Somerset Space Walk facts for kids
The Somerset Space Walk is a super cool model of our Solar System that you can walk along! It's located in Somerset, England, right next to the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. This amazing trail shows you the Sun and its planets, all built to the correct sizes and distances from each other. What's special is that there are two sets of planets, one going in each direction from the Sun, so you can see how big the orbits are.
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The idea for the Space Walk came from an inventor named Pip Youngman. He wanted to help people really understand how huge our Solar System is, because pictures in books just don't show it well enough.
The model is built to a scale of 1 to 530,000,000. This means that every 1 millimetre on the model equals 530 kilometres in real space! The Sun model is at Higher Maunsel Lock. From there, one set of planets goes towards Taunton and the other towards Bridgwater. The farthest planet, Pluto, is about 11 kilometres (7 miles) away from the Sun model in both directions. Don't worry if you're not up for a long walk – the inner planets are very close to the Sun, only about 67 metres (220 feet) away. You can find more information at the Maunsel Canal Centre nearby.
The Somerset Space Walk officially opened on August 9, 1997. A famous British astronomer named Heather Couper was there for the opening. In 2007, some of the models were updated and made to look even better.
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How the Space Walk Was Created
The Space Walk was a team effort! It was created by the Taunton Solar Model Group, working with British Waterways and getting help from local councils like Somerset County Council.
The Taunton Solar Model Group included Pip Youngman, who came up with the whole idea. There was also Trevor Hill, a local physics teacher who helped figure out the correct sizes and distances for all the planets. David Applegate, who was the Mayor of Taunton at the time, also wanted to see a cool science project in the area.
To get the project started, they received money from different groups, including the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS). They even got support letters from famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke and astronomer Patrick Moore!
The materials for the models also came from different places. The concrete for the bases was given by ReadyMix Concrete, and the steel for the models themselves came from a local company called Avimo.
Meet the Planet Models
The model of the Sun is really big! It's a 2.5-metre (8.2-foot) wide concrete ball that weighs 14 tons. It has flat sides where information about the Sun is written. When it was first built, it was grey like the other models, but it was later painted bright yellow so it's easy to spot!
The models for the smaller planets are placed inside round concrete pillars, about 1 metre (3.3 feet) tall. You can look through a hole in the pillar to see the tiny stainless steel planet model inside. Pip Youngman made these pillars himself using special moulds.
The models of the biggest planets, like Saturn and Jupiter, are shaped right into the top of their concrete pillars. These were also originally grey but have since been painted to look more like the real planets.
Each pillar also acts like a milepost for the canal. It shows the distance to Bridgwater and Taunton at the bottom. Even though they show distances, the sculptures are placed exactly where they need to be for the Solar System model, not just at even kilometre marks.
On each pillar, there's a special plaque with a short description of the planet. For example, the plaque for Earth says:
"Earth orbits far enough from the heat of the Sun for water to be liquid, near enough not to freeze, for air to be a gas and earth a solid. With gravity strong enough to hold our atmosphere, gentle enough to allow delicate life forms. Rotating to give our day and night, tilted to give the four seasons. Enormous to us, tiny on the cosmic scale. Our home, unique, beautiful, fragile." – Pip Youngman
The Nearest Star (Not on the Walk)
The Space Walk doesn't include a model of the nearest star to our Sun, which is Proxima Centauri. Why not? Because it would be impossible to fit it on the walk! If Proxima Centauri were on the same scale as the other models (about one-seventh the size of our Sun), it would be a red ball about 37.5 centimetres (14.8 inches) across. But here's the crazy part: it would need to be placed about 76,000 kilometres (47,000 miles) away! That's roughly twice the distance around the entire Earth!
About Pip Youngman
The person who designed the Space Walk, Philip Robert Vassar Youngman (everyone called him 'Pip'), was born on August 26, 1924, and passed away on May 23, 2007. He was a talented designer and inventor who created mechanical devices. One of his inventions was a special calculator that used ball bearings and plastic levers to teach people about how computers work. It was even used by the Open University!
Where to Find the Space Walk
You can start your Space Walk adventure from a few different places:
- From Taunton's Brewhouse Theatre (this is where the Pluto model for Taunton is).
- From Bridgwater's Morrison's Supermarket (this is where the Pluto model for Bridgwater is).
- Or, you can start at the Sun model at Maunsel Lock and walk outwards!
Here are the main locations:
- Pluto in Taunton – TA1 1JL 51°01′06″N 3°06′09″W / 51.01826°N 3.10261°W
- Maunsel Canal Centre (Sun) – TA7 0DH 51°03′45″N 2°59′20″W / 51.0626°N 2.98888°W
- Pluto in Bridgwater – TA6 3RF 51°07′31″N 3°00′29″W / 51.12529°N 3.00794°W
Images for kids
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The Sun
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Mercury
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Venus
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Earth (and Moon)
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Mars
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Jupiter
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Saturn
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Uranus
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Neptune
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Pluto
