Two dudes recreated the solar system in the desert to prove a point

We hate to break it to you, but you don’t know the solar system as well as you think you do.

Luckily, director Alex Gorosh and filmmaker Wylie Overstreet are here to help with a brilliant video that will show you the solar system in a whole new light.

Typically, when we see the solar system, we see it in a textbook or on paper. From this perspective, it looks as though the planets are practically side-by-side. Unfortunately, this is not the case or else space missions would be a lot less complex.

To portray the solar system realistically, both Gorosh and Overstreet travelled to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. “We have 36 hours to measure the distances, trace out the orbits, and set up a time-lapse shot from up on top of a nearby mountain,” they explain. Then, they do just that using planets that were created to scale, various lights and technological equipment, and the power of science.

Interestingly enough, Earth is the size of a marble, which pays homage to the poetic quote that kicks off this video: “As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size,” said astronaut James B. Irwin. “Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine.”

After all of their hard work was complete, the desert team was able to create a beautiful representation of what the Solar System actually looks like. As you watch their video, you can picture this project being played in science classrooms all across the world.

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