We’ve all seen the traditional grade-school scale models of the solar system. Maybe you made one years ago in science class out of painted styrofoam balls or colored construction paper.
Or maybe you've seen one of those giant models hanging from the ceiling of a science museum. Big colorful globes, some with rings around them, some painted swirly colors, others looking more like pitted rocks.
For most people, that’s their basic mental image of the solar system. Bright yellow sun in the middle with all the different colored balls circling around it. Neatly contained in an orderly lineup, like different-sized houses on a street.
One thing that these models we have become used to can’t show us is the actual scale involved.
WATCH VIDEOS: Explore the solar system
We’ve all heard of “space”, it’s the place out there. Where the guys with the Right Stuff got to go, and eat rehydrated meatloaf out of a plastic bag. It's where our cell phone satellites are, and where sci-fi heroes drive around at warp speed visiting strange new worlds like one might pop in and out of stores at the mall.
But... how much space is actually in space?
That’s an easy question to answer -- a lot -- but a very hard one to really understand. We’re just not made to comprehend sizes and distances like that. We don’t have to. We live here, on Earth, and always have. It’s a finite place, and even then we have a hard time comprehending the size of it.
Read More: http://news.discovery.com/space/what-is-space-111013.html
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