Sagan Planet Walk

Scale model of the solar system stretched 1.2 km across downtown

A scaled-down model of the solar system installed in granite monuments down the Ithaca Commons. Start at the sun (a large globe on State Street) and walk three-quarters of a mile out to the Sciencenter, where Pluto sits demoted but defiantly included. Each monument shows the planet at the correct relative size and distance.

It takes about twenty minutes to walk the whole route. Pick up a free Solar System Walk Passport at the Sciencenter or at any of the marker sponsors and get it stamped at each planet — the souvenir is more satisfying than it has any right to be.

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Built in 2000 in honour of Carl Sagan, who lived and taught at Cornell for nearly thirty years and is buried at Lake View Cemetery just north of downtown. The scale is one to five billion — meaning Pluto on the trail is the size of a poppy seed and Alpha Centauri, the nearest other star, would have to be installed on the Big Island of Hawaii.

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