Solar System UK
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Solar System UK |
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Each year, the British Association for the Advancement of Science holds a national Science, Engineering and Technology week. Solar System UK is a plan to participate in this year's event, set99, which should really put UKSEDS on the map.
The plan is to build a scale model of the solar system, with the Sun at Greenwich and the nine planets at various schools throughout the UK, stretching out to Pluto in Edinburgh. Each planet would form the centrepiece of a display of space related projects done by pupils at the schools as part of the National Science Curriculum sections on Astronomy and the Universe. We are also hoping to hold talks by UKSEDS members or local speakers at the schools concerned. In this way, we hope to make set99 a big event with educational benefits for pupils at the schools, as well as promoting awareness of space.
The planets themselves are to scale, as well as the sun. This means that each planet will be on the order of metres in diameter. That probably makes them a little hard for school students to build, so we need to find someone else to build the planets. I was thinking of enthusiastic UKSEDS members - ideally, they could work with the schools to build the planets. It's the event itself and the projects done by pupils for the display that will be valuable to the school students educationally, not building 6 - metre balls!
We are almost at the stage where we can start writing off to schools and city councils with our plans. We're also going to apply for financial awards from the Royal Society and IoP. That'll help with expenses such as materials to build the planets, transport for committee members, etc. March is soon, so we have to move quickly.
This could be a really big event - we shouldn't have too much trouble attracting the media for this one! It'll put UKSEDS and the schools involved on the map, and it'll be valuable educationally. However, we need enthusiastic participation from members if it is going to happen. If you can help in any way - from helping to build the planets to having a contact at a well placed school - please contact us!
Taking the Sun to be at Greenwhich and Pluto to be at Edinburgh, the distances of the other planets from Greenwhich are shown below. It works out as about 8.5 miles per AU. Below the pictures I've listed some places which are well placed to hold planets.
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| Inner Planets: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth |
| Middle Planets: Earth, Mars and Jupiter | Outer planets:Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto | ||
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There are branches of UKSEDS at Leicester, Bristol and Kent.
Manchester, Oxford, Royal Holloway, Southampton and Edinburgh are potential branches...
As far as I know, there are committee members from Leicester, Reading, Northampton, Kent, Devon, Liverpool, Bath, Manchester, Oxford, Poole, Sussex and London.
I've put this up because these people may have gone to school in places near their homes, so we may have school contacts in these places if we need them.
| Pluto: | 39 Au | 335 Miles | Edinburgh |
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| Neptune: | 30 Au | 255 miles | Newcastle |
| Uranus: | 19 Au | 160 miles | Manchester, Sheffield, Cardiff, Exeter, Torquay |
| Saturn: | 9.5 Au | 81 Miles | Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry, Bournemouth, Bristol. |
| Jupiter: | 5.2AU | 44 Miles | Oxford, Reading, Cambridge, Brighton |
| Mars: | 1.5 Au | 13 miles | Chigwell, Bamstead, Cheshunt |
| Earth: | 1 Au | 8.5 miles | Fulham, Croydon, Barking, Tottenham, Redbridge |
| Venus: | 0.7 Au | 6 miles | Wandsworth, Kensington, Islington |
| Mercury: | 0.4 Au | 3 miles | Lewisham, |
| Sun: | Greenwich Park |
Where the planets actually go depends on interest in the areas - so exactly how close to the "orbits" the planets are isn't very critical. We should have members near SOME of these places...
All input is welcome!
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This page produced by Will Clarkson
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