Solar System Quilt, 1876 (Ellen Harding Baker, Cedar County, Iowa)

via Boing Boing

the-star-stuff:

Flag Designs for Earth & The Solar System in 2020 and Beyond

Redittor thefrek has designed a kick-ass series of flags for the Solar System and its planets. But flags, as we all know, change over time. So he’s also created possible revisions for those flags reaching as far as 800 years into the future.

Here you’ll find thefrek’s concept designs for “Earth/Solar flags throughout the future,” but we highly recommend checking out the banners he envisioned for each individual planet, and especially this batch of future-flags from a Martian Revolution, when the Red Planet “declares itself to be the dominant force in the Solar System, and claims all other planets as part of its empire.”

Earth’s flag

2020: Humanity is only present on Earth and the Moon.

2044: Humans have settlements on Earth, the Moon, Mars and its moons, and Ceres.

2087:Two more objects in the Asteroid Belt have been colonized as well as Europa and Venus.

2204: Humans have settled on every large body in the Solar System. Terraforming is well underway on most planets, and interstellar voyages are beginning.

2355: Another star system is incorporated into the Solar Federation.

2412: Another system has been conquered.

2484: The Solar Federation now has too many systems to show them on the flag - Each circle represents one star system, with the Solar System in the centre.

2514: Yet more systems are being settled.

2544: Expansion is occurring at a breakneck pace.

2639: Several different alien races now exist within the Solar Federation, co-existing peacefully with humanity.

2812: 800 years into the future, the Solar Federation is the leading force in the galaxy, with all denizens of our galaxy being given equal representation. Humanity has taken the responsibility to ensure peace and prosperity everywhere in the Milky Way.

Check out more examples of thefrek’s futuristic flag work over on reddit.

mosaic from the WISE infrared telescope, NASA, celebrating a new atlas of 560+ million objects

via Wired Science

Astronomical - scale model of the solar system in 12 506 page books

by Mishka Henner

!!!

LEGO Orrery (by V&A Steamworks)

ecotone:

Polyhedron Solar System

freshphotons:

Moving Copernican System & Ptolemaic Solar System Papercraft Models. Also check out the Sun model. Someone also made Einstein, Sagan and Darwin models. Get your cut and paste on!

inky:

Distance from the Sun

Having a go at making infographics. Distances from the sun are to scale; the sizes of the objects are not. Click the image to embiggen.

the latest view from Cassini - Janus and Prometheus 

via CICLOPS