The Solar System Walk is a scaled representation of our solar system where 1 inch is equivalent to 100,000 miles. Poster Boards with fun facts representing each planet (including Pluto, a dwarf planet) and other astronomical facts are placed at the appropriate scaled distance from the sun. At this scale the sun is the size of a soccer ball (about 8-1/2 inches) and the earth is the size of a peppercorn (about 3/16 of an inch). The 93 million miles from the earth to the sun is reduced to just 73 feet.
The self-guided tour starts at the “Sun” on the boardwalk behind the Ventnor Community Center between New Haven and Newport Ave. and heads towards Atlantic City, ending with Pluto at Oxford Ave. (Yay Pluto!) Boardwalk strollers can walk the 3.6 billion miles from the Sun to Pluto in just a half-mile and can read about all the planets and other interesting facts along the way. Posters are QR coded to NASA websites for those in search of more information.
The boards representing the planets are placed at the appropriate distance from each other as if all the planets were lined up in a row. This gives the strollers a better idea of the spacing between the planets and just how large the solar system is.
Between the planets are poster boards with information about the Solstice, Comets, Exoplanets, Black Holes and more. New posters this year include a summer skywatching calendar, information about the April solar eclipse, auroras and the Milky Way Galaxy.
The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter. At a scale of 1 inch equaling 100,000 miles, the sun will be slightly more than 8-1/2 inches in diameter.
The size ratio of the planets are Mercury- a pinhead, Venus-a peppercorn, Earth- a peppercorn, Mars- a pinhead, Jupiter-a chestnut, Saturn-an acorn, Uranus- a coffee bean, Neptune- a coffee bean, Pluto- smaller then a pinhead.
For more information, email Michelle: michelle.stella.394@gmail.com
