Tag Archives: Solar System

Adorable Little Planet Push-Pins Will Bring A Bit Of Outer Space To Your Boring Old Desk

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Ever been typing away on your workdesk, only to find your mind flitting away to some far-off memory, as boredom and melancholy slowly creep through your system? Spending 8 hours on your desk can become quite tedious, and sometimes boosting your mood and upping your productivity can seem nearly impossible. But this is where a tiny thing like an adorable stationery design on your desk can truly come in handy. Cute little stationery items carefully dispersed on your desk can add little sparks of joy to your otherwise mundane day. They can bring a smile to your face, no matter how dreary your day feels. And one such lovely design is the Planet Pins by Duncan Shotton.

Designer: Duncan Shotton

These colorful quirky little creations are hand-painted planet pins inspired by the solar system. This adorable stationery set includes eight extraterrestrial shapes, each one hand-painted in Tokyo and then presented in a compact polished acrylic display case. Accompanying the main case, are little moon pins, with realistic astronomical craters on their surface. The moons are concrete cast.

The adorable pins include Mercury in metallic silver, Venus in metallic gold, Earth in painted blue and green, Jupiter in yellow, dark orange, and translucent orange, Mars in red, Saturn in yellow with a metallic silver ring, Uranus in a metallic blue with a metallic silver ring, and Neptune in blue and a lovely white. The pins are beautifully delivered in serial-numbered display cases, so even when they aren’t in use, you can store them neatly in boxes, leaving them out to showcase.

For lovers of outer space and astronomy, the Planet Pins will make for a wonderful addition to their desk or home office, allowing them to integrate their love for the astral spheres into their daily lives and routines. The accompanying moon pins are a bonus, creating a full-fledged and complete solar system for you. Besides featuring little craters, the moons also have a tiny arrangement, representing the iconic “the man on the moon” image. The US flag has also been printed on a card insert, and placed behind each pin, making it a part of the famous setting.

The post Adorable Little Planet Push-Pins Will Bring A Bit Of Outer Space To Your Boring Old Desk first appeared on Yanko Design.

This mechanical LEGO Solar System actually tracks planetary orbits with 99.8% accuracy

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Standing at an impressive 20.5 inches tall and 30 inches wide, this LEGO Ideas entry doesn’t just demonstrate the solar system’s movement, but it does so while staying true to each planet’s orbit time. The Clockwork Solar System from LEGO builders Chris Orchard and Brent Waller is a nearly 3000-brick marvel that replicates our solar system’s celestial dance with 99.8% accuracy while a set of clocks at the bottom even count down the year while the planets rotate around the sun.

Orchard and Waller are both self-professed LEGO nerds, while Waller even mentions he’s been associated with the LEGO Ideas platform for over a decade (going back to the time when it was called ‘CUUSOO’). While they claim that there are countless mechanical models of the solar system (also referred to as orreries), nothing matches the Clockwork Solar System’s complexity and attention to accuracy.

Designers: Chris Orchard & Brent Waller

“The relative orbits periods for each planet to complete an orbit is extremely accurate. A great deal of effort has been spent to make every planet’s orbital timing to be over 99.8% accurate relative to the other planets”, says Chris on his LEGO Ideas submission page. “Each planet’s year is also represented through the 8 dials in the stylish octagonal base. Also included within the base are a motor and battery box to fully motorize the model.”

This isn’t the first time someone’s built a stunningly accurate orrery out of LEGO. Earlier last year, LEGO builder Marian made an orrery that precisely tracked the earth and moon’s movements around the sun complete with accurate moon phases. The Clockwork Solar System, on the other hand, also factors in the other 8 planets (or 7 planets and Pluto if you’re still clutching those pearls).

The post This mechanical LEGO Solar System actually tracks planetary orbits with 99.8% accuracy first appeared on Yanko Design.

Beautifully complex LEGO Orrery demonstrates planetary movements, moon-phases, and eclipses

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I’ll be honest, even after decades, LEGO still holds the potential to absolutely amaze me with its capabilities. The LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery is a stunningly detailed little kinetic machine that doesn’t just replicate the movement of the earth and moon around the sun, it also factors in the earth’s axial tilt, tracks moon phases, demonstrate solar and lunar eclipses, and aims at being as astronomically accurate as possible. Made from a staggering 2303 pieces, the Sun Earth Moon Orrery uses 70 Technic gears to allow the cosmic bodies to move realistically and can either be manually controlled using a hand crank or electrically via an RC motor.

In true Da Vincian fashion, the LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery is as ornate as it’s intricate. Multitudes of well-placed gears allow the miniature earth to rotate on its tilted axis while revolving around the sun, while the moon does the same, completing one rotating and revolution around the earth with each spin. Designed and built by LEGO creator ‘Marian’, the Orrery measures 10.6 inches wide if you count just the 12-faced faceted base (to celebrate the 12 months of the year), and a stunning 20.9 inches if you also factor in the moving earth and moon.

The kinetic orrery realistically models the rotational periods of the sun, earth, and moon along with the orbital periods of the latter two. The earth’s axial tilt lets you easily demonstrate concepts like seasons, solstices, and the change in the sun’s position based on which hemisphere you live on. It also helps accurately depict sunrises and moonrises, how solar and lunar eclipses work, moonphases, tidal locking, and even allows you to track solar and lunar calendars with stunning accuracy (especially for a LEGO kit).

While the LEGO Sun Earth Moon Orrery isn’t available as a standalone kit, you can buy it by checking out Marian’s inventory of parts on Rebrickable. Although do be warned, this fairly complex build comes with a 264-page instruction manual detailing the entire build process in an exhausting 436 steps!

Designer: Marian

The post Beautifully complex LEGO Orrery demonstrates planetary movements, moon-phases, and eclipses first appeared on Yanko Design.

This moon village plans to harness solar energy to sustain tourism in the future!

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In the south polar region of the Moon, architects at SOM–Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have envisioned a Moon Village. In collaboration with ESA–European Space Agency and MIT–Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the debut of Moon Village at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia kicked off an initiative of returning to the Moon five decades after humans first set foot on its surface. Visualized on the rim of the Moon’s Shackleton Crater, the location was chosen with consideration for the near-continuous daylight it receives throughout the lunar year.

Primarily conceived of as a cluster of research stations, Moon Village would host an array of functions spanning from sustainability research opportunities to the future prospect of Moon tourism. The south polar region of the Moon supports the possibility of a self-sufficient settlement, receiving near eternal sunlight that could be harnessed and stored for energy. This part of the Moon also hosts a variety of untouched matter that could offer insight into the Solar System’s early history as well as the general emergence of our larger universe.

Above all else, the structure of each individual hub comprises a modular frame and protective exterior to cater to the varied projects taking place inside. Most of the action would be taking place in each structure’s open centralized space, leaving room for the supportive framework, made from titanium alloy to be built into each building’s perimeter. Describing the structure’s blueprint, the architects at SOM say, “The innovative structural design of the modules is a hybrid rigid-soft system, made of two key elements: a rigid composite perimeter frame and an inflatable structural shell that integrates a multi-layer assembly with an environmental protection system.”

SOM decided on an inflatable shell and rigid, if not a minimal internal framework to easily transport each structure’s building materials by rocket. The combination of a rigid framework and inflatable structural shell, made from open-foam polyurethane and double-aluminized Mylar for insulation, was also chosen by SOM to adapt to internal and external environmental conditions, optimize airflow, and maintain transparent working spaces, while the free centralized volume promotes efficiency and mobility for research projects.

Designer: SOM–Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Located in the south polar region of the Moon, SOM’s Moon Village would harness energy from the sun to generate their research facilities.

Comprising a cluster of Moon Villages, SOM intended for a human-centric design when developing Moon Village.

SOM envisions solar towers to form grids around Shackleton Crater and harness the sunlight’s energy.

Inside, an open centralized volume will leave plenty of room for efficient working and unrestricted mobility.

The main internal structure will be located in the perimeter of each structure.

An external, inflatable structural shell will protect Moon Village hubs from micrometeorites.

The internal framework of Moon Village’s research hubs will ensure the structure’s stability and soundness.

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia hosted Moon Village’s model debut.

Solar System Chocolate Truffle Set Looks Out of This World

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Crafted by Martin’s Chocolatier of the UK, this $20 Chocolate Planets gift set (affiliate link) includes nine different chocolate truffles, each representing a planet in our solar system, plus the Sun. Personally, I would have forgone the Sun and included Pluto instead, but they surprisingly didn’t ask my opinion before bringing the product to market. I’m as shocked and outraged as you are. Planetary lollipops more your cup of tea? No worries, those exist too.

Each planet is a different flavored truffle, including orange cream, chili/cherry ganache, peach cream, praline cream, caramel salt, praline, mocha cream, blueberry ganache, and toffee caramel. Obviously, I’m going to refrain from making jokes about the flavor of Uranus, because, as my wife often utters (while rolling her eyes) in front of friends after I’ve said something entirely inappropriate, “Oh grow up, will you?”

At nearly $2 per planet, I’d almost feel bad eating them. Almost. Then I’d eat them all in one sitting, barely pausing to notice the flavors because that’s just the sort of devourer of worlds that I am – one without any self-control.

[via DudeIWantThat]

Strange exoplanet discovery makes a case for the elusive ‘Planet Nine’

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Scientists have long theorized about a “Planet Nine” in the Solar System with a strange orbit, and there’s now more evidence to suggest it’s possible. Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope have determined that a jovian exoplanet 336 light-year...