What If: Science, Theory, and Possibilities episodes
What If We Shrunk the Solar System to Fit Inside a City?

What If We Shrunk the Solar System to Fit Inside a City?

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What would our solar system look like if it fit inside a single city—and could you walk across it in one day? Explore a city-sized scale model to discover the distances between planets and our place in space.

Along the way, investigate Apophis, the asteroid nicknamed the "God of Chaos." How big is it compared with Earth, how close will it pass, and what would it actually take for an asteroid to destroy our planet? Put planetary sizes, orbital distances, and asteroid encounters into perspective.


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#solar system, #space, #science, #What If, #hypothetical, #NASA, #astronomy, #astrophysics, #solar system scale model, #planetary distances, #planet sizes, #Apophis, #God of Chaos asteroid, #asteroid close approach, #asteroid impact, #Earth, #Mercury, #Venus, #Mars, #Saturn, #Uranus, #Neptune, #Pluto


Timeline

00:00:Shrinking the solar system to fit inside a city

02:08:Mercury

03:27:Venus

06:10:Earth

07:43:Mars

10:50:Saturn

13:27:Uranus

16:24:Neptune

17:26:Pluto

18:05:Scaling down to realistic proportions

20:47:How big is Apophis compared with Earth?

21:37:What would it take to destroy Earth?