Model of the Universe

 

Let's build a model of the universe.

The universe is also called the cosmos. Cosmology is the branch of science that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is another name for the study of the universe. Scientists use telescopes and other tools to gather information about the universe.  source

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Let's build a scale model of the universe.  It's about spheres.  Spheres can be found everywhere; in sports with basketballs, footballs, tennis balls etc. 

All points everywhere on the surface of a sphere are the same distance from the centre. 

 

1. The visible sun has a diameter of 864,000 miles (more than 3/4 million miles). 
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4. Let us imagine a model universe in which the sun is reduced in size to a sphere one millimeter in diameter (about the size of a salt grain). 
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7. On this scale, Earth would be as large as a single grain of talcum powder (10 microns*), and would be 4.3 inches from the sun. 
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9. * A micron is one millionth of a metre. A micrometre is often used as a measurement for bacteria, because bacteria are very tiny.
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11. What fraction of a metre is 10 microns?
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14. On the same scale, Proxima Centauri would still be 17 miles away. 
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17. Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about 32,000 years......     People also ask
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20. If a sphere, with a radius of 17 miles, were built around our scale model of the sun, there would be one star on the sphere's surface, Proxima Centauri. 
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22. Its Latin name means the 'nearest [star] of Centaurus'. It was discovered in 1915.
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24. All the remaining stars of the galaxy would be located outside the sphere. 
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27. The Milky Way galaxy would have a scale diameter of 425,000 miles, i.e., almost twice the actual distance from the earth to the moon. 
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30. M31 would be slightly larger than the Milky Way (500,000 miles or so in diameter), and would be located 7,000,000 miles away, more than 1/10 the distance from the earth to Mars at opposition (Mars' point of closest approach to the earth)!

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How big would the Sun be if the Earth was a tennis ball?

The tennis ball is 2 ½ inches wide. Note that on this scale, the Sun would be a huge ball nearly 23 feet in diameter, and it would be nearly one-half mile away! 

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