Lift off of solar system walk

THE public has been urged to boldly go where no-one has gone before — on a walk through our solar system which been “shrunk” to fit along the Banks of the Lee.

The unique installation, the first of its kind in the country, stretches from the “sun” in the centre of Cork, along the city streets, to the outermost planet “Neptune”, located at the award-winning Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO).

The other planets are located at distance-to-scale sites along the so-called Solar System Trail to represent the same distance ratio between them as exists in space.

The project, coordinated by BCO in conjunction with ArtTrail and the Cork Astronomy Club, is designed to promote an interest in science and space and will remain in place throughout October.

It features information banners on the sun on St Patrick’s Bridge, on Mercury, Venus and Earth along Merchant’s Quay, Mars at the Bus Station, Jupiter at Victoria Road, Saturn at Centre Park Road and Uranus at The Marina.

The installation represents the 4.5 billion kilometre span of our solar system — from the sun to Neptune.

To put this into context, if Neptune was at the finish line of a 100-metre running track, Earth would be three metres from the start line and Mercury one metre away.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe launched the trail last night.

“It’s a project that captures the essence of fostering an appreciation of science and technology in our school children, so that we can continue to produce high-calibre science graduates for Ireland’s knowledge economy and society,” he said.

Head of research at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), Dr Niall Smith, described the initiative “as an important educational resource”.

“The Solar System Trail is a perfect example of how scientific information can be communicated to the public in a way that we all can understand,” he said.

Meanwhile, BCO will help the public witness a rare planetary phenomenon this weekend.

An extra solar planet transit — when an exo-planet passes in front of another — is scheduled to occur just after 8pm on Sunday night.

Space expert, Leo Enright, will lead a guided tour of the trail on board an open top Cosmos Bus before returning to BCO where astronomers with telescopes will help people gaze into space to witness the exo-planet HD189733b pass in front of a distant star.

And it has been confirmed that Ireland’s adopted astronaut, NASA’s Dan Tani, will be the grand marshall for Cork’s 2009 St Patrick’s Day Parade, which will be themed around cosmic chaos.

www.bco.ie