This amazing scale model of the solar system turns an empty desert into the vastness of space
We often read about solar system in our textbooks as many planets forming a path in concentric circles around the Sun. We have also learnt that the distance between each planets isn't as close to what we see in the tiny diagrams but it's difficult to understand that actual dimensions from a diagram. So Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh along with a few other friends decided to create a working model, in a 7-mile radius at a dry lakebed in Nevada. Overstreet, Gorosh and his friends placed each planet at a relative distance of 1 astronomical unit per 176 meters. Each planet has its own color, illuminated by LED lights, and the orbit has been marked with lines in the dirt.
As the sun goes down, the planets look like tiny flickering lights in a huge empty place. The 7-mile desert bed almost makes it look negligible because Earth and similar size planets are extremely tiny in comparison to the entire solar system's diameter. The time-lapse video of tiny lights orbiting around its path give a perfect idea of how planets actually revolve around the sun. The entire model has been demonstrated in their project called To Scale: The Solar System, as shown in their video.