Seattle Solar System — Concept

A Public Art+Science Project Concept

Read the whole presentation (with maps) here:
Seattle Solar System Presentation (PDF)

Imagine building a solar system scale model in Seattle with the sun being the stainless steel dome of the International Fountain at Seattle Center.

The diameter of the dome sphere is 30 feet. (I got the fountain dimensions from the engineers at Wet Design.)

How big are the planets? The inner planets are tiny. Earth is only 3.3 inches in diameter. The outer planets are bigger. The biggest, Jupiter, is 36 inches in diameter. Imagine the planets as creative artworks of these sizes.

How far are the planets? The inner planets are within about a mile of Seattle Center. Mercury is at the Science Center, home of the Willard Smith Planetarium. I envision the inner planets spread out from Seattle Center down Broad Street and along the Waterfront.

The outer planets extend to the outskirts of the Seattle Metropolitan area. I envision them spread out along I-90 to the Cascades (along the I-90 Trail and the Mountains to Sound Greenway). But they could go north, south, east, or west.

Read the whole presentation (with maps) here:
Seattle Solar System Presentation (PDF)

Next Steps?

I'm hoping some professional artists that are interested in science might like to run with this concept. I'm hoping the art team from the Seattle Waterfront Project might collaborate with the Pacific Science Center to make something happen.

Explore a Zoomable Map Online

Click the link below to go to the Solar System Scale Model Calculator with the sun diameter set to 30 feet and the latitiude and longitude set to the center of the International Fountain.

Seattle Solar System Model
Sun = 30 ft (Scale 1:152,231,000)

Then click the "Show in Googles Maps" button to get a zoomable map of the imaginary model solar system model.

Alternatively, we can set the scale to an even 1:150,000,000. The model is almost exactly the same size either way.

Seattle Solar System Model 2
Scale 1:150,000,000 (Sun = 30.54 ft)

Concept by Keith Enevoldsen, k.enevoldsen@wlonk.com .

(By the way, my daughter, Alice Enevoldsen, was planetarium supervisor at the Pacific Science Center.)