Pythoneering

Seriously. We had the kids in tow, which limited our speed somewhat. But we still managed it in a couple of hours, giving us an average speed of over five times the speed of light…

No, I haven’t flipped. We spent some of our Bank Holiday Monday afternoon cycling from York to Riccall and back, along part of National Cycle Route 65. Located on a 6.4-mile segment of this route is a 575,872,239:1 scale model of the solar system. The model begins, of course, with the Sun, a sphere 2.4 metres in diameter, which you encounter within a few minutes of leaving York and crossing the racecourse. Mercury, Venus and a paired Earth and Moon follow in short order and then the distances between the planets begin to increase, until you eventually end up, 5,913 million kilometres later - or is it only 10.27 km? - gazing at a pair of tiny stainless steel spheres representing Pluto and Charon. Inevitably, you are reminded of that classic Hitchhiker’s quote:

“Space… is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

I can’t think of a better way of conveying just how empty the outermost reaches of the solar system are than moving yourself physically through a large scale model such as this one. And it’s an enjoyable, easy (i.e., flat) ride, to boot. Check out my Flickr photostream for a few images.