Riding through the Solar System

If you ride some of the trails of Dane County - you may have spent time on what is dubbed the Planet Trek.

Military Ridge State Trail is part of the journey that represents travel through the solar system.

Just to make it manageable, the University of Wisconsin Space Place used a model with the sun 24 feet in diameter and all other sizes and distances by the same factor - essentially 200 million to one.

I've driven by these signs for a couple years now, but other than seeing the name of a planet and getting a sense of traveling farther or closer to the sun I didn't stop to learn more about it.

Last, and not all that long ago banished from the ranks of planetary status, Pluto can be found in Mt. Horeb.  The sign indicates if you were to account for all the comets that pass through the solar system another 23,000 miles would be necessary.  That's OK with me that those were left out as that ride would take more than a few days.

You find the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars all fairly close together along the shores of Lake Monona and the trail that passes along the isthmus (farthest dots to the right in the picture below - Pluto is "You are here").

On my ride, I traveled from Pluto to Neptune which is on the trail near the massive Epic campus.  I was glad not to be riding on Neptune as it's been reported that wind speeds are as high 1,250 miles an hour from the solar winds.  That would make biking more than difficult and require traveling only with a tail wind!

The Space Place is an interactive museum and learning center operated by the University of Wisconsin.  It shares with tour groups and other visitors the stories of the sights in the sky and details the way the University has been part of space exploration and research through the years.

This effort creates a sense in the rider an appreciation for the abstract size of the solar system.  (For example, you may remember the earth is almost 93 million miles from the sun - but how can you picture that?)

The other memory on the trail was something I learned a long time ago in an elementary science class - a method to remember the order of the planets (and despite Pluto's fall) and it still comes up in my mind without any hesitation.

One reason it came to mind was another rider thinking Uranus would come up next from Pluto.

The mnemonic device:

My (Mercury)
Very (Venus)
Educated (Earth)
Mother (Mars)
Just (Jupiter)
Served (Saturn)
Us (Uranus)
Nine (Neptune)
Pizza Pies (Pluto)

There was a tune that went with it, and that too is still in my head, lucky for you I don't have an audio track for the blog!