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Hey Crazies. We hit 100,000 subscribers!
What?!
I can't believe this many people were like: Yeah, I’ll watch some more of this guy.
Thank you all so much for watching.
Let celebrate!
The sheer size of 100,000 is demanding a scale video.
A while back, I did one showing the Earth and Moon.
At a scale of 52,800,000 to 1,
the Earth and the Moon where the size of a basketball and tennis ball.
But why stop there?!
Rule number 4 here in the asylum is "Go big or go home."
Let’s take one more step out and do the entire solar system!
But, just to keep things interesting, let’s lay down some ground rules.
One!
We’ll be using the same scale we used in the Earth/Moon video:
52,800,000 to 1.
Two!
For each astronomical object, there will also be a normal-sized object.
Just like the Earth and the Moon where a basketball and a tennis ball,
we’ll be doing the same for all the other planets and the Sun.
Three!
Both the size of the objects and the distances between them will be to the same scale.
I’m going to need some adventure clones.
Go go go! Go go! Places to be! Go!
The natural place to start a solar system video is with the Sun:
That yellow-white star at the center of our solar system.
It contains 99.8% of the solar system’s mass.
For some perspective, let's say the mass of the solar system is 1000 dollars,
the Sun will be 998 of those dollars, which leaves only two dollars for everything else.
The Sun is in control.
It’s also really big: 864,337 miles across.
That’s a little over 109 Earths just across its diameter.
In terms of volume, it’s 1.3 million Earths.
That’s big.
Does that mean you have to find an object that’s 109 basketballs across?
Yep, and I have just the thing.
Just outside Detroit in Allen Park, Michigan, there’s giant tire that’s exactly the right size.
Like, an actual tire made of rubber.
It was made for the 1964 New York World's Fair to be Ferris wheel.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a picture from the brochure.
This tire is 85 feet or 26 meters across, which is the perfect size for our scale:
109 basketballs across.
Seriously, that’s one of my adventure clones right there.
It’s the perfect launch point for an insane scale model of the solar system.
The closest planet to the Sun is Mercury, which is about the size of a softball on our scale.
It's pretty small compared to that giant tire and probably farther away than you’re thinking.
On a map, it’s about 0.68 miles or 1.1 kilometers from the scaled Sun.
A distance easily walked by one of my adventure clones.
Here you can see the tire without any trouble.
The Sun is still rather large in the sky at this distance.
Mercury’s orbit is pretty eccentric though, so that 0.68 miles is just an average.
It’s 0.54 miles at closest and 0.82 miles at farthest.
That has dramatic effects on what the Sun looks like in the sky over the course of Mercury’s year.
For comparison, here’s what the Sun looks like from Earth.
Next up, Venus!
It’s about the size of a soccer ball on our scale.
On the map, Venus is about 1.3 miles or 2.1 kilometers away from the scaled Sun,
which passes through a shopping center, known to locals as “The Hill.”
That 1.3 miles is a sizable distance from the giant tire we’re using as our Sun.
You can’t see the tire anymore, but that’s only because there’s stuff in the way.
None of that stuff is part of our model though.
In space, we’d have a clear view and could still see the Sun in the distance.
You might have noticed a soccer ball is only a little bit smaller than a basketball,
which means Venus is about the same size as Earth,
so it’s no surprise it’s sometimes called Earth’s sister planet
and it’s our closest neighbor, but not this close.
That would be both terrifying and apocalyptic.
AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
On our scaled map, the Earth and Venus are actually about half a mile apart.
To scale, these two objects are half a mile apart.
That puts the Earth an average of about 1.8 miles or 2.9 kilometers from the scaled Sun.
The best location it passes through is Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn.
That looks something like this.
Again, the giant tire is blocked by things like buildings,
but, with a clear view, you could still see it in the distance.
From the surface of the Earth, the Sun only spans about half a degree in the sky,
but so does the Moon, which is what makes total solar eclipses possible.
Speaking of the Moon, I mentioned earlier that was the size of a tennis ball on our scale,
but not located this close to the Earth.
That tennis ball needs to be 24 feet or 7.3 meters from basketball
and then orbit around it every 27 days.
Now, for the last of the inner planets: Mars.
It’s about the size of this hamster ball on our scale.
Probably the most obsession-inducing planet in human history.
We’ve sent multiple probes.
We’ve seen faces that weren’t there.
Back in the day, people were convinced there were canals on the surface.
We’d even like colonize it someday.
It’s in the Goldilocks zone like Earth, so that’s not out of the question.
Milton can tell you all about it.
(Alien Noises)
Really?
(Alien Noises)
Huh. Alright.
Mars orbits the scaled Sun at a distance of 2.7 miles or 4.3 kilometers,
which conveniently passes through the parking lot of The Henry Ford Museum.
You can actually tour it in Google Street View.
There’s some pretty cool stuff in there.
You know, if you like museums.
Here’s our scaled Mars at that location.
An average human on smooth ground can see about 3 miles in any direction,
so the scaled Sun should be just barely on this side of the horizon.
From the surface of Mars, that’s only 0.35 degrees in the sky.
OK, so we’ve reached the edge of what we call the inner solar system.
These are the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
They’re tiny in comparison to that giant tire we’re using as our Sun
and they all orbit within 3 miles of the Sun on the map.
We define the distance from the Earth to the Sun to be one Astronomical Unit or AU.
That puts the entire inner solar system well within 2 AU.
The outer planets are a different story all together.
We don’t reach another planet until a little over 5 AU.
This is where Jupiter orbits.
It’s big and it’s massive.
You remember, that 1000 dollars that represents the mass of the solar system?
The Sun was 998 dollars, leaving only 2 dollars for everything else.
Jupiter uses up almost an entire dollar of that 2 dollars we have left.
So it’s really massive, but it’s also big.
Size and mass are two different things.
You can fit almost 11 Earths across the diameter of Jupiter.
That means you can fit over 1300 Earths inside the volume of Jupiter.
It’s pretty much maxed out in size though.
Fun Fact!
If you added more mass to it, it wouldn’t actually get any bigger, just denser.
If we scale that diameter down, Jupiter is 8.7 feet across.
That’s 104 inches or 265 centimeters!
What did you find that big?!
Well, I didn’t, but just imagine a giant round conference table.
On the map, Jupiter’s orbit is almost 9.2 miles or 14.7 kilometers from the Sun
and passes right through Wayne State University in downtown Detroit.
Home to a lot of really cool architecture and right next to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
That big conference table looks something like this.
As usual, we’re including an Adventure Clone for scale.
In space, you can see the Sun in the distance because there’s nothing in the way.
I mean, humans eyes can still see the Sun out to about 60 light years,
but we have a problem with our scale model.
At 9 miles, the giant tire we’re using for a scaled Sun is below the horizon.
The Earth’s curvature has moved it out of our line of sight.
Next stop, Saturn!
On the map, Saturn orbits at over 16.8 miles or 27 kilometers.
That’s 10 AU from the Sun, twice the orbit of Jupiter!
At this distance, Saturn’s orbit passes through Willow Run Airport,
where you’ll find the Yankee Air Museum.
They’ve got a bunch of old planes, and air force trinkets, and stuff.
As you can see Adventure Clone had a really good time.
Did you decide to make this crazy scale model of the solar system
just so you could send an Adventure Clone to all these cool places?
Maybe?
Anyway, Saturn is pretty big on our scale too, about 7.2 feet or 220 centimeters.
That’s a much more reasonably-sized conference table, but still big.
Although, its rings make it look even bigger than it is.
Here’s our reasonably-sized conference table known as Saturn.
That’s just the planet though.
Its rings stretch out to about here.
You can fit over 9 Earths across its diameter, even more across the rings.
But in space, Saturn is pretty lonely.
When the Sun expands into a red giant, we should just move the Earth there.
We can orbit Saturn and have a view like this every day.
That’d be pretty cool, if you ask me.
The next planet out is Uranus, which would be about the size of this hula-hoop.
It’s still pretty big, about 38 inches or 96 centimeters in diameter,
but at least I have a real object this time.
That puts its orbit out at 33.8 miles or 54.4 kilometers.
That’s almost 20 AU from the Sun, almost twice the orbit of Saturn,
which sends its orbit right by the Imagination Station in Brighton.
It’s the coolest playground set up I’ve ever seen.
This thing is huge.
It’s right next to a big pond too.
You know, if you like nature, but not too much nature.
You can fit about 4 Earths across its diameter.
It’s no wonder they call these outer planets "giants."
Its actual appearance is pretty plain though, not a lot of cloud detail.
Some might even call it the most boring planet,
but I think it’s pretty cool that it rotates on its side.
That’s an axial tilt of 98 degrees!
There must be some weird seasons.
Last, but certainly not least, Neptune.
You can see it's only a little smaller than Uranus, but they’re really far apart.
Neptune is located a whopping 53 miles or 85 kilometers from the scaled Sun.
That’s about 30 AU, another 10 AU beyond Uranus!
They’re not kidding when they call these outer planets.
On the map, it passes right through the Lost Railway Museum in Grass Lake.
Another museum?
Yeah, I like museums, OK?
Anyway, the museum is on the edge of downtown Grass Lake right on Michigan Ave.
It’s full of old rail-cars and stuff.
Out back there are railroad tracks, which is a perfect location for an adventure clone
to hold the tube. Uh, I mean Neptune.
It often has a dark storm with winds approaching 1500 miles per hour.
That’s the fastest winds in the solar system.
OK, so we’ve reached the edge of what we call the outer planets.
Here they are in all their glory: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
They’re pretty big compared to the inner planets, but still small next to the Sun.
Remember, our scaled Sun is the size of this giant tire.
It’s clear from the sizes of their orbits why we split the solar system in two,
but there’s even a physical division called the Asteroid Belt.
That's not the only place we find asteroids, just an interesting concentration of them.
We find rocks of many sizes all over the solar system.
Most of them are comets in the Kuiper Belt, a belt that includes Pluto,
and the Oort Cloud, which stretches out so far beyond the planets
it’s difficult to even imagine.
This is the limit of the Sun’s control.
Any object beyond that is closer to nearby stars like Alpha or Beta Centauri than it is to the Sun.
This is probably the biggest scale we can use for the solar system
and still have the sizes of the objects reasonable.
So, was that a crazy enough solar system model for you?
Let us know in the comments.
And again, thank you all for continuing to watch my crazy face.
The last couple of years have been quite a trip.
Also, thanks for liking and sharing this video.
Don’t forget to subscribe if you’d like to keep up with us.
And until next time, remember, it’s OK to be a little crazy.
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I’d still prefer Patreon.
They have way more features and they take a much smaller cut,
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