Q&A for How to Make a Solar System Mobile

Yes, you can.

It is right in the middle of the dowse rod (the fifth planet starting at the orange planet and going towards the right).

Use water to make it a watercolor. If this doesn't work, use markers for best results.

Use fondant with airbrushing for the planets (make round balls and paint with food coloring). The asteroid belt could be formed by making cake or cookie balls, arranged along the top of the cake in a wavy or straight line, as desired.

Yes, but many of the planets have moons, including Saturn, which I believe has 62 moons.

Look for them in craft stores and craft sections of box stores. You can also find them online through craft suppliers and auction traders. You might also find them in dollar stores and thrift stores but call first.

A wooden dowel is simply a straight stick made out of wood. It is usually 12 inches long or 36 inches long. It can be as thin as a pencil (or thinner!) or as thick as your thumb. You can buy it at most arts and crafts shops.

Any type of ball can work, but try to choose something that is sturdy enough while being light enough. Look in dollar stores for a variety of differently sized strong, lightweight balls.

It teaches you: the order of the planets, the planets' names, and will help you study more because it's fun and you get to make stuff with your friends.

Because that is how they are in the solar system's orbit based on their distance from the sun.

Saturn's rings look oval in photos, but this is just a perspective effect, due to the angle at which we see Saturn. They are circular in real life.

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (then Pluto, if you still count it as a planet).

A ring of big rocks in space, floating between Mars and Jupiter. The current theory is that it was a planet that tried to form, but Jupiter's gravity ripped it apart.

Including dwarf planets, thousands. If you mean only rocky planets and gassy planets, then eight: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

No, but if you don't paint them they won't look as much like planets.

You could use whatever you want as long as it has a roof. I used a hanging rod for clothing and tied the styrofoam balls onto it, then taped them on so they wouldn't slide.

Mercury is colored by its iron rich ground; Venus by its sulfuric acid clouds; Earth by its greenery, oceans and land masses; Mars by its iron oxide ground; Jupiter and Saturn by iron oxide, sulfur, nitrogen and silicone atmosphere; Uranus and Neptune by methane and carbon dioxide clouds.

You can add as much or as little detail as you want, this was just an example. You can personalize it or make it how you like.

Because the model is attached to one item to give it support. They cannot move continuously, so they are still and are arranged thus that they are in a line. However, if you try to move them and if they are able to move in a circle then you can see the working solar system. At that stage, it would be hard to keep them in a single line.

The Milky Way refers to the galaxy that the solar system is located in. And it is also the name of a chocolate bar but that's probably not what you mean!

The videographer was probably trying for yellow but didn't succeed. The real Saturn is a pale yellow, due to ammonia crystals present in its outer atmosphere.

Styrofoam.

Maybe you could make the dwarf planets just slightly smaller than the true planets, and then label the dwarf planets more prominently than the true planets.