What do you get when you combine science-inspired wonder and seven miles of desert? An incredible video.

Filmmakers Wylie Overstreet and Alex Gorosh set out to build a scale model of the solar system with the help of a few helpful friends. They traveled 600 miles to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert (home of the Burning Man Festival) to do that. Using various technology, vehicles, a drone, math and perseverance, they created “To Scale: The Solar System,” a seven-minute video that shows the orbits of the eight planets in our solar system. (Sorry, Pluto!)

Bringing Space to Scale

The film is informative, beautiful, and inspiring. It demonstrates our planet’s position in the solar system and provides perspective on how small Earth is in the grand scheme of things. The entire film is captivating, but perhaps the most poignant moment is at sunrise, when the real sun matches the model’s sun, showing that the representation is accurate.

As the video points out, most depictions of the solar system are inaccurate since the planets would have to be “microscopic” to provide a true scale rendering. Overstreet and Gorosh came up with a solution: build a “simulated model” in the middle of a dry lakebed where there’s plenty of space to show off a model of, well, space.

From Inspiration to Visualization

So, why did these filmmakers decide to take on this complex endeavor? Gorosh, a director with high-end commercials and documentaries to his credit, explains the inspiration for the project in a behind-the-scenes video: “As for why we made the model? Because it’s never been done before, and we felt like it.”

Overstreet, a filmmaker with interests in science and nature, also notes, “There is literally not an image that adequately shows you what it [the solar system] actually looks like from out there. The only way to see a scale model of the solar system is to build one.” That’s exactly what they did. They spent 36 hours in what appears to be a rather cold desert building the model and collecting the required footage.

The technology needed for this undertaking from conception to final cut ranges from sophisticated cameras to analogue tech, like a good old-fashioned compass.

They also made its personal harrow, which is typically used to break up soil but is apparently also fantastic for tracing planet orbits in desert sand!

According to Overstreet’s website, he’s working on another “To Scale” video about deep time. If the first “To Scale” video is any indication of what’s possible, we can’t wait.