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Filmmakers Built a Scale Model of the Solar System in the Desert

At seven miles in diameter, this is not your basic Science Fair project.
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Even with the likes of Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson waxing eloquent about stardust and the millions, billions, and trillions of celestial objects that light the night sky, it's hard to realistically fathom just how vast space is. Filmmakers Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh take on a more modest—but still massive—swath of infinity in a new video called To Scale: The Solar System. The video does like it says, bringing you through a 7-mile stretch of Black Rock Desert that the duo has repurposed as a scale model of our humble stellar huddle, complete with timelapse footage of their car tracing each planet's orbit.

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The sun is a little bit bigger than a pilates ball, while Earth is a tiny blue marble, and even Saturn and Jupiter could easily fit in the hand. It's really stunning to see the chunk of floating rock our entire lives are contained upon be reduced to an out-of-style kids' toy from the 90s. Speaking of which, 90's kids may find the exclusion of Pluto a little jarring. We know it's not a planet, but couldn't you have included the poor little guy anyway guys?

See more of Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh's work on their websites.

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