TIL that in Melbourne, a 1 : 1 000 000 000 scale model of the solar system includes a mini-Proxima-Centauri that is one-time-around-the-entire-world away at this scale.
TIL that in Melbourne, a 1 : 1 000 000 000 scale model of the solar system includes a mini-Proxima-Centauri that is one-time-around-the-entire-world away at this scale.
From the pdf:
After the Sun, the closest star to us is a small Red Dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. It is too faint to be seen without using a sizeable telescope. It is 4.24 light years away, so in our model, which is 1:1 billion scale, it is 40,140 kilometres away. This is approximately the distance around the circumference of the world from Melbourne to Melbourne.
That's extremely nerdy, I love it.
This is one of my favourite things!
I've walked most of it (though I couldn't find Saturn for some reason ... I suspect it was stolen).
And yea ... it's a ridiculously effective demonstration of how hard it is to comprehend big numbers. I knew these numbers, or had read them before hand, and thought about them ... but seeing it all to scale was kinda devastating ... like the distances between the outer planets are huuuge ... you get tired walking them even though the planets are 5cms wide.
And yea, the proxima centauri thing is a very nice touch!
Very cool other facts in that PDF as well.