DIY Rotating 3D Earth, Moon & Sun Model
Did you know the Earth and Moon are constantly in motion? They twirl around on their axis and orbit the Sun and Earth respectively.
This spinning and orbiting result in some common and cool phenomena – from day and night to seasons to solar and lunar eclipses.
- Day and night – It’s no coincidence that it takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin around. When the Earth spins on its axis, we experience day and night.
- Solar eclipse – As the Earth and Moon orbit, it’s a matter of time before the Moon finds itself sandwiched between the Earth and Sun. The Moon blocks the sunlight and casts a shadow on Earth, aka a Solar Eclipse.
- Lunar eclipse – When it’s the Earth’s turn to get sandwiched between the Sun and Moon, we experience a Lunar Eclipse. The Earth blocks the sunlight and casts a shadow on the moon. But instead of seeing no moon, the refraction of the light results in a red moon.
These interesting phenomena are not easy to imagine. There are just too many moving parts (no pun intended). We find the easiest away to visualise it is with a 3D model!
Tutorial Video
Make your own rotating 3D model of the Earth, Moon and Sun. We used a torchlight as the Sun to simulate the sunlight.
