This is my eighteenth science project. It is about a model of the solar system.

Objective: To explore the relative sizes of the planets and their orbits around the sun by building a model of our solar system.

Observations: 

The terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, were made by poking small holes in black cardboard. The Jovian planets were made by cutting paper circles out of colored paper, because Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are a lot larger than the terrestrial planets.

The distances between the terrestrial planets was a lot shorter than the distances between the Jovian planets. To mark the orbit of Neptune, we (me, Sarah, mom, and dad) had to pace the distance rather than measure it with a tape because it was such a long way. For the first four planets, it was under three twenty foot tape measures, then eighteen, then twenty one, then forty-seven, and then we just had to walk. We couldn’t see the sun at all from Neptune and we could just barely see it from Uranus.

Me and Sarah at the sun.

Me and Sarah at Mars and Earth from Jupiter.

Me and Sarah at Jupiter and Earth from Saturn.

Me and Sarah at Saturn and Jupiter from Uranus.

Results:

The terrestrial planets were close to the same size with Earth and Venus being almost exactly the same size. Uranus and Neptune were both very cold (Sarah says, “It’s cold enough to freeze a hamster!”) and and about the same size. The terrestrial planets and Jovian planets were very different in size and had very differently sized orbits.

Conclusion:

I learned from my model of the solar system that the distances between planets end up incredibly huge, even when they start out small and that even when your sun is 11 inches across that you can’t even see Mercury, which means the placemats with the planets on them are way off.

Some things my model didn’t show real well were the colors of the planets, the planet’s temperature, where the planets were in their orbits, the details on the planets, and the debris between each planet.