Solar System Diorama

Have you ever wanted to have the solar system right in the palm of your hands? This project is a fun and creative way to explore our solar system, as you'll be able to learn about each planet's unique size and position. This diorama is perfect for school projects, science fairs, or even decoration! By the end, you'll be able to admire our solar system right up close, in the palm of your hand, without a telescope.

1. Cardboard box
2. Box cutter
3. Scissors
4. Air dry clay
5. Ruler
6. Markers
7. String
8. Pin
9. Paint
10. Foam sheets
11. Jewels
12. Hot glue gun
13. Tape

In order to make an accurate and precise model of our solar system, I created a Google sheet with each planet's mass, radius, diameter, distance from the sun, volume, density. After finding each information, I scaled the diameter and distance based on the Earth's diameter, which was 1.5 cm.

With the information from the Google sheet, I started to make each planet with the air dry clay. In order to color each planet, I used the ink from markers. You could of course use food coloring or colored clay, but the markers help with the details and blending. For the smaller planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Pluto, I was able to make the full planets. However, for the bigger planets like Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus, I only made a part of them, in order to save clay. When shaping the planets you don't have to worry about them being perfectly smooth, as the planets can be rough and bumpy. For the sun, since it's almost about 100x bigger than the earth, I used yellow felt and cut four circles of different sizes. I then used an orange marker and colored continuous loops. I then glued each circle on top of the biggest one, trying to make it look abstract.

While you're waiting for the planets to dry, you can make the display box. I grabbed some cardboard boxes and cut three pieces with the dimensions of 60 cm by 18 cm. These three pieces would be the back, top, and bottom of the diorama. I then cut out a fourth piece with the dimensions of 18 cm by 18 cm. After that I painted each piece with black paint. Depending on how fast your paint dries, you can use a metallic silver sharpie, or a smaller paint brush and paint the stars. If you want to be extra, you can use the jewels and glue some on for extra stars!

I took a pin and poked a small hole into the smaller planets. For the heavier ones like Earth and Neptune, I hot-glued the string, so it would stay in place.

I glued the sun onto the smallest carboard piece and the bigger planets on one of the long ones. In order to accurately place them, I marked the scaled distances first. For example, you would place Jupiter at 14 cm and so on. For the smaller planets, I marked each of their distances on another one of the cardboard pieces and used the pin again and poked a hole through the marks. Insert the strings through each hole. If any planets are touching you can make another hole a little farther from the original, but not TOO far to maintain the accuracy.

Hot glue each carboard piece together. If you happen to accidentally get hot glue on one of the pieces like me, you can make paint it to look like a meteor or make a 3d star. To hold it together while it dries, you can use some masking tape just in case.