OMG Space compresses 10.1 billion kilometres into onto a 1:647 scale visual recreation of our solar system. Wired spotted the work, completed by graphic designer 
Trudell explains: “It’s hard for most people without backgrounds in these areas to really comprehend what it means when we send a probe past Jupiter for example, or how far away Eris really is, and it’s simply difficult to truly grasp the magnitude of our solar system and all it’s celestial inhabitants. Thus, I decided that visuals would greatly help people’s understanding of space and our achievements in space exploration, and as a graphic designer I was more than excited to get to work.”
The distances between planets and the size of the planets themselves are to scale. When you eventually find Earth, it’s a pinprick. Imagine launching a satellite from that blob to, say, Mercury, about five minutes of scrolling away, and getting close enough to get pictures. Then realise that humanity has already done that, and have a sudden urge to be amazed by science.
OMG Space lets you browse all the way from the Sun out to Eris, the most massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System, orbiting at a mean distance of 10.1 billion kilometres.
If only there were more games that let us play with space in a more interactive way, perhaps something that’d let us throw Jupiter at Saturn just to see what would happen. It turns out there is. It’s called Steam now at 40% off. It lets you do stuff like this:
Filed under: Astronomy Software
