The Scale Of The Solar System YouTube Style

We have enough going on in the average daily news cycle and social interactions via social devices to give much thought to the reality of an existence in the relative obscurity of the galaxy, 26,000 light years from the galactic core.

Well, leave to YouTube and drone technology in providing the platform and powerful tool in helping to build a perspective of the vast distances within our own solar system. In taking a break from the grind of politics and the incessant flow of information, Mark Rober produced this cool video in illustrating the expansive reaches of what the astronomical community considers “local proximity” to earth.

Using simple household items and bountiful creativity to model the known orbit of planets, Rober explores the possible existence of an outer 9th planet over 700 times the distance from the earth to the sun. While the thought experiment may be flawed in accounting for another world in the solar system, at least the narrative gives a solid lesson in the concepts of insignificance and wonderment.

Unlike a certain NASA astronaut, who went to the Twittersphere in claiming the appearance of an alien life form outside of the cozy confines of the space shuttle, Rober asserts the reasonable claim that humanity is probably not alone within the incomprehensible dimensions of the universe.