The Extraordinary Sweden Solar System That Spans the Entire Country

The Sweden Solar System is the largest scale model of the Solar System in existence, and it spans the entire Swedish territory. It was created by astronomers Nils Brenning and Gösta Gahm to help visualize and understand the immense scale of our planetary system.

The scale of the Sweden Solar System is 1:20 million. This means that each meter in the model equals 20 million meters (or 20,000 km) in space.

At this scale, the Sun is represented by the Avicii Arena (formerly known as the Ericsson Globe) in Stockholm, the second-largest spherical building in the world. The Avicii Arena has a diameter of 110 meters, corresponding to the Sun’s actual diameter of 1.39 million kilometers.

The Avicii Arena represents the Sun. Credit: Alexandar Vujadinovic / Wikimedia Commons

The planets are represented by various spherical objects and sculptures scattered across different cities and towns in Sweden.

Mercury is a metal ball with a diameter of 25 centimeters located in the Stockholm City Museum.

Venus is a globe 62 centimeters in diameter at the Royal Institute of Technology in Vetenskapens Hus.

The Earth is represented by a sphere 65 centimeters in diameter at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. It is accompanied by a model of the Moon, 18 centimeters wide. Alongside the globe are satellite images of Earth.

Mars is represented by a copper ball 35 centimeters in diameter in Danderyd, a suburb of Stockholm, while Jupiter is a massive luminous ring 7.3 meters in diameter at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm Arlanda Airport.

Saturn is a decorative mat 6 meters wide placed in Celsius Square in Uppsala. There are also moons of Saturn at local schools.

Uranus is a 2.6-meter-wide model made of blue steel bars, located behind a building in Lövstabruk, and Neptune is an acrylic sphere 2.5 meters wide that glows blue at night. It is located by the Söderhamn River in Söderhamn.

Pluto and its moon Charon are shown as spheres 12 and 6 centimeters in diameter near Lake Dellen in Delsbo. The dwarf planets Makemake, Eris, and Sedna are also represented.

The distances between these planetary models are scaled down from the actual distances in our Solar System. For example, the Earth model is located 8 kilometers from the model of the Sun, while Mars is 12 kilometers away.

Jupiter is 40 kilometers from the Sun in Stockholm, matching its real average distance of 778 million kilometers. Even Pluto is accurately modeled, about 300 kilometers from the Sun.

In addition to the eight major planets, the Sweden Solar System also includes models of some moons, asteroids, and comets, such as the asteroid Vesta (3 cm in diameter) at a school in Täby and the near-Earth asteroid Eros (2 x 0.7 x 0.7 mm) at a school in Danderyd.

The comets Halley and Swift-Tuttle are represented with sculptures in Skövde and Karlshamn, respectively.

This unique model of the Solar System was started in 1999 and currently features more than 60 models and continues to grow as more objects are added.

It is the result of collaboration between various Swedish astronomical and space organizations, including the Svenska Astronomiska Sällskapet (Swedish Astronomical Society) and the Umevatoriet observatory.

The project was supported by the International Astronomical Union along with funding from the Swedish government.

Neptune. Credit: Vincnetas / Wikimedia Commons

The astronomers and physicists behind the project hope the model can provide a more tangible understanding of the Solar System for students and the general public. Walking among the planets illustrates the vast emptiness of outer space much better than diagrams or books.

Since its completion, the Sweden Solar System has become a popular educational resource. Schools often organize field trips to visit and walk among the models, calculating scale factors along the way. There are commemorative plaques and informational panels at each planetary location.

Tourists exploring Sweden may also come across the models scattered throughout the country, a clever way to appreciate the enormity of our Solar System and human space exploration.

Pluto. Credit: Greger Ravik / Wikimedia Commons – Flickr

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on August 29, 2023: El extraordinario Sistema Solar de Suecia que abarca todo el país