Intranet
The Planetary Trail
Installed in September 2024 between the buildings of the UFR Physique, ingénierie, terre, environnement, mécanique (PhITEM) and OSUG, the new planetary trail “In the Shadow of Saturn’s Rings” invites you to explore the Solar System at a reduced scale, right in the heart of the Grenoble university campus.
Scales and concept of the installation
“In the Shadow of Saturn’s Rings” offers a representation of the relative sizes of the Sun and the planets, as well as the distances within the Solar System. The Sun’s diameter, about 1.4 million kilometers, is scaled down here to 53 meters, symbolized by a vast orange arc. The planets are represented at the same scale: Jupiter with a diameter of 5 meters, and Earth with just 0.5 meters.
Because the distances between celestial bodies are much greater than their diameters, a second, smaller scale is used to display them along the arc. Each meter walked along the arc corresponds to 50 million kilometers in reality. Thus, Earth, located about 150 million kilometers from the Sun, is represented only 3 meters away from our star. To illustrate: if the same scale had been kept for distances, Earth would be placed 5.7 km away from the Sun, and Neptune an astonishing 170 km away.
**Practical information
Adress
Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble
Domaine universitaire, bâtiment OSUG-D
122 rue de la piscine, 38400 Saint-Martin-d’Hères
The Planetary Trail, located near OSUG, stretches out in front of the artwork Éclipses on the green spaces of the PhITEM building.
Open all year round with free access, it invites visitors to explore the Solar System in the open air. Guided tours can be arranged upon request, especially for school groups.
