The Swedish Solar System

Do you know that Sweden has its own representation of the Solar system? The scale model spread across the country is considered to be the largest model of the Solar System in the world. The model was created by Nils Brenning and Gösta Gahm.

The scale of the system is 1:20 million and it represents the sun, the planets, the dwarf planets and other bodies. The dimensions of the represented objects goes up to 71 m in diameter.

The Sun is the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, the largest building in the world having a spherical shape. You can see it if you get off at Globen subway station on the green line, in the southern part of the Swedish capital. The Ericsson Globe is also the host for the Swedish National Hockey team and sometimes of the local Djurgården hockey team. Also, the Eurovision Song Contest took place here in 2000 and 2016.

Mercury is inside the Stockholm City Museum, at almost 3 km away from the Ericsson Globe. The museum is close by Slussen subway station, but is closed for renovations until 2018.

Venus is placed inside the Vetenskapens Hus at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), at circa 5.5 km from the Globe. The closest station here is Tehniska hogskolan.

Earth is also placed in Stockholm, namely at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, at 7.6 km away from the Ericsson Globe. The same museum hosts Earth’s Moon. To arrive here, get of at Universitetet.

Mars is further north, in Mörby Centrum, close the subway station with the same name.

Jupiter is placed outside Stockholm Arlanda airport, just outside the city, at 40 km away from the Globe. It can be reached by using the Arlanda Express.

Saturn is in Uppsala, the closest city outside the northern Stockholm. Is it placed on Celsius Square (Svartbäcksgatan), which has it name from Andres Celsius, the Swedish astronomer. It’s 73 km away from the Globe.

Uranus can be found in Lövstabruk at Stora magasinet. Its distance from the Globe is 146 km.

Neptune is located in Söderhamn in the park called Strykjärnsparken. Its placed 229 km away from the Globe in Stockholm.

These are the main bodies from the Solar System represented in Sweden. But the list goes on, with dwarf planets and smaller objects, while the model stretches out all the way to Kiruna, in the northern part of the country. Find more about the project on its official website.

Text: Ionut @ stoRy touRs
Photo: swedensolarsystem.se

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