The 34 moon collection put out a couple days ago at the Barnabu blog has now been taken to the next natural evolution. James has changed the Earth into the Sun (by adding an image overlay) and then scaled the Moons down relative to the size of the Sun and added all the planets as 3D models as well. So now you have a true-to-scale comparison of the main bodies of the solar system. The new Google Earth Solar System 
(7 Mbytes) collection is quite cool looking. NOTE: Turn off the “View->Atmosphere” so the sun doesn’t have a blue halo around it. It’s very hard to see all the detail on each 3D model with the standard Google Earth interface though. You could use the G-Force mode of Google Earth to fly over the planets. But, the best way is to use the SpaceNavigator 3D mouse. Check out this video fly-by I created – it starts with the smallest moon above 100 km in size:
Here’s the link to the story at the Barnabu blog. Great work again James!
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
It’s so amazing! I was surprised that the earth was so smaller than the sun.
Congratulations its a great work and its so important for education and research for beginnerss like me thanks a lot
Could it all possibly be a mindless accident?!! Or, was it designed….by an amazing Designer??!
wow! it’s so amazing i hope someday like google earth we can see the other planets or the milk way i hope someday guys you create that could be amazing
Simply amazing! It makes me sad however that my good friend Fred, aka Fred Asparagus did not live long enough to witness this magnificence.
“Could it all possibly be a mindless accident?!! Or, was it designed….by an amazing Designer??!”
Those who claim that this “amazing designer” is responsible, were the same who claimed that the earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around it, they are putting faith in front of science, letting faith invade the field of science, and are thus standing in the way of true understanding of the world.
“Those who claim that this “amazing designer” is responsible, were the same who claimed that the earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around it, they are putting faith in front of science, letting faith invade the field of science, and are thus standing in the way of true understanding of the world.”
I think we’ve gone quite a few generations beyond believing that an earth-centric system. Whether you believe in a created universe or not, mankind has had the propensity to mistake things. We live, we learn. Faith is just an expression that indicates belief in something that is not proven. Give us undeniable proof and faith is no longer necessary. Science (truth) will always supplant faith when possible, but the question of origin of life can not be answered by current science – so faith remains.
I’ve probably enjoyed Google Earth a little too much. I can spend hours taking virtual vacations all over the planet. Now I can go to other planets!?!
The solar system is indeed amazing and the solar system on Google Earth has made the universe a bit smaller. I firmly believe unquestionably that, there is only one “amazing designer” responsible for everything including the order of the universe, and the reason why the planets don’t collide rather than believing solely on science.
Everyone looks for reasons behind every new discovery hence, the curious mind plus science only complicates things further because of different interpretations
This same module will also be available as a rear end addition to the Celestron C11 and C14. This package will include the Lunt True ERF to safely aperture the scope to the appropriate size, removing both UV and IR energy from the optical path. A straight thru BF will be integrated into the module for enhanced viewing.
In Google Earth you can get around the solar program just like you get around though Earth.