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."

Comments

How many models are there?

[frank687]

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

Re:How many models are there?

[bad_fx]

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.

Ithica's is bigger

[spooje]

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.

When is the Model

[The_Spide]

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

[tiltowait]

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).

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

[Forge]

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.

Re:Why?

[Moses Lawn]

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.

Re:three-dimensional?

[Moses Lawn]

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.

Interesting Article From Smithsonian

[Our Man In Redmond]

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>

My Scale Model

[nrlightfoot]

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.