road trip, anyone?

November 12, 2005 1:10 PM

Explore our local chunk of space. Here is a scale view of the Solar System, and here one can take a quick trip around it. Use the guidebook to plan your trip (but beware the pop-up ads). Don't forget to bring a camera and snap some photos.
posted by dazed_one (12 comments total)

Thanks for the post, but whoever formatted that solar system needs some major remedial classes in HTML and design/layout. I had to scroll forever to get to the really cool content.
posted by joe lisboa at 1:32 PM on November 12, 2005

Sun = south tip of Manhattan
Neptune = north tip of Manhattan, 12.5 miles away

Then...
- the Earth is the same size as a tennis ball
- the Moon is six feet away
- Mars is, at closest approach, 1/4 mile away
- Jupiter is, at closest approach, two miles away

I never get tired of those analogies. And it really shows how a planetary mission can't be compared to a lunar mission.

Oh, and for Alpha Centauri, you could fly 5500 miles to Lagos, Nigeria and lay 60 cans of spam end-to-end to represent its diameter.
posted by rolypolyman at 1:34 PM on November 12, 2005

That Viscape SVR plugin is kinda interesting, but it's a bitch to navigate with.
posted by alumshubby at 1:41 PM on November 12, 2005

Damn. Forgot to tag it. Blast. Glad you enjoyed the post though.

Matt/jessamyn, can you add tags please?
posted by dazed_one at 1:44 PM on November 12, 2005

Alas, most of us will never experience anything but virtual space travel. Will our grandchildren? Great grandchildren?
posted by Cranberry at 2:06 PM on November 12, 2005

You can actually add tags yourself...

Also.
posted by panoptican at 2:56 PM on November 12, 2005

joe lisboa, I'm guessing you're being sarcastic, but in case you aren't, be sure to a) scroll quickly to the top left, where you can jump to all the planets, and b) realize that this is to scale, and if you didn't want to scroll forever, then they would have to make it so small that you couldn't see anything. The point of it being to scale is to show you how small a part of it all we are.
posted by dsword at 3:23 PM on November 12, 2005

joe lisboa, I'm guessing you're being sarcastic

Yeah, though not acerbically so. With a smile and a wink. That sort of thing.

The point of it being to scale is to show you how small a part of it all we are.

Well, so much for desiging your app around the end user! Better documentation would be nice, and while they're at it, they should can the tech support staff - they're insufferably smug and can't seem to get their own answers straight.
posted by joe lisboa at 4:05 PM on November 12, 2005

* "designing," of course
posted by joe lisboa at 4:06 PM on November 12, 2005

This post has helped me come to terms with my imminent gasping death from the avian influenza.
posted by longsleeves at 6:52 PM on November 12, 2005

Also, Celestia.
posted by hattifattener at 8:37 PM on November 12, 2005

One of the things that is SO cool about this is that I always read in physics books that they would love to show the galaxy to scale but can't. It can't be done. This did a pretty good job! And the "to scale" part was great too.
posted by xammerboy at 8:30 AM on November 13, 2005