana, along with carhenge [geocities.com]

    and also, unfortunately, soon to have some it's planets ripped off and mounted in dorm rooms ;-(

  • And NASA Announced... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quaoar ( 614366 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:06PM (#6140246)
    ...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.
  • What's up with the obvious cutout lines in the Neptune picture on the front page? Looks like maybe they wanted to lighten the picture up a little, but in that case, why not lighten up the whole thing rather than just the cutout?

    • Placing Neptune in a dangerous area! (Score:4, Funny)

      by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:33PM (#6140352) Homepage
      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 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:09PM (#6140261)
    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.
  • This latest project makes me wonder how many scale solor system models there are. I walked past Jupiter everytime I entered the library of the campus of Bradley University. The neatest part was that the sun was represented by the local planetarium.

    Guess they are going to have to change the heading on their website.

    Bradley's Solar System [bradley.edu]

    • I don't think they're the largest TO SCALE model. There's quite a difference.
      • The impression I get is that they're both to scale. And they're both 40 miles from the Sun to Pluto. But the Maine one is 1:93,000,000 and the Lakeview one is 1:140,000,000. (remember the orbits are elliptical, so they can both be 40 miles across and to different scales.) So technically the Maine one is "bigger" - ie: the size of the planets, etc will be a bit bigger.
  • The Solar System model is now featured on Sla... ERROR.

  • Seems odd (Score:5, Funny)

    by Enraged_jawa ( 641736 ) * on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:14PM (#6140282)
    "That Earth is located at Percy's Auto Sales (1.0 mile from Sun)..."

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

    • Re:Seems odd (Score:2, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )
      That Earth is located at Percy's Auto Sales

      I went to the Saturn and Mercury Dealership in Maine, but they had no planets for sale, filthy liars!
  • I apologize in advance, but, Huh, huh, huh, they said Checking the progress of Uranus" [maine.edu].

  • A Description of The Solar System Model (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:16PM (#6140293)
    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 .. (Score:3, Funny)

    by hygelic ( 181078 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:20PM (#6140311)
    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... (Score:4, Funny)

    by writermike ( 57327 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:20PM (#6140315)
    Uranus, will be set in place on the 13th

    I don't recall agreeing to participate.

  • Looking at the photos of the planets mounted in their locations such as "Percy's Auto Sales" and the "Budget Traveler Motor Inn (0.7 mile from Sun)", all I could think about was Cadillac Ranch [roadsideamerica.com] and other roadside attractions [roadsideamerica.com].

  • Fun and useful additions they could make (Score:5, Informative)

    by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:25PM (#6140328) Journal
    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 (Score:5, Informative)

      by KFury ( 19522 ) * on Saturday June 07, 2003 @07:09PM (#6140474) Homepage
      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...
    • Add Ceres and some asteroids, to communicate just how empty an asteroid belt really is

      They didn't have the budget for asteroids, so they just throw gravel at passing cars instead.

  • Until they... (Score:4, Funny)

    by efuseekay ( 138418 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:28PM (#6140334)
    make a moving model, it's yet another grand exercise in scale conversations, road trips and beer :).

  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:32PM (#6140349)
    One more thing to add to my scale model of the state of Maine.

  • Ithica's is bigger (Score:5, Interesting)

    by spooje ( 582773 ) <spooje.hotmail@com> on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:35PM (#6140359) Homepage
    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 (Score:5, Informative)

      by bloosqr ( 33593 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:50PM (#6140401) Homepage
      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

    • Re:Ithica's is bigger (Score:3, Informative)

      by BTWR ( 540147 )
      As an astro minor at cornell, I know exactly what your ex's mistake was.

      The Ithaca model (proposed by Carl Sagan, a Cornell astro professor) has the Sun and inner planets in the center of the town (The Ithaca Commons), and yes, like someone else said, Pluto is in fact located in the area.

      The marker in Hawaii is actually Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system (at 4 light-years distance). Most people would simply pass by this monument, but Sagan, in all his genius, realized that for the thou
  • They forgot Planet X!!!
    • They forgot Planet X!!!

      Conversely, depending on your current beliefs on the state of the Solar System, "What the hell is Pluto doing in there?"
    • --Actually I won't consider this "finished" until they get *all* the moons in place for the various planets. A new moon was discovered only a few months ago.

  • this is not a perfect model (Score:3, Funny)

    by the_2nd_coming ( 444906 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:37PM (#6140364) Homepage
    the curvature of the surface of earth is greater than that of space.
  • Man, they really wussied out on the sun [maine.edu]. It's just a two-dimensional arch. I want to see a fifty-foot ball of fire, godammit!

    Strangely enough, the world's largest rotating globe [delorme.com] is also in Maine. It is far more impressive.

    • Re:*yawn* (Score:4, Funny)

      by Pooua ( 265915 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:51PM (#6140405) Homepage
      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.

      • 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.

        True... but then if you wanted to see it, you'd be forced to visit Texas.

      • Like the old joke says, what happens if you split Alaska into 2 even pieces? Texas becomes the 3rd largest state in the union.
      • Oz used to have three cattle stations each bigger than Texas. You can fit seven Texases into Western Australia without overlaps, bending, folding or cutting. Japanese tourists still jump into Perth taxis and ask to go (~3000km) to Sydney. Perhaps we could model the local cluster here. Are we done with the state envy yet? (-:
  • Another scale model of the solar system is at Boston Massachusetts Museum of Science and nearby suburbs.

    Documented here [periodic-kingdom.org] it is described in the official exhibit guide [mos.org] as being scaled 6,215 miles per inch (helpfully translated by the 1st site as a 1-to-400 million scale model (1 inch equals 10,000 km)). The planets are all conveniently located in public places reasonably easily reached by public transportation or for the more hardy by bicycle.

  • take that earth (Score:5, Funny)

    by sstory ( 538486 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:54PM (#6140417) Homepage
    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.
    • 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.

      There are enough such simulations already, minus the rock exterior.

  • When is the Model (Score:4, Interesting)

    by The_Spide ( 571686 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @06:54PM (#6140420)
    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 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tiltowait ( 306189 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @07:00PM (#6140438) Homepage Journal
    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).
  • The largest scale model I've personally seen was the one on the Mall in Washington, DC. It's pretty piddly compared to this one, but it was still the neatest part of my entire trip there. It's got the advantage of all being within the bounds of a very reasonable walk.
  • With recent, excessive, and pervasive corporate sponorship, Earth shall henceforce be known as Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge, Jeep Earth.

    Earth [maine.edu]

  • Somebody overdid Jupiter (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @07:26PM (#6140530) Journal
    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... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SVDave ( 231875 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @07:31PM (#6140557)
    A small black monolith has been spotted in the vicinity of the Jupiter model.

    Researchers at the University of Maine had no comment.
    • > A small black monolith has been spotted in the vicinity of the Jupiter model.

      Oh man! Somebody in Maine PLEASE you must put a monolith near the Jupiter model.


  • We are going to Maine for summer vacation !!

  • ...are they going to move it in real time?
  • Build a to-scale *working* model, and I'll be impressed.

    "Hit the brakes, Barney!"
    (Screech! Wooooosh!)
    "May goodnes, Betty! Was that a UFO?"
    "I think it was a scale model of Saturn, Barney."
    (Ping! Tap! Tick!)
    "Ah... Trojan asteroids..."

  • ...They've modeled their solar system with everything revolving around the Sun when it's quite obvious all the planets and moons revolve around ME...
  • This is yet another splendid opportunity for education in metric units lost. I imagine there will be information boards in front of each planet giving the weight in ounces and the volume in gallons. When will the USA catch up with international standards?

    But seriously though, a much better place to do this is in the Australian outback. We have enough room for it, and we even have enough room to mount the planets on vehicles and drive them around at the right speed without running into anything. In fact, th
  • ...if they took the curvature of the earth over those 40 miles into account in the z-axis of the setup. Or even if inclination of the orbitplanes is taken into account at all.
  • Checking the progress of Uranus

    using a mirror?
  • Did anyone else half expect to get a goatse link when clicking on the Uranus link? Damn Slashdot conditioning... ;)

  • And if you jog from the sun to the earth.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by starman97 ( 29863 ) on Saturday June 07, 2003 @10:22PM (#6141152)
    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?)

  • *SIGH* (Score:2, Funny)

    by $0 31337 ( 225572 )
    Living in Maine and actually working for the University of Maine system, I can guarantee that at least one of the planets will be knocked down via 12 gauge by the end of the week.

  • Interesting Article From Smithsonian (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Our Man In Redmond ( 63094 ) on Sunday June 08, 2003 @12:48AM (#6141590)
    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 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by nrlightfoot ( 607666 ) on Sunday June 08, 2003 @01:15AM (#6141666) Homepage
    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 (Score:3, Informative)

    by frank249 ( 100528 ) on Sunday June 08, 2003 @07:40AM (#6142358)
    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)
  • What if someone wants to extend a road through Percy's Auto Sales? They'd have to demolish Earth. Oh I'm sure the plans will be made available, but at this scale Alpha Centauri is 280,000 miles away - just on the other side of the moon. But if we cant be bothered going there and lodging a complaint I'm sure that the highway will be built without much complaint.

  • Simulations (Score:3, Funny)

    by Herkum01 ( 592704 ) on Sunday June 08, 2003 @10:28AM (#6143109)
    Now I can take my dog and pretend it is "Space Gamora" coming to destroy the earth since everything is in scale now...
  • Take a look at what they are a calling a three dimensional model of the sun [maine.edu]. To me it looks very much like a two dimensional model of a section of the the Golden Arches [mcdonalds.com].

    If this were to really be a 3d model, shouldn't the sun be sphere instead of an arch?

  • Last year I was biking on the Mall in front of the Air and Space museum and stumbled upon their model. It's stretched out along the road in front of Air and Space, the Hirshhorn, and the castle. Much smaller scale than Maine's model, of course, but still mind-blowing. Each planet was represented by a tiny round blip on a metal plaque. Comparing those blips to the dozens of yards of open space between them really brought the whole solar system into perspective.

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