13 ms·

Sweden Solar System

224 points by lelf 12y ago

jsingleton 12y ago
I went on a hunt for a few of these when I was in Stockholm recently and it was a bit disappointing. We couldn't find a sign at the globe and lots of places were shut. Venus is now a building site and we couldn't find Jupiter at the airport. We found the Earth and moon, Mars and Mercury (from a distance). It is a good way to explore and you get good value out of a T-bana pass. Edit: If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt. Got some good photos. It was this or a visit to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby and I think the solar system was the best choice. They should really promote these attractions more.
- lelf 12y ago
  > If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt Please!
  - jsingleton 12y ago
    OK, will do. I also checked out http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-data-center http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-data-center in Södermalm. It was shut but you can see a bit through the glass doors. Missed out on http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-reactor http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-reactor though :(.
    - jsingleton 12y ago
      Here you go: http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-photos/ http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-photos/ I've also submitted it to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696 Enjoy!
tegeek 12y ago
I pass through Ericsson Globe almost daily but never realized that I'm travelling in "Solar System"
- yen223 12y ago
  Technically, all of us are travelling in the Solar System.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
zachbeane 12y ago
http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ is another version of this idea.
Kiro 12y ago
How accurate is it? It seems that a lot of locations were picked because of them being in museums and other significant places. I guess if it was really accurate they would end up in more inconvenient spots.
- jbrooksuk 12y ago
  Maybe the museums were placed first?
- saalweachter 12y ago
  Earth's distance from the Sun varies by +/-~2% at its current eccentricity, and the eccentricity isn't constant. So at a distance of ~7.5 km (1:20 mil of Earth's average orbit) you've got a ring about 300 m wide around the Sun to find a museum in. Other planets further away give you larger rings to search in; you could place Jupiter in a ring ~4 km wide ~39 km away, and it would be within the range of its orbit around the Sun. That said, while the task is easier than you might think (since there isn't One True Position for each planet), I don't know how well they did.
- Gravityloss 12y ago
  Stockholm is actually jam packed with museums. You could spend a week there.
brunnsbe 12y ago
This page contais more information and photos as well: http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-system-1.74650 http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-sys...
- jsingleton 12y ago
  That's a good page if a little out of date. We followed http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html but the wikipedia page is better and more accurate.
petercooper 12y ago
Previous discussion on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903
lukedjn 12y ago
I shouldn't laugh, I really shouldn't... "Uranus (2.6 m in diameter) was vandalized"
- adwn 12y ago
  We should rename it, to end this stupid joke once and for all. Maybe to "Urectum"...
  - efdee 12y ago
    I think you have mistaken us for Reddit :-)
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- DanielBMarkham 12y ago
  Unfortunately, due to its name, Uranus has been the butt of many jokes. Sorry -- had to share that. Got it from the wonderful "Great Courses" intro to astronomy series (See? I managed to throw in some good hacker stuff and tell a corny joke at the same time.) Highly recommended.
- marvin 12y ago
  If it's in Gävle, it would be a logical guess that it was vandalized due to the local population's decades-long tradition of vandalizing monuments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat
  - daviis01 12y ago
    Destroyed 27 times in 48 years. That makes the recreation seem like a bad idea.
    - Rovanion 12y ago
      It's an absolutely fantastic idea, best publicity that town gets all year. The whole country is engaged in the burning of that thing.
robbiep 12y ago
We have one in Australia too - I drive it several times a year. Distance sun to pluto is 190 km unfortunately - I visited the wiki link ready to hurl abuse http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-locations.html http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-locations.html
vnuk 12y ago
Zagreb also has this, albeit a mini version ... The system is at scale 1:680 000 000. Earth's model is about 1.9 cm in size and at 225 m distance from the sun's model, while Pluto's model is 7.7 km away from it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views
jerryluc 12y ago
There's one in Denmark as well, although much smaller (1: 1 billion). One thing that I thought was really cool when I visited was that if you stood by the fake earth an looked at the fake sun it appeared precisely the same size as the real sun. Also very cool to walk for a couple of hours and reaching tiny Pluto. http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm
- Someone 12y ago
  That should be the case for any model that is to scale. The moon and all planets should be real-sized (in steradians), too.
jacobheric 12y ago
We have one in Maine as well, scale 1:93,000,000: http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/
dbaupp 12y ago
Does anyone have a decent photo of the one (Saturn) in Uppsala? Surprisingly, I can't find any photo on the internet (searching in either English or Swedish), I lived there in 2012 and don't remember seeing a 6.1m circular object in Celsiustorget at all.
- bencoder 12y ago
  From the article: > the model is a mat with a picture of Saturn, but will eventually grow to crown a school planetarium at the city
  - dbaupp 12y ago
    I didn't notice a mat with a picture of Saturn (and I walked past the place many times); but, ivh notes it was just temporary.
- ivh 12y ago
  It was a temporary thing during the "year of astronomy"; the mat was on the shopping street just outside the old Celsius observatory. For the time being there is no Saturn as far as I know. But its moon Titan should still be hanging at the same spot, a ~40cm semi-translucent sphere to represent the thick atmosphere.
  - dbaupp 12y ago
    Oh, I didn't realise it was temporary, thanks. (I walked past Celsiushuset many time but never noticed the moon. :( )
theaeolist 12y ago
Just to have an idea how sparse space is, the closest star at this scale would be about 5x the (actual) distance to the moon.
pivo 12y ago
Boston has one as well: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massachusetts.html http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massach... not to scale :)
julianpye 12y ago
Munich has one, too with a much smaller scale, with the sun central at the technology museum 'Deutsches Museum'
basicallydan 12y ago
That's great, I'm going to Stockholm in November so I'll check out Mercury. Thanks for sharing. It'd be even better if there was an international solar system which involved several countries, to make it an even larger scale.
neves 12y ago
Solar Systems in scale are really impressive. We usually see them in books, where all the planets are close. The amount of space is astonishing. I saw one in Brazil in a Astronomy Museum http://www.mast.br/ http://www.mast.br/, the Sun is smaller than a golf ball and you have to walk dozens of meters to get to Uranus. The nearest star would be in a city more than a thousand kilometers away. This is what I call a humbling experience.
dspillett 12y ago
Not on the same sort of scale at all, but York (UK) has a scale model along one of the Sustrans cycling routes: http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/ http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/ SkyRide do free regular guided public rides down the route (or sometimes a subset there of for people who don't feel up to the full length and back) which is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two if you are in the area.
linuxlizard 12y ago
The Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC, USA) has a walking model along the capital mall. Our local (Boise, ID) Discovery Center has a model, too. Fun stuff!
JonRB 12y ago
I seem to recall reading about a scale model of the solar system somewhere in the northern hemisphere that 'included' the nearest star in Australia somewhere... Anybody else heard of this?
ep103 12y ago
Ithaca, NY has one of these too : )

224 points by lelf 12y ago

I went on a hunt for a few of these when I was in Stockholm recently and it was a bit disappointing. We couldn't find a sign at the globe and lots of places were shut. Venus is now a building site and we couldn't find Jupiter at the airport. We found the Earth and moon, Mars and Mercury (from a distance). It is a good way to explore and you get good value out of a T-bana pass. Edit: If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt. Got some good photos. It was this or a visit to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ytterby and I think the solar system was the best choice. They should really promote these attractions more.

lelf 12y ago
> If anyone is interested I can write up the hunt Please!
- jsingleton 12y ago
  OK, will do. I also checked out http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-data-center http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pionen-data-center in Södermalm. It was shut but you can see a bit through the glass doors. Missed out on http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-reactor http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r1-nuclear-reactor though :(.
  - jsingleton 12y ago
    Here you go: http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-photos/ http://unop.co.uk/misc/sweden-solar-system-photos/ I've also submitted it to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8181696 Enjoy!

tegeek 12y ago

I pass through Ericsson Globe almost daily but never realized that I'm travelling in "Solar System"

yen223 12y ago
Technically, all of us are travelling in the Solar System.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

zachbeane 12y ago

http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ is another version of this idea.

Kiro 12y ago

How accurate is it? It seems that a lot of locations were picked because of them being in museums and other significant places. I guess if it was really accurate they would end up in more inconvenient spots.

jbrooksuk 12y ago
Maybe the museums were placed first?
saalweachter 12y ago
Earth's distance from the Sun varies by +/-~2% at its current eccentricity, and the eccentricity isn't constant. So at a distance of ~7.5 km (1:20 mil of Earth's average orbit) you've got a ring about 300 m wide around the Sun to find a museum in. Other planets further away give you larger rings to search in; you could place Jupiter in a ring ~4 km wide ~39 km away, and it would be within the range of its orbit around the Sun. That said, while the task is easier than you might think (since there isn't One True Position for each planet), I don't know how well they did.
Gravityloss 12y ago
Stockholm is actually jam packed with museums. You could spend a week there.

brunnsbe 12y ago

This page contais more information and photos as well: http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-system-1.74650 http://www.astro.su.se/english/about-us/the-sweden-solar-sys...

jsingleton 12y ago
That's a good page if a little out of date. We followed http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html http://ttt.astro.su.se/swesolsyst/stations.html but the wikipedia page is better and more accurate.

petercooper 12y ago

Previous discussion on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2220903

lukedjn 12y ago

I shouldn't laugh, I really shouldn't... "Uranus (2.6 m in diameter) was vandalized"

adwn 12y ago
We should rename it, to end this stupid joke once and for all. Maybe to "Urectum"...
- efdee 12y ago
  I think you have mistaken us for Reddit :-)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
DanielBMarkham 12y ago
Unfortunately, due to its name, Uranus has been the butt of many jokes. Sorry -- had to share that. Got it from the wonderful "Great Courses" intro to astronomy series (See? I managed to throw in some good hacker stuff and tell a corny joke at the same time.) Highly recommended.
marvin 12y ago
If it's in Gävle, it would be a logical guess that it was vandalized due to the local population's decades-long tradition of vandalizing monuments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A4vle_goat
- daviis01 12y ago
  Destroyed 27 times in 48 years. That makes the recreation seem like a bad idea.
  - Rovanion 12y ago
    It's an absolutely fantastic idea, best publicity that town gets all year. The whole country is engaged in the burning of that thing.

robbiep 12y ago

We have one in Australia too - I drive it several times a year. Distance sun to pluto is 190 km unfortunately - I visited the wiki link ready to hurl abuse http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-locations.html http://www.solarsystemdrive.com/map-planet-locations.html

vnuk 12y ago

Zagreb also has this, albeit a mini version ... The system is at scale 1:680 000 000. Earth's model is about 1.9 cm in size and at 225 m distance from the sun's model, while Pluto's model is 7.7 km away from it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Views

jerryluc 12y ago

There's one in Denmark as well, although much smaller (1: 1 billion). One thing that I thought was really cool when I visited was that if you stood by the fake earth an looked at the fake sun it appeared precisely the same size as the real sun. Also very cool to walk for a couple of hours and reaching tiny Pluto. http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm http://www.planetstien.dk/Planetarypath.htm

Someone 12y ago
That should be the case for any model that is to scale. The moon and all planets should be real-sized (in steradians), too.

jacobheric 12y ago

We have one in Maine as well, scale 1:93,000,000: http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/ http://pages.umpi.edu/~nmms/solar/

dbaupp 12y ago

Does anyone have a decent photo of the one (Saturn) in Uppsala? Surprisingly, I can't find any photo on the internet (searching in either English or Swedish), I lived there in 2012 and don't remember seeing a 6.1m circular object in Celsiustorget at all.

bencoder 12y ago
From the article: > the model is a mat with a picture of Saturn, but will eventually grow to crown a school planetarium at the city
- dbaupp 12y ago
  I didn't notice a mat with a picture of Saturn (and I walked past the place many times); but, ivh notes it was just temporary.
ivh 12y ago
It was a temporary thing during the "year of astronomy"; the mat was on the shopping street just outside the old Celsius observatory. For the time being there is no Saturn as far as I know. But its moon Titan should still be hanging at the same spot, a ~40cm semi-translucent sphere to represent the thick atmosphere.
- dbaupp 12y ago
  Oh, I didn't realise it was temporary, thanks. (I walked past Celsiushuset many time but never noticed the moon. :( )

theaeolist 12y ago

Just to have an idea how sparse space is, the closest star at this scale would be about 5x the (actual) distance to the moon.

pivo 12y ago

Boston has one as well: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massachusetts.html http://www.tripadvisor.com/Guide-g60745-i3496-Boston_Massach... not to scale :)

julianpye 12y ago

Munich has one, too with a much smaller scale, with the sun central at the technology museum 'Deutsches Museum'

basicallydan 12y ago

That's great, I'm going to Stockholm in November so I'll check out Mercury. Thanks for sharing. It'd be even better if there was an international solar system which involved several countries, to make it an even larger scale.

neves 12y ago

Solar Systems in scale are really impressive. We usually see them in books, where all the planets are close. The amount of space is astonishing. I saw one in Brazil in a Astronomy Museum http://www.mast.br/ http://www.mast.br/, the Sun is smaller than a golf ball and you have to walk dozens of meters to get to Uranus. The nearest star would be in a city more than a thousand kilometers away. This is what I call a humbling experience.

dspillett 12y ago

Not on the same sort of scale at all, but York (UK) has a scale model along one of the Sustrans cycling routes: http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/ http://www.york.ac.uk/solar/ SkyRide do free regular guided public rides down the route (or sometimes a subset there of for people who don't feel up to the full length and back) which is a pleasant way to spend an hour or two if you are in the area.

linuxlizard 12y ago

The Smithsonian Institute (Washington DC, USA) has a walking model along the capital mall. Our local (Boise, ID) Discovery Center has a model, too. Fun stuff!

JonRB 12y ago

I seem to recall reading about a scale model of the solar system somewhere in the northern hemisphere that 'included' the nearest star in Australia somewhere... Anybody else heard of this?

ep103 12y ago

Ithaca, NY has one of these too : )