“As we got farther and farther away, the Earth diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine… seeing this has to change a man.” – James Irwin, Apollo 15
An Earth the size of the marble that James Irwin saw requires SEVEN MILES of empty space. Seven miles. Try that on for size.
This really is a beautiful project, and one that the builders hope will provide a perspective only 24 humans have had with their own eyes. Yep, only 24 people in the entire history of our species that have actually seen the full circle of the Earth with their own eyes. While this is indeed a model, the to-scale nature invokes that surreal sense of stature — our stature as mere specks of a species floating on a marble in the vast expanse of space.
What they did after marking each planet was to drive each of the planet’s orbits at night with a timelapse set up…
…to accentuate depth or reach of our solar system.
And in the morning, when the sun came up, they held up their model sun to exhibit the respective proportions.
In the end, it served and serves as a reminder — a beautiful reminder at that — of the never-ending horizon that stretches out above us all.
