Stellar Scale

[Brian Howell]

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.

— The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)

If the Moon were the size of one pixel, how far would it be from the Sun to Pluto (assuming mean orbital distance)? Try this: http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

As this scrollable model shows, it's a long, long, long way. There are lots of pithy comments to read if you traverse the distance the hard way, by manually scrolling (as opposed to using the cheat buttons up top). Note that the model has a light-speed mode at lower right, and an adjustable quantum scale, at lower center.

I love that the model has no cumulative scale. Put another way, there is nothing to indicate how far you are along in your trek, save for the occasional planet passing by. If you've ever tried to communicate just now empty outer space really is, well this site is a good place to start.

A couple of sodden thoughts:

• One of the aforementioned messages points out that if a hydrogen atom's nucleus (single proton) were the size of the Sun, then it would take eleven times the distance covered by the map to show the average distance to the electron's orbit. In other words, even we are mostly—nearly entirely—empty space. Which means that space is really, really, really, really, really, really (I assure you, I'm not getting carried away here), really, really, really (whew!) empty.
• Pluto averages around 324 light-minutes from Earth. The nearest star to Earth is Proxima Centuri, at 4.22 light-years. Or about 2,222,000 light-minutes—almost 6,900 times further away from the Sun. Which means that space is—here I go again—really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, empty. Okay, I think I've made my point.

If you haven't seen it, another cool celestial model is at http://stars.chromeexperiments.com. (Needs a recent computer and up-to-date browser. Best on Chrome; music doesn't play reliably in other browsers.)

[Brian Howell]

In the similar vein, there is http://lightyear.fm. This makes me think of Contact's fabulous pull-back shot at its opening, probably one of the two best ever.

[Brian Howell]

From The Atlantic: a short, engaging film that accurately depicts the scale of the Solar System, in both distance and size. Do watch:: http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/417309/our-place-in-the-universe/. And then continue with your remarkably trivial existence.

[jack saunders]

I love to hear bright inquiring young minds talk.  So excited.

What I don't get are those few shots that seem to have their illuminated marbles traveling in circles.  The model seemed to be minimalist -- marbles on posts that would not move.  What am I missing?

 

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[Craig Good]

> On Feb 19, 2016, at 12:18 PM, jack saunders <jack...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> What I don't get are those few shots that seem to have their illuminated marbles traveling in circles. The model seemed to be minimalist -- marbles on posts that would not move. What am I missing?

They were illustrating scale, not motion. The circles are an acceptable approximation of the elipses. I think plotting the actual orbits would have made the project a lot more difficult without adding a lot to the main points, namely scale and distance.

I agree that it’s a great video. They’re lucky they didn't have to plot Planet 9 yet.



--
--Craig WWSJD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com

"If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest
source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An
inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws the first growing
out of the last."
--Alexander Hamilton

[Larry Rosenthal]

somewhere do they confess this is the site of Burning Man?

[jack saunders]

They did illustrate scale.  I got that.  But I thought I saw a few seconds of what looked to me like their illuminated marbles whizzing around their orbits.  And if the marbles were perched on stakes in the ground.....how do they do that?

 

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From: Craig Good <clg...@me.com>
To: jack saunders <jack...@pacbell.net>
Cc: Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com>; Ipse Dixit <Ipse-...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 12:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Ipse Dixit] Re: Stellar Scale

[Craig Good]

> On Feb 19, 2016, at 12:59 PM, jack saunders <jack...@pacbell.net> wrote:
>
> They did illustrate scale. I got that. But I thought I saw a few seconds of what looked to me like their illuminated marbles whizzing around their orbits. And if the marbles were perched on stakes in the ground.....how do they do that?

Oh! Right. That was just some post production CG for illustration. Probably done in Adobe AfterEffects or something similar.

--
--Craig WWSJD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com

Restore the checks and balances. Repeal the 17th Amendment.

[Brian Howell]

You're seeing the headlights of the vehicle they drove around the orbits at night. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Larry Rosenthal]

actually I thought I heard them say they were taking time-lapse photography of their vehicles driving along the orbit tracks.

--

Larry A. Rosenthal, Program Director
Center on Civility & Democratic Engagement
Goldman School of Public Policy
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-7320
(510) 642 2062 office

[Brian Howell]

They probably digitally isolated the orbital tracks and then sequentially superimposed them as they traveled outward from Sol.

Sent from my iPhone