Download Scale of the Solar System

THE SCALE OF THE
SOLAR SYSTEM
What’s out there and where exactly is it?
WHAT’S IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?
Inner Planets
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Gas Giants
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Dwarf Planets
Regions
Ceres
Asteroid Belt
Pluto
Kuiper Belt
Haumea
Oort Cloud
Makemake
Eris
THE PLANETS
DWARF PLANETS
CLASS DISCUSSION
You will each get a long strip of register paper
Label one side as the position of the Sun, and the other side
as the position of Pluto
Fold the strip of paper in half, mark the halfway point, and
then unfold it.
P
S
Uranus
Now fold your paper back in half. Then fold it in half again.
Mark the two positions of the folds on your paper.
S
P
U
Saturn
Neptune
Now fold just the part of the paper in between the Sun and
Saturn in half.
S
S
U
N
P
Jupiter
Congratulations! You’ve just scaled the outer Solar System!
Now we need to do the inner Solar System. Just focus on the
paper between the Sun and Jupiter for the next parts.
Fold the Sun out to meet Jupiter, and label the halfway
point:
S
J
Ceres
This is the average location of the asteroid belt. Which dwarf
planet goes here?
Fold the Sun out to meet Ceres and mark the position of the fold.
S
C
J
Just on the inside of the fold, closer to the Sun, mark the
position of Earth.
Just on the outside of the fold, closer to Ceres, mark the
position of Mars.
Try to split the distance between the Sun and the Earth into
thirds.
S
E M
C
On the third closer to the Sun, put Mercury.
On the third closer to Earth, put Venus.
J
CLASS DISCUSSION
S
M
V
E M
C
Any idea where the nearest star would be?
About 4 miles away
J