The Planets Are Very, Very, Very Far Away
A Journey Through the Amazing Scale of the Solar System
Author: Mike Vago
The amazing scale of the solar system unfolds before your eyes
Hardcover
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
The amazing scale of the solar system unfolds before your eyes
Description
Quick: Picture the solar system. Do you see nine planets on tidy rings around the Sun? Then you have been lied to!
It's not without reason: We have to draw the solar system that way to fit it on a placemat, a lunchbox, or in an ordinary book. But that familiar diagram is wrong about almost everything - and so this is no ordinary book. Seven gatefold pages open out not once but twice, capturing our planetary neighbors at scale.At a trillion-to-one scale, the Sun is about the size of a dime. And five feet away from the Sun, we find... Earth, the size of a pinhead. A trillion-to-one scale is not nearly small enough to fit our solar system into a book (or onto a soccer field)! How small do we need to go? Unfold the spreads to find out...Critic Reviews
"Winner of the 2024 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
"This short book uses multiple large pullout sections, six landscape pages wide, to illustrate the Solar System . . . a great way to show how vast and empty the Solar System is." -- Science
"Conversational narration uses tongue-in-cheek humor to point out that the planets do not match the neat circular orbits that textbooks depict. Gatefolds, plus an accessible discussion of scale using the metric system, clarify cosmic distances. . . . Sure to leave audiences feeling incredulous—and incredibly small." -- Publishers Weekly
"The Planets are Very Very Very Far Away is an excellent book. One that has a mission and 100% succeeds at completing it. If you’re looking to inspire your children to the wonders of the Solar System, this is an excellent and innovative way to do so." -- GeekDad
About the Author
Mike Vago is the creator of the bestselling The Miniature Book of Miniature Golf. He's a graphic designer and a regular contributor to The A.V. Club. He tells people he lives in New York, but he actually lives in New Jersey..
Quick: Picture the solar system. Do you see nine planets on tidy rings around the Sun? Then you have been lied to!It's not without reason: We have to draw the solar system that way to fit it on a placemat, a lunchbox, or in an ordinary book. But that familiar diagram is wrong about almost everything - and so this is no ordinary book. Seven gatefold pages open out not once but twice, capturing our planetary neighbors at scale.At a trillion-to-one scale, the Sun is about the size of a dime. And five feet away from the Sun, we find... Earth, the size of a pinhead. A trillion-to-one scale is not nearly small enough to fit our solar system into a book (or onto a soccer field)! How small do we need to go? Unfold the spreads to find out...
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