system maps, scale, and such

[geoschmo]

From this plot chart it appears the asteroid belt is a solid sheet of green, but that obviously is a trick of the scale of the image. There is an absolute minimum pixel size that can be displayed on a computer monitor, and a somewhat smaller absulute minimum size dot that is visible to the human eye. A chart with scale size dots representing the asteroids would have to be tremendously larger than what will fit on a computer screen, and would make obvious how much empty space there is between the asteroids.

There is a representation of the solar system at my local natural history museum, as there probably is one at yours. The earth in it is about the size of an avegage frozen pea. Even at this scale it is not possible to fit the entire system into the building, but they have a map of the county that shows the location of where the outer planets would have to be positioned to be to scale. At that scale most of the asteroids would be invisible without a microscope.

That being said the area the asteroids cover is a tremendous one, and the toal mass of the rocks is quite large. I am sure it would make a quite decent size planet if it were collected into one body the way the rest of the planets did.

Geoschmo