(via) We’re one of the first generations in the history of our species that has ever had to confront – with common knowledge – the vastness of our solar system and appreciate our earth’s fragile position within it. While it’s true our ancestors surely looked up at the night sky and pondered the meaning of it all, our children can now watch concise explanations of solar wind, black holes and lunar orbits on Netflix at the press of a button. It’s only natural for us to want to put it into perspective so we don’t feel dwarfed and insignificant by it all. These 3D printed, high resolution planets in a bottle come from London’s Little Planet Factory, and would go far in settling down at least some of the nagging moments of existential despair. Think of them as Galileo’s worry beads…

A small bottle attempting to maintain the correct scale between the 8 planets of the solar system at a scale of 1:5,000,000,000. Much as in reality the entire bottle is almost entirely dominated by the volume (and mass) of the four gas giants while the four solid planets settle almost dust like in comparison at the bottom of it.

The maker, George Ioannidis, also does one-offs of moons, dwarf-planets, asteroids and terrain close-ups (eg. our moon’s Tycho Crater). Earlier this year he was so inundated with orders for his heavenly bodies that he stopped taking them until he could tackle a crazy backlog. Thankfully, that temporary halt lifts at the end of this month…