Editing Solar System model (section)

{{Short description|Illustration of the relative positions of the Sun and planets}}
[[File:Planetarium in Putnam Gallery 2, 2009-11-24.jpg|thumb|A 1766 Benjamin Martin mechanical model, or [[orrery]], on display at the [[Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments]]]]
'''Solar System models''', especially mechanical models, called ''[[orreries]]'', that illustrate the relative positions and motions of the [[planet]]s and [[Natural satellite|moon]]s in the [[Solar System]] have been built for centuries. While they often showed relative sizes, these models were usually not built to scale. The enormous ratio of interplanetary distances to planetary diameters makes constructing a [[scale model]] of the Solar System a challenging task. As one example of the difficulty, the distance between the [[Earth]] and the [[Sun]] is almost 12,000 times the diameter of the Earth.

If the smaller planets are to be easily visible to the naked eye, large outdoor spaces are generally necessary, as is some means for highlighting objects that might otherwise not be noticed from a distance.  The [[Museum of Science (Boston)|Boston Museum of Science]] had placed bronze models of the planets in major public buildings, all on similar stands with interpretive labels.<ref>"[https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM7R8M_Boston_Community_Solar_System_Sun_Boston_MA Boston Community Solar System]" at Waymarking.com.</ref> For example, the model of [[Jupiter]] was located in the cavernous [[South Station]] waiting area. The properly-scaled, basket-ball-sized model is 1.3 miles (2.14 km) from the model Sun which is located at the museum, graphically illustrating the immense empty space in the Solar System. 

The objects in such large models do not move. Traditional orreries often did move, and some used clockworks to display the relative speeds of objects accurately. These can be thought of as being correctly scaled in ''time'', instead of ''distance''.