Welcome to the Arizona Scale Model Solar System!

Image showing turquoise rectangles representing select buildings, grey lines representing roads and red-orange circles representing the locations of plaques marked with their respective name.

Welcome to The Arizona Scale Model Solar System, where you can stroll from the Sun to Pluto.

The size of each object and the distances between them are shown at a 1 to 5 billion scale. The model extends 0.68 miles along the University of Arizona Mall, starting with the Sun, located outside the Kuiper Space Science Building on the east, and beyond west Main Gate. The Arizona Scale Model Solar System was inaugurated in 2023 and is brought to you by the University of Arizona, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the Arizona Space Grant Consortium.

To know the universe and understand our place in it is a fundamental pursuit of humankind. Science, and space science in particular, has arisen to directly look for answers. Developing an intuitive grasp of astronomical scales is challenging, even for those who study it. Artwork has the power to engage our minds in powerful ways. Public art, in particular, has the potential to enrich lives, contribute to cultural dialogue, and enhance the community's identity. It can reshape perceptions and forge a deeper connection with a place. The University of Arizona has a rich history of contributing to NASA space missions, including the Apollo program, which led to humankind taking its first steps on another planetary body in 1969. Our exploration of space through these missions combined with the important fundamental research conducted at LPL and the University of Arizona has contributed significantly to our understanding of each of the planets in our solar system. This project stands as a testament to this legacy.

A yellow disk of the sun with prominences visible around the edge and two bands of bright activity just above and below the equator.

The Sun

A cratered planetary surface with bluer and yellower hughes representing different compositions

Mercury

Side by side images of Venus showing the cloudtops with the left showing a generally more uniform and bright white side and the right panel showing more variation in brightness with slightly darker/more yellow/orange colors around middle latitudes and variation in clouds with hints at the characteristic "Y" cloudtop pattern of Venus.

Venus

NASA image of the Earth. Mexico is at the center, with other portions of North and South America peaking out from the swirling clouds that cover much of the globe.

Earth & Moon

NASA image of Mars with a rusty red surface and icy polar caps at top and bottom.

Mars

NASA image of a dark, grey asteroid, Bennu. Roughly diamond shaped, it is illuminated from the left with boulders visible on the surface and a large, sloping crater near the dark shadowed edge to the right.

Asteroid Belt

NASA image of Jupiter with dark and light grey-brown swirling stripes of clouds nearer to the poles and more vibrant red, orange and white cloud bands nearer to the equator. The Great Red Spot is near the center above a series of small, bright white circular storm features.

Jupiter

NASA image of Saturn with sunlight from behind the planet and to the right illuminating the planet disk and rings and throwing a black shadow onto a portion of the bottom left-hand portion of the rings.

Saturn

NASA image of Uranus. The featureless, muted turquoise disk of the planet is just shy of completely full and is otherwise uninterrupted.

Uranus

NASA image of Neptune; a dark royal blue with wisps of white clouds surrounding a large storm near the center.

Neptune

NASA image of Pluto in false color with a tan, vaguely heart-shaped region taking up the lower-right hand quadrant going into shadow; the left lobe of this region is smooth compared to other, more cratered regions which are shown in a brick red, icy white and yellow.

Pluto