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Rigorous Science

Scale model solar system in interstellar space - will it work?

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Now that FTL travel is here there are all sorts of family outings we can go on.

One of these is a scale model solar system lovingly made by hobbyist Barty Slartfast.

In full scale

Sedna is three times farther away from Earth than Pluto, making it the most distant observable object known in the solar system. It is 143.73 billion km from the Sun, thus giving the Solar System a diameter of 287.46 billion km. It is 143.73 billion km from the Sun, thus giving the Solar System a diameter of 287.46 billion km. https://www.universetoday.com/15585/diameter-of-the-solar-system/

The scale model

Barty scaled it down by a billion. He made sure that all distances and diameters are in proportion to the real thing

The masses of the solar bodies are in proportion to those of the real ones. (but not necessarily scaled by the same factor as the distances)

To be determined

We've divided distances by a billion, how much should we scale down the masses of the mini-planets to make it all work (or doesn't it matter because we can also adjust orbital velocity)?

The planetary spins can be adjusted if this is necessary. He doesn't intend to have atmospheres, liquids or even tidal effects. Just solid bodies.

Question

Ignoring gravitational disturbances from tourists, can we make such a scaled down solar system that will be held together by gravity once the initial velocities and all other parameters have been set correctly?

Bonus question

It would be nice for tourists if the Little Earth year could be about an hour. Can this be done simply by adjusting the masses and orbital velocities?

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/131497. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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