On the same scale of measurement the distance of the six-inch globe of the earth from the fifty-four foot globe representing the sun would be one and one-tenth miles. The moon would be placed fifteen feet from the earth-globe and the diameter of the solar system on the same scale measured across the orbit of Neptune would be sixty-six miles. The nearest star on this scale would be three hundred thousand miles away. * * * * * If the distance from the earth to the sun is taken as one inch so that the scale of the universe is reduced six trillion times, the diameter of the solar system across Neptune's orbit is five feet and the distance of one light-year comes out almost exactly equal to one mile. The nearest star to the five-foot solar system would be four and a third miles away; the most distant known object would be two hundred and twenty thousand miles away, and the extent of the visible universe would be three hundred thousand miles. On the same scale the diameter of our sun would be about one hundredth of an inch and the diameters of the giant stars Antares and Betelgeuze would be four inches and two and three-fourth inches respectively. To see the earth we would need a microscope. TABLES TABLE I THE PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM =============+=============+========+============+========+============+=========== |Mean Distance from Sun| |Velocity| | +-------------+--------+ | in | |Inclination | |Relative| Period | Orbit |Eccentricity| of Planet | In Miles | to | of |(Miles | of | Orbit to | |Earth's | Revolution | per | Orbit | Ecliptic | |Distance| |Second )| | ------------+-------------+--------+------------+--------+------------+----------- Mercury | 36,000,000| 0.39 | 87.97 days |23 to 35| .2056 | 7° 0' Venus | 67,200,000| 0.72 |224.70 days | 21.9 | .0068 | 3 23 Earth | 92,900,000| 1.00 |365.25 days | 18.5 | .0167 | 0 0 Mars | 141,500,000| 1.52 | 1.88 years| 15.0 | .0933 | 1 51 Asteroids[1]| ...........|2.0-5.2 | ......... | ...... | .00 to .40 | 0° to 35° Jupiter | 483,300,000| 5.20 | 11.86 years| 8.1 | .0484 | 1 18 Saturn | 886,000,000| 9.54 | 29.46 years| 6.0 | .0558 | 2 29 Uranus |1,781,900,000| 19.19 | 84.02 years| 4.2 | .0471 | 0 46 Neptune |2,971,600,000| 30.07 |164.79 years| 3.4 | .0085 | 1 47 ============+=============+========+============+========+============+=========== FOOTNOTE: [1] About 940 have been discovered up to the present time. THE PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM (Continued)