Melbourne Solar System with Christopher Lansell
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Excerpt

Conceived by artist Christopher Lansell; designed, made and installed by Cameron Robbins, this is a sculptural model of our solar system. Created at a scale of 1:1 billion, it wraps 5.9 kilometres around Port Philip Bay in Melbourne, Australia. At this scale, one millimetre represents one thousand kilometres.Therefore the Earth has a diameter of 12.8 millimetres, situated 150 metres from the sun – which is a bronze sphere 1390 millimetres across.

The smaller planets (Pluto is 2.4mm across) are machined from solid marine grade stainless steel, while the larger planets and Sun are cast from silicon bronze. The planets are all mounted on bluestone plinths, with stainless steel information plaques attached.

The Sun is located at St. Kilda Marina, while Pluto is in Port Melbourne. To reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun, you would have to travel right around the world and roughly back to St. Kilda.

The Sun; cast bronze, diameter 1,390mm – the actual Sun being 1,390,000km in diameter – sited at Elwood, Victoria. At 1:1 Billion, 1mm (model) = 1,000km (actual size)

Pluto is 2.4mm in diameter – being 2360km in diameter – and made from stainless steel. It is situated 5.9 kilometers away in Port Melbourne.

Saturn, cast bronze, 300mm across the rings

One of the information plaques

Earth is 12.4mm across, being 12,756.2km at full scale, sits at 150metres from the Sun