A seven-metre Solar Sculpture will light up Greenwich’s Painted Hall
A vast scale model of The Sun will land in Greenwich later this month, as Luke Jerram’s latest model of the solar system fills the Painted Hall.
The artwork measures seven metres in diameter and features 72dpi detailed imagery of the Sun’s surface. At an approximate scale of 1:200 million, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 200km of the Sun’s surface.
It is very dangerous to look at the Sun directly as it can damage our eyesight, so Helios provides a safe opportunity for the public to get up close to and inspect its extraordinarily detailed surface, including sunspots, spicules and filaments.
The sculpture also features the source of the solar flares which caused the Northern lights to be visible from the UK in May 2024.
Helios will be displayed in the Old Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall from 25th January to 25th March 2025.
Tickets are on sale now from here.
I suspect it will look better in the evenings, when the hall is darker, and the sun will glow brighter in the hall, so there are late evenings every Thursday. For photographers, there’s also a quieter hour on Monday mornings where they will limit how many people are in the hall.
The Old Royal Naval College is in Greenwich town centre, a few minutes walk from other places of interest, such as the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory and the Cutty Sark.
A money-saving tip
At the moment, Luke Jerram’s Mars is also in the painted hall, and if you visit before 21st January, your ticket to visit Mars can be registered in the hall for a one-year pass, allowing you to go back another day and see Helios for free.
There are also £5 tickets on the first Sunday of every month.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, if the sun really was just 7-metres wide, then this is where the orbit of the earth would be in comparison.
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