Because 2009 is the international year of astronomy we tought it would be good to participate with Toby & Terry. We visited the "planet path" of the public observatory Beisbroek in Bruges.
The planet path is a model of the solar system at a 1:9,000,000,000 scale. Taking one step equals moving nine million kilometers in the Solar System. The total distance in Beisbroek is 835 meters.
Each planet can be seen with it's mythological representative. The statues were made by artist Jef Claerhout. Each figure holds a small or big globe representing the planet to scale. For practical reasons (the balls would be too small) this scale is different: 10 cm is actualy 18,000 km.
On this webpage the distance between the Sun and the planets is also in proportion so this will be a long "planet page"...
Our journey starts with the Sun. This is represented here by a firebird or phoenix. Should it be a ball to the scale used for the planets, it's diameter would be 8 meters! The Sun's actual diameter is 1,392,000 km.
Now we go to the first planet per 10 million kilometers...
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58 million kilometer further (In Beisbroek fortunately only 6.4 meter further) we reach Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. This mythological figure has wings on his head and at his ankles. The planet revolves the Sun more quickly than any other planet. One Mercurian year lasts only 87.6 Earth-days. The ball in his hand is small, the planet's diameter is 4,900 km.
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Venus, which is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, holds a much larger globe in her hands. That is because Venus has a diameter of 12,100 km, that is almost the size of the Earth, where we head for now...
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The Earth is represented here by Gaia, the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth and the life-tree. The big globe at her lap is the Earth, the smaller ball on her hand is the Moon. In the mean time we are 150 million km away from the Sun, on the planet path this is 16.6 meter.
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The Roman god of war Mars holds a globe only half the size of the Earth. Mars has a diameter of 6,800 km and revolves the Sun in 1.88 year. The first four planets of our Solar System have a compact, rocky surface and are relatively small compared to the next four huge, gaseous giants. The latter are much further away from the Sun and also from each other...
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The asteroid belt exists roughly between the planets Mars and Jupiter. In this region most asteroids can e found. The biggest is the dwarf planet Ceres, which has a diameter of about 1,000 km. Some 220 are bigger than 100 km and finally there are some millions the size of pebbles. Ceres was named after the Roman goddess of the harvest, of growing plants and motherly love. She holds the asteroid to scale between her fingers.
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In the mean time we walked 86 meter and arrived at the first gaseous giant: Jupiter. No small ball this time, with a diameter of 143,000 km this is the largest planet of our Solar System. That is why it is called after the Roman god of sky and thunder. One revolution around the Sun takes almost twelve years.
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Saturnus is 1,427 million km away from the Sun. In Beisbroek this is 160 meter. The second largest planet has a diameter of 120,500 km and is just a little smaller than Jupiter. A turn around the Sun takes almost 30 years and that is why the planet is named after the god of time. It is the furthest planet that can be seen with the unaided eye and so it was already known in the ancient times. Further planets can only be observed with the aid of a telescope.
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Uranus is the personification of the sky. A small giant of 51,100 km diameter at 2,871 million km from the Sun. This planet was first observed in 1690 by John Flamsteed. He thought though that it was a star. It lasted until 1781 for William Herschel to call the object a planet. The name Uranus became official in 1850. Now Toby & Terry walked 320 meter, but we are only halfway the Solar System...
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Neptune has a blue color and thus named after the god of the sea. Galileo Galilei was the first to notice it in 1614, but he thought it was a star. Only in 1846 men realised it was a planet. Since it takes 165 Earth-years to revolve the Sun, people never saw it making one full tour. It'll be 2011 when we see it again in the same place. Right now we walked half a kilometer and continue our journey to the end of the Solar system...
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Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh and is since August 2006 classified as 'dwarfplanet'. It's a small ball of only 2,300 km across. It takes 248.59 years for one tour around the Sun. The mythologic figure Pluto is the god of the underworld, pictured here with his three-headed dog Cerberos. In fact Pluto belongs to the 'Icedwarfs' and that is where we are going to now...
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Icedwarfs are small object outside the orbit of Neptune, in the outer regions of our Solar system, revolving the Sun. There are a huge number of them in the so called 'Oortwolk' (Cloud of Oort) and the 'Kuipergordel' (Belt of Kuiper). Pluto is one of the bigger ones. Most Icedwarfs are only some hundred kilometers tall.
We arrived at the border of our Solar system and in Beisbroek we are now 835 meter away from the Sun. In reality that is 7,515,000,000,000 meter!
If you want to visit the planeth path yourself, you can find more information and a route description on the website of the public observatory Beisbroek. www.beisbroek.be
Have fun!
