The final frontier: Concord's unique Planet Walk

WANDER is a new solar system scale Planet Walk in Concord, NH, created by Rob Kramer of Bow. This planet walk is unlike any other. What makes WANDER unique is a very visible Sun at the center- the New Hampshire State House dome - and multiple sites around the city which define the orbit of the inner planets.

WANDER is a new solar system scale Planet Walk in Concord, NH, created by Rob Kramer of Bow. This planet walk is unlike any other. What makes WANDER unique is a very visible Sun at the center- the New Hampshire State House dome - and multiple sites around the city which define the orbit of the inner planets. Maps with all the locations where you can see the dome from the orbits in the scale model are available at the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce at 49 South Main St. or on this website .

Each location has detailed GPS coordinates and helpful viewing directions. Avenza Maps was used to test each spot, and is the recommended free app to use. Going to a view site allows you to see how the Sun would appear from the surface of that planet. Moving over to the next view site on the orbit allows you to experience how slowly the planet moves.

Most science fiction stories often see starships that can warp to distant planets, well beyond our modern technology. Because our solar system is so vast, grab some boots + try this walk!

How big is the solar system? So big that it is almost impossible to imagine its size if you use nromal units like feet or miles. The distance from Earth to the Sun is 93 million miles , but the distance to the farthest planet Neptune is an amazing 3 billion miles . Compare this to the farthest distance you can walk in one day - 70 miles- or that the International Space Station travels in 24 hours, about 400,000 miles.

The sun is a star at the center of our solar system. Its diameter is about 864,000 miles, or 109 times that of Earth, much bigger than that of the State House dome. So the walk is proportional, with Mercury near the Christa McAuliffe School, Jupiter in Hopkinton, and Neptune atop Mount Kearsarge.

Of course like all solar system models, WANDER also helps you see the size and the distance between all the planets. There are limited dome view sites beyond Mars, but the challenge is out there to find more. Look for the four by six inch signs at each site.

To learn more about the planning and thought behind creating this planet walk, go to SCALE MODEL on the website or to Orange Leaf Yogurt at 70 N. Main St. If you don’t want to walk the twenty miles out to Neptune, read the SCRIPT on the website to find out what happens to four students who do make the journey.

“The sun is a star at the center of our solar system. Its diameter is about 864,000 miles, or 109 times that of Earth, much bigger than that of the State House dome. So the walk is proportional, with Mercury near the Christa McAuliffe School, Jupiter in Hopkinton, and Neptune atop Mount Kearsarge.”