Solar system

The solar system is the retinue of objects gravitationally bound to our Sun. Traditionally, it is said to consist of nine planets and their 156 (at last count) moons; however a large number of other objects, including asteroids, meteoroids, planetoids and comets orbit the Sun along with them.

The solar system in small scales

Scaling down the size of the solar system makes it easier for students to grasp the relative distances. The enormous ratio of interplanetary distances to planetary diameters makes constructing a scale model of the solar system a challenging task. (For example, the distance between the Earth and the Sun is almost 12,000 times the diameter of the Earth.) Several places have built such models.

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