Our Solar System is so large it is hard to understand sizes and distances involved because all the numbers are also very large. We often hear these large numbers, learn them, and repeat them when asked:
The Sun is 865,000 miles in diameter.
The Earth is 93,000,000 miles from the Sun.
The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.
It takes light 8.5 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth.
About the only number we can truly understand is the 8.5 minutes. We use that time period on a daily basis. That's the time it takes to cook a well done steak on the grill. That's the time it takes to get to the local grocery store. That's a little less than the time it takes me to run a mile.(Hey, I'm retired, give me a break.)
186,000 miles? has your car traveled that far? 23 Round-trips New York to Los Angeles? How about 24 hr/day at 60 mph for 129 days? It's hard to grasp the distance, isn't it?
We won't even attempt to understand 93,000,000.
Welcome to My Solar System.
My Solar System is a scale model at a ratio of about 23,000,000 : 1.
In My Solar System:
The Sun is a 200 foot diameter water tank on the south edge of Harlingen, TX. All other distances, sizes, and measurements are based upon this 200 foot diameter Sun.
The Earth is about 4 miles from the Sun.
The speed of light is about 34 mph.
PLUTO is no longer listed as the ninth planet. It has been downgraded to Dwarf Planet. This is primarily due to its small size and unique orbit. Its orbital path doesn't lie in the same plane as the eight planets, but is inclined at an angle of 17°. Its orbit is also more oval-shaped, or elliptical, than those of the planets. That means that sometimes Pluto is a lot nearer to the Sun than at other times, At times Pluto's orbit brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune. Pluto has an average distance from the Sun of 3.6 Billion miles.
Pluto, like Uranus, rotates on its side. A day on Pluto is about 6 Earth days long. It take 248 years for Pluto to orbit the Sun.
Pluto is a solid body made up of rocks and metal. It has mountains and plains. It has a diameter of 1400 miles, which is only 1/2 the distance across the United States. Pluto has 5 moons. The largest, Charon, is so big that Pluto and Charon orbit each other like a double planet. The only spacecraft to visit Pluto is NASA’s New Horizons, which passed close by in July 2015. Data from the New Horizons is still being processed and new discoveries are still being made. It takes 4 hours and 41 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to Pluto.
In My Solar System, Pluto is 161 miles from the Sun and is 3.9 inches in diameter (size of a softball.)
CREDITS:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/