You've seen models of the the solar system on posters, in textbooks, and in those little mechanical gizmos known as orreries. But these representations are way off--at least when it comes to scale.
But now a mind-boggling new video sets us straight by showing in dramatic fashion just how much space our solar takes up. It's way more than you might imagine.
The video shows LA-based filmmakers Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh building what they say is to-scale model of the solar system across almost 50 square miles of open desert in the Black Rock desert in Nevada.
The planets are represented by balls and lightbulbs, the Earth by a marble. Based on that half-an-inch orb of blue glass, they calculated the scale size of each orbit and planet.
"That's what I really wanted to try and capture. We are on a marble floating in the middle of nothing," Overstreet says in the video. "When you sort of come face-to-face with that, it's staggering."
And it really is. If you don't have time to watch the whole video, start around 4:00 to see the breathtaking finale -- it'll make you feel small in the most beautiful way.
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