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If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014)
- legec 4y agoFor the people out there looking for a walkthrough : [spoiler] https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#sun https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#mercury https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#venus https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#earth https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#mars https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#jupiter https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#saturn https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#uranus https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#neptune https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html#pluto https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.... [/spoiler]
- mrfinn 4y agoI did a spreadsheet some time ago with the appropriate proportions, taking the data from the NASA website, just for fun, thinking about how big the solar system would be if the sun would be like a 60cm diameter (big) beach balloon. My results: Mercury: 26m away, pinhead alike. Venus: 49m away, pea alike. Earth: 67m away, pea alike (again). Mars: 103m away, small lentil alike. Jupiter: 350m away, tennis ball alike. Saturn: 645m away, golf ball alike. Uranus: 1,3km~ away, 2€ coin alike. Neptune: 2km~ away, 1€ coin alike. PS. Forgot the most impressive info by far... in that "beach ballon=star" scale, our closest star neighbor is almost 7,000kms away!
- dpcx 4y agoI do wish that this contained Voyager data - if for no other reason than to show just how far out "we" have actually gone.
- insane_dreamer 4y agoa f*ing amazing design
- leobg 4y agoFor visualizing the timescales, there’s a great app. Walk 4.6 km through 4.6 billion years of time. https://apps.apple.com/app/deep-time-walk-earth-history/id1163814608 https://apps.apple.com/app/deep-time-walk-earth-history/id11...
- zestyping 4y agoHow does the browser actually render a page this wide? Is there a framebuffer containing the whole page, or is it a display list of vector objects that gets clipped by the page's bounding box? On which platforms would this page cause the browser to run out of memory and crash?
- jack_riminton 4y agoFor a site whose UX relies on scrolling, that's a horribly done scroll
- whiteboardr 4y agoFor those who do not want to scroll, here’s an absolutely brilliant video illustrating the scale: https://youtu.be/zR3Igc3Rhfg https://youtu.be/zR3Igc3Rhfg
- matesz 4y agoThat is indeed beautiful video!
- qwertox 4y agoTip: Get a mouse with a free-spinning wheel like the Logitech MX Anywhere 2s. The difference is analogous to using SSD vs. HDD.
- edngibson 4y agoA tip - hold down the middle mouse button down and move your mouse around. It's scroll speed is variable dependent on how far your mouse is away from the origin point, so it's quite useful. You can clear the entire screen in around 15 seconds if you go max speed!
- forgotpwd16 4y agoFor Linux users, browsers disable this behavior by default because it interacts weirdly with middle click paste. To enable on Firefox) search "autoscroll" in settings, Chrome) run with `--enable-blink-features=MiddleClickAutoscroll` (also there's an extension for it if anyone finds the message shown at start annoying).
- a3w 4y agoForces me to scroll half a physical meter per 20 sun diameters on my mouse wheel. Aborted.
- a3w 4y agoThis solar system was on ycombinator 27-ish times before: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=joshworth.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=joshworth.com
- matesz 4y agoInteresting. Shouldn't there be an autoredirect to the existing thread on submit?
- forgotpwd16 4y agoMaybe if it was recently resubmitted and already had a discussion (usually a mod will mark the newer as dupe) or recently submitted multiple times without getting attention (since at this point it becomes spam). But if recent submission was long time ago (so older thread is basically archived), it makes sense to be submitted anew.
- quickthrower2 4y agoIf t < x, yes
- kuu 4y ago"Funny" thing is that an user has submitted it (at least) twice
- pleb_nz 4y agoI'm confused If the moon is a single pixel, how is it shown as a half moon Shouldn't it be a single dot/pixel?
- lostlogin 4y agoIf it’s a half moon we’ll need sub-pixel rendering.
- matesz 4y agoFYI there is an icon on the bottom right corner, which makes scroll automatic with the speed of light to scale.
- sci_prog 4y ago"The Moon diameter (approximately equal to the distance from New York to Las Vegas)" Imagine how glorious and huge the Earth must look like from the Moon.
- yrgulation 4y agoAnd how gloriously dumb human kind looks like considering we are fighting petty wars over resources we could get from space in unlimited amounts.
- NickRandom 4y agoNo need to imagine, have a look at https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1... and https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_623.html https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_6... I would have linked to the 'Blue Marble' picture but that was taken mid-flight rather than from the moon itself.
- sci_prog 4y agoThe photo doesn't do it justice tho. Just like a photo of the full Moon low on the horizon doesn't look anywhere close to what my eyes are seeing. Now imagine a full moon, with a diameter roughly 4 times as big, that's how big the Earth is looking back from the moon. North America itself is the size of the full moon. Pretty wild to think about.
- MarcosDione 4y agothe author seems not to have kids; 'When are we gonna be there?' should be the much terse 'Are we there yet?' :)
- mg 4y agoThat everything is so empty is the aspect of the universe that I find most surprising. This also holds for small things like atoms. They are mostly empty space, too. And for bigger things like galaxies. Most other aspects seem to be "good" choices. Like limiting the speed of things. The way it is limited (as described by special relativity) is even really elegant. The uncertainty as described by quantum theory and how it is coupled to the observer is downright cool. I often think "Yes, if I made a universe from scratch, this seems like a nice choice to go with". But that everything is so empty? I would not have made that choice, I think. You?
- lionkor 4y agoI think the emptiness of space is an illusion—really, there is a lot going on, in terms of gravitational forces, etc.
- quickthrower2 4y agoToo much stuff you just end up with a big black hole, perhaps?
- mrtransient 4y agoMass is energy, localised in space-time, thats why space mostly empty, but mot completly emty, not 0 Kelvin.
- mjreacher 4y ago> This also holds for small things like atoms. They are mostly empty space, too Not quite so simple, see: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/126512/why-doesnt-matter-pass-through-other-matter-if-atoms-are-99-999-empty-space https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/126512/why-doesn...
- pavelboyko 4y agoWell, if I want my universe to be manageable (don't ask me why), introducing the hierarchy of scales from the beginning is a natural solution.
- dotancohen 4y ago> I often think "Yes, if I made a universe from scratch, this seems like > a nice choice to go with". One interpretation of that thought: All the universes that were not so elegant, collapsed quickly or did not develop life, or did not develop life as complex as us. We are here, living and complex, in _this_ universe because _this_ universe is so elegant.
- lionkor 4y agoFYI you can use the buttons in the top to not have to scroll like a maniac.
- ianai 4y agoDo one for hydrogen/helium atoms and a side by side comparison. Please.
- MauranKilom 4y agoI strongly recommend clicking the "lightspeed" button in the bottom right at some point. You thought scrolling was slow? Wait until you experience the solar system at the actual speed of light.
- thorin 4y agoThanks for pointing that out! Lightspeed is really S---L---O---W isn't it? I'm pleased he still loves Pluto.
- philliphaydon 4y agoMe too. Pluto will always be a planet to me!
- isolli 4y agoRelated: I find it annoying that we went through the trouble of downgrading Pluto, but we still count any rock that orbits a planet as a moon. If planets have 69 moons, then it becomes tedious and I quickly lose interest in learning about them. I wish there was a definition that included our moon (obviously), made sure that Mars has at least one moon, but limited the number of moons that Jupiter and Saturn have to a handful. Criteria could include: size or weight relative to the planet, distance to the planet, apparent size in the sky.
- philliphaydon 4y agoI had never thought about that. I just googled to find out Jupiter has 79 moons? WTF…
- midasuni 4y agoWhen I was in high school there were about 50 moons in the entire system. There were zero exoplanets now, there’s thousands today.
- once_inc 4y agoPlease note that if you want to read all of the blurbs of text visible between the planets, you need only to view the source of the page. They're just divs, and it saves you a large amount of scrolling. Space is big. Space is empty. We are nothing to space.
- rizky05 4y ago
- capableweb 4y agoHTML introduces content. CSS introduces space. JavaScript introduces waiting. Seems appropriate that the technology represents itself on this page.
- platos_revenge 4y agoThere's an irl version of this built along a canal in Somerset, UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk
- gopiandcode 4y agoFunny you should mention that - I actually ran into another in-proportion solar system park model in Eugene, Oregon, USA: https://eugenesciencecenter.org/exhibits/eugene-solar-system-trail/ https://eugenesciencecenter.org/exhibits/eugene-solar-system...
- plato_vengeance 4y agoThere's an irl version of this built along a canal in Somerset, UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Space_Walk
- mcv 4y agoInteresting that this has its own Wikipedia page, but the Dutch Melkwegpad does not. (Edit: turns out there's a ton of these, and while most don't have their own page, there's a page collecting them all: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System_model)
- mcv 4y agoThere's a walk somewhere in the east of Netherland that I did with my kids a while ago, where you walk through a scale representation of the solar system. You start with Pluto (it's an old walk), then walk a very long time before you meet Neptune, then again a very long time before you come across Uranus. That's already a major part of the walk right there. Then the planets start coming quicker, and the last 10 meters or so is the inner solar system. And after that is the radio telescope array at Westerbork. It really gives a good feel for the massive difference in distances between the inner and outer solar system. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is in that vicinity.
- midasuni 4y agoThere’s quite a few at different scales - in fact I believe the mall in Washington DC has one.
- bumbledraven 4y agoThis site overlays a model of the solar system at the desired scale on the Google Maps location of your choice: https://thinkzone.wlonk.com/SS/SolarSystemModel.php?obj=Sun&dia=1m&lat=51.562793&lon=0.665960&table=y&map=y https://thinkzone.wlonk.com/SS/SolarSystemModel.php?obj=Sun&... Helps with the planning process for building your own model solar system.
- globular-toast 4y agoSweden has a permanent one. The inner planets are in Stockholm while the outer planets are across the rest of Sweden. There was a touring one that was in Cambridge (UK) recently and we thoroughly enjoyed walking it even if the walk to Pluto was quite far. Walking it in reverse order would have been better, perhaps. Didn't think of that.
- daniel-cussen 4y agoYou know what I got the education I got, I memorized that, there was little new information making it a non-planet. You know those same guys call carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen metals? It's a description. In astronomy, metal means anything greater than hydrogen and helium. Every element but the first two. Change of nomenclature, really, and I guess motivated because of seeing other planetary systems. The entire Solar System is highly aberrant. Single star, instead of binary star. Then, a moon around earth, very large moon, besides, it is the same size in the sky (varying over time) as the sun, leading to different eclipses (like anular eclipses, which accurately measured a biblical event 4000 years ago, to the day, I think it was a Tuesday). Like everything is very unique, apparently.
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agoand to think you can go out in space and hit a planet or something by mistake, you know.... like kids do when walking on the sidewalk?
- mwidell 4y agoIn Sweden, there is a scale replica of the solar system, with correct distances. The sun is represented by the Avicii Arena, the world's largest spherical building. http://www.swedensolarsystem.se/ http://www.swedensolarsystem.se/
- egberts1 4y agothis is cool! I wish we could see yet another live indicator on that map, a speed indicator of our scrolling in actual mph, km/h, AU, parsec, and speed of light. this way we can see the speed of our scrolling!!
- dotancohen 4y agoIf you scrolled to Earth in less that eight and a half minutes, then you were already breaking the speed of light.
- intrasight 4y agoThe "Pretty empty out here" made me laugh. And the "you are here". “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is” ― Douglas Adams Is cool that it's done in SVG. Here's Earth: <circle cx="5" cy="5" r="5"></circle>
- metayrnc 4y agoJust from the size of the scroll bar you can get a feeling of the size of this map.
- dang 4y agoRelated: If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27573172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27573172 - June 2021 (69 comments) If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel (2014) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21735528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21735528 - Dec 2019 (82 comments) If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A tediously accurate map of the solar system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13790954 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13790954 - March 2017 (81 comments) If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel – A tediously accurate map of the solar system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13217129 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13217129 - Dec 2016 (11 comments) If the Moon Was Only 1 Pixel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12038584 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12038584 - July 2016 (4 comments) If the moon were only 1 pixel: a scale model of the solar system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7551423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7551423 - April 2014 (17 comments) If The Moon Was Only 1 Pixel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7341690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7341690 - March 2014 (178 comments)
- pixelpoet 4y agoPleased to see subjunctive mood winning out for a change!
- scrozier 4y agoTwo years of Latin in high school impressed the subjunctive mood onto my brain forever. Now I'm "that guy" occasionally.
- pixelpoet 4y agoAs a German speaker "was" is especially awful sounding because we have the exactly analogous "wäre" (conditional, instead of "war" which means "was") which also sounds very similar. I've had people try to "correct" my use of subjunctive... which truly saps my will to live.
- ripe 4y agoLol, "was" versus "were" usage is a pet peeve of mine. Looks like some time im 2016 they got an English major to fix the headline.
- whiddershins 4y agoWhat’s wild about this is trying to imagine those scales when you remember how absolutely huge the earth is relative to each of us. If you haven’t done this before, go out into the desert or canyons or the Hoover dam (in the U.S.) and experience viscerally how tiny each of us is relative to nature. Trying to hold that in my mind while also conceptualizing the distance to Mars, or the size of the sun … I can’t do it!
- qwertox 4y agoScrolling and waiting for the first galaxy light-years away to show up: Mercury. What?
- tonetheman 4y agoWhat I love about that site when you combine it with 1 pixel = 3478 km. If you drove 88km an hour it would take you almost 40 hours to drive across 1 pixel! Our solar system is big big big. I used to do the math with my kids when they were young and first found out about division. My story would be lets drive to the moon. And then we would figure out how far it was and how fast we could drive. I love that site.
- Overtonwindow 4y agoWow that was really epic! What an excellent presentation of size and distance. Beautiful work!
- Overtonwindow 4y agoA very science question as I finally arrive at Jupiter.. Is it possible that at one point, Jupiter was actually a sun?
- jawadch93 4y ago[dead]
- aMadMan 4y ago"Might as well stop now. We'll need to scroll through 6,771 more maps like this before we see anything else." pfff, only took like a second. I would have gone the other 6,771 more maps to see whats out there.
- vogon_laureate 4y agoYou could quibble about the scrolling animation finesse but it is a nicely designed site and is a great use of horizontal scrolling. Plus, always nice to see astronomy content on Hacker News (even if it's been posted a few times before). Some of Josh's other work is also interesting in terms of web design and STEM subjects, like this Max Planck Institute page: <https://scattering-amplitudes.mpp.mpg.de/welcome https://scattering-amplitudes.mpp.mpg.de/welcome>.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y agoI really enjoyed that! I liked the philosophical musings on the theme of "nothing." This was my fave: > It seems like we are both pathetically insignificant, and miraculously important at the same time.
- martincmartin 4y agoBoston had a Community Solar System Trail, where both the size of the planets and the distance between them were to the same scale. The sun was 11.6 ft at the Museum of Science. Mercury and Venus were in the building. Mars was in the Cambridgeside Galleria, a few blocks away. Uranus was in a different neighborhood, Jamaica Plain. It was featured on an episode of the kids TV show Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman.