Slashdot Mirror
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."
We're in the largest to scale model of the solar system.
Why? Sure, I could make a 40 mile scale model of the solar system, but I have to ask, why?
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?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
...is located in Sweden.
thats a pretty large uranus..
moo
I guess they have room for something like that.
This one is headquartered at Peoria, IL.. I don't think this one is in 3d.
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
I hear some of the hottest models are located there, too.
in the list of roadside americana, along with carhenge
;-(
and also, unfortunately, soon to have some it's planets ripped off and mounted in dorm rooms
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
...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.
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
"it will be the largest three-dimensional scale model of the Solar System in North America."
Cool! I think I will get in my car, which happens to be the fastest black car on my block with four wheel drive, and go check it out!
If you had said "Uranus is pretty large!"
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?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
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.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
If the planets were to scale gravitationally, too. Of course, Earth's gravity would still be there... but one thing at a time.
Guess they are going to have to change the heading on their website.
Bradley's Solar System
The Solar System model is now featured on Sla... ERROR.
let me guess, that burining ball in the middle is the sun... no wait, its their webserver.
-
"That Earth is located at Percy's Auto Sales (1.0 mile from Sun)..."
(Percy's must have pretty damn good air-conditioning)..
I apologize in advance, but, Huh, huh, huh, they said Checking the progress of Uranus".
If you don't have something nice to sig, then don't sig anything at all.
This fine joke is here, already posted by someone with more imagination.
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.
It's called the ecliptic.
I mean, are they going to issue a warning before starting this thing up?
What a shock it might be to see Uranus flash before your eyes as you drive up I-95.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
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?
look we slashdotted the solar system...
a beowulf cluster.. or is that possible worlds theory
does the solar system run linux?
The solar system, found dead today, aged 49billion years... a great tradgedy.. it will surely be missed.
-
Uranus, will be set in place on the 13th
I don't recall agreeing to participate.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Sun Microsystems announced today that they are sueing the University of Maine for illegal use of their trademark "Sun." Mike Johannsen, a member of Sun's legal counsel, stated that "the University's use of our trademark is confusing to the marketplace" and that they "should take immediate action to rename the Sun model." Alternate names suggested include "Sol," "Yellow Star at the Middle," and "The Celestial Body Formerly Known as The Sun."
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 and other roadside attractions.
-1:redundant
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.
make a moving model, it's yet another grand exercise in scale conversations, road trips and beer :).
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
One more thing to add to my scale model of the state of Maine.
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......
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
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.
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
They forgot Planet X!!!
the curvature of the surface of earth is greater than that of space.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Clearly Uranus is much bigger than our, ah, ...never mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
Hm... I don't think it's a 3d scale model. All the planets except Pluto are all coplanar. Unfortunately, from the pictures on the site, all the planets seem to be an equal distance off the ground... but did they take into account the Earth's curvature? If not, then in reality all the model planets are not coplanar and therefore not a 3d scale (2d maybe). Right now the scale is treating the curvature of the Earth as a flat plane and that's not right.
Man, they really wussied out on the sun. 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 is also in Maine. It is far more impressive.
Documented here it is described in the official exhibit guide 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.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
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 is available on the net, if you want to take a look..
-bloo
A 93,000,000:1 scale replica of a turd?
Hopefully Linux will beat them to it.
-- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
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.
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?
That's now claimed the spot for coolest scientific oriented model that I've seen. It moves the San Francisco Bay model down to the number two spot.
Now I just need to find number three...
Maine also has the world's largest Revolving/Rotating Globe, 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).
Only one planet, Uranus remains. We hope to have Uranus up in the Spring.
How can you not laugh
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
AutoCad comes with a 1:1 scale drawing of the solar system. It's pretty cool. After opening it, you see the whole system with circles drawn for the planet orbits. You can turn the orbit layer off and then you can see these tiny specks. Once you start zooming in on the earth, you realize the speck is NOT earth, it's a circle for the orbit of the moon. It's a 2-D drawing... I've always wanted to do a 3-D version.
Like diddle themselves with a pork chop? I'm sorry my friend, but you have that base well-covered.
...and to think some of them got a grant or scholarship to study ...whose money is being spent for this absolutely ridiculous project anyway????
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.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Looking at the Jupiter 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.
Table-ized A.I.
â¦with a scale model of the human bowel.
As someone has already pointed out, your memory misleads you... As I recall, in Ithaca's model the four inner planets are all within the Commons, so its Earth is less than a hundred feet from its Sun--nothing like one mile. Though I don't know where Pluto was in that model I walked from the Commons all the way out past Uranus, so unless something's grievously wrong with the scale I think Hawaii is out of the question.
Also, comparing the two: Ithaca's isn't three-dimensional, as the models are round plexiglass windows in stone gravestone-looking things (or rather little dots on those windows).
A small black monolith has been spotted in the vicinity of the Jupiter model.
Researchers at the University of Maine had no comment.
We are going to Maine for summer vacation !!
...are they going to move it in real time?
The coolest voice ever.
It appears that they are using 1/4 of a metal hoop as their Sun.
t m
http://www.umpi.maine.edu/info/nmms/solar/sun.h
Yeah, you know UMaine Presque Isle is just filled with rich scholarship boys.
"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..."
--- Ban humanity.
...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...
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
Kansas is also in the solar system scale model business. As if we needed another reason to visit the Walmart in Hays, it's the proposed site for the planet Mercury.
r s. html
http://www.fhsu.edu/Leader/2001/050401/news/sta
Somewhat offtopic, but what's the deal with this picture:
S olarSysNeptune04.jpg
http://www.umpi.maine.edu/info/nmms/solar/images/
Thats an odd way to fix the colors...
Yep. Miles and miles of distance separates Sun from its custom- er, planets, with Sun thinking it knows how much, uh, flux they want, versus what they really do want.
They forgot to include the binary star system RedHat & IBM which swoops in oftener than not and picks off the planets one by one.
Motorists and pedestrians in the vincinity of Presque Isle, Maine are warned to use caution and to observe all roadway warning signs. ("Jupiter Crossing", "Do Not Drive Into Rings", "Beware of Mars", etc.)
The sun should be pretty safe. It would be ~45ft in diameter, but it would just rotate and emit ~500 watts. (4*10^26W/((1/93,000,000)^3) = 497W
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, this would make a nice tourist attraction for Alice Springs. Let me see now, Earth radius = 6371 km, distance to Sun = 150 million km, Radius of Earth model = 42 mm. Hmmm... it will need a dingo fence.
The ecliptic is the plane of the Earth's orbit. Most other planets in the solar system have planes that are very close (though not identical), but Pluto's orbital plane is tilted by about 17 degrees.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
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?
...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.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
Checking the progress of Uranus
using a mirror?
The names of weekdays are named after planets.
t s/days.html
Check it out at: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplane
http://cjvlang.com/Dow/main/dow1.html
Our English planet references are weird because our references are derived from Swedish.
Vikings settle -> Normandy
Normans Conquer -> England
And btw, the last day, the day god rested is (Saturn)day, Saturday, Sabado, SABBATH!!! This is the ONLY one of the English weekdays derived from LATIN rather than Swedish due to christian influences. Hence, most christians go to church on the wrong day: the day of the Sun instead of the day of Saturn 8-(
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
how about spending money on something useful like chairs on which students can sit? Instead they have to sit on wooden chairs made in 1960's and having a bolt stick up their ass. Wasted money.
Did anyone else half expect to get a goatse link when clicking on the Uranus link? Damn Slashdot conditioning... ;)
I've seen descriptions of a half-dozen of these solar-system models, here and abroad. It's time to go to the next level, a scale model of the Milky Way galaxy. All we need is a basketball painted black for the center and a hundred million LEDs.
Great project for the next Burning Man.
And it takes you 15 minutes, then you are walking .5C
at a scale speed of
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?)
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
hard at work, trying to raise uranus.
You there in the back, quit snickering.
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
Does anyone else think that (at least the smaller) planets will have to be regularly replaced?
Home Depot sells bolt cutters and university students drink beer, right?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
That any resemblance to the solar system is just a coincidence, since the people at the time the structure was built only had primitive tools and technology, as well as no notions of astronomy or the higher maths needed to accurately predict planetary motions or distances.
A Solar System Scale Model Meta Page .
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.
This article 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>
Someone you trust is one of us.
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.
what sig?
Uranus is ready to go!
(Good to know, I say.)
Yup, they're idiots. ... give me a break, sounds as pathetic as those PBS shows where 75% of the show is ruined because of them begging for money throughout the show :-)
Not for "building a scientific and educational piece of art", but for the b.s. con job that they are pulling off.
"Send us funding so we can build neptune"
-- and everyone knows that the begging is not for the art -- although perhaps at one time long ago it was. When it was realized how much cash can be swindled out of people, the art became secondary in importance, if that.
I bet that some 12 year olds could do a better job at making that solarsystem, and they'd do it for the fun of it, not so that they could go around town giving bullshit speeches about how this wonderful project will educate children about the beauty of art and science when in reality all they want is cold hard cash.
Just set some kids loose in a junkyard with a few blow torches....that would be a cool use of time.
Oops...that's Uranus, not Neptune. :-(
I guess that should then read:
"Send us funding so we can build Uranus"....Geee,
I now feel sorry for the poor bastard for going all over the place asking to fund your anus.
After looking at the sun, Jupiter and some of the other planets, and then looking at Earth, I feel sooo small....
That's not paint on Mars - it's the atmosphere. There simply happens to be a planet-wide dust storm in progress. That might not be as lame as it sounds if the paint pigment is iron oxide.
What's a Lagrange tube? I can't find any reference to one on google.
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)
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
University of Maine Model of Solar System scale 1 - 93,000,000 (93 mil miles = 149,668,992 km)
scale has no unit, so conversion is pointless
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
Of course the scale has a unit. It is one mile to 93 mil miles. Did you think 1 inch to 93 mil inches would work?
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
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.
Now I can take my dog and pretend it is "Space Gamora" coming to destroy the earth since everything is in scale now...
I took a drive to Aroostook on Memorial Day. I only saw three of the planets, even though I drove the entire length of the model. I saw Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. I thought they should have made Mars be in Mars Hill.
And just why does Bridgewater have dubious distinction to being home to ....
Use your head, can't you, use your head,
You're on earth, there's no cure for that - S. Beckett
er... yes, actually, it would.
HTH. HAND.
Take a look at what they are a calling a three dimensional model of the sun. To me it looks very much like a two dimensional model of a section of the the Golden Arches.
If this were to really be a 3d model, shouldn't the sun be sphere instead of an arch?
Work for Change & GET PAID!
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.
No sig? Sigh...
Mercury, 2.1 inches. 0.4 mi. from Sun (.643 km)
Venus, 5.2 inches 0.7 mile from Sun (1.13km)
Earth, 5.5 inches 1 mile from sun - (1.609km)
Moon, 1.5", 16ft from earth
Mars, 2.9 inches, 1.5 miles from Sun (3.9km)
Jupiter, 61.4 inches (5 feet), 5.3 mile from Sun (8.5km)
Saturn, 51.9 inches, (9.7 miles from Sun)(15.6 km)
Uranus, 22 inches, 19.5 miles from Sun (31.4km)
Neptune, 21.3 inches, 30.6 miles from Sun (49.25km)
Pluto, 1 inch, 40 miles from Sun (64.4km)
I think that these numbers show not only the large distances involved in space flight, but also that our telescopes are pretty amazing for the job that they do as well.
Perhaps they should show where all our interplanetary spacecraft are at the present time.
Anyone for a visit to the Total Perspective Vortex?
See how important you really are to the universe
--
Ian.
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? (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing