| 14. |
The whole solar system is now in view. The sun and the planets nearest it - Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars - have together been reduced to a tiny circle (1), but
the other planets and their wider orbits are clearly seen: Jupiter (2), Saturn (3),
Uranus (4), Neptune (5), and Pluto (6). The latter's orbit at one place comes inside
Neptune's. The whole orbit of Halley's Comet is here; also its position in
1951 (7). It will be near the earth again in 1986. The elliptic nature of the
planets' orbits has been taken into account. In most cases, however, this again
means only that the sun is not in the center of an orbit, for the difference of
its shape from the circle cannot be seen in any of them except Pluto's. The inclination
of the orbits to the plane of the horizon of Bilthoven has been neglected.
Light would on this scale travel about 1 centimeter per hour.
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1 cm. in picture = 1014 cm. = 1,000,000,000 km. | Scale = 1:1014 |
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