“Based on what we know now and can reasonably imagine, there is absolutely no prospect that any human being will ever visit the edge of our own solar system. Ever. It’s just too far.” — Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson’s book “A Short History of Nearly Everything” packs a punch. From the very first pages, it will turn your entire world upside down. Much of what follows is quoted or paraphrased from his book.
You’ve Never Seen a Scale Model of the Solar System
We’ve all seen models of the Solar System. But you’ve never seen a scale model.
“If you were to make a scale model of the solar system with Earth reduced to the size of a pea, Jupiter would be over 1,000 feet away, Pluto would be 1.5 miles away,” and it would be about the diameter of an iPhone charging cable, so you wouldn’t be able to see it anyway.
“Even if you shrank everything down so Jupiter was the size of the period at the end of this sentence, Pluto would still be 35 feet away and the size of a bacteria.”
