Space odysseys

Anna Haines and family explore the solar system on an eye-opening holiday in York

Start of the Solar System Greenway at Askham Bar Park and Ride

Back in February my family of eight landed at the Club’s York Rowntree Park Club Campsite, using it as a base from which to embark on further journeys – this time through outer space!

Our mission was to visit the York Solar System model, a 10.2 km trail to the south-west of the city that was created in 1999 by a team from the University of York. Designed to scale, models of the planets are positioned along the route in a way that gives you a sense of the mind-boggling distances between them.

The trail follows a section of the old East Coast Main Line railway from York’s Askham Bar Park & Ride (about four miles from the site). It is also part of the Trans-Pennine Trail, which, conveniently for us, runs directly through Rowntree Park itself. We started off at the sun, represented by a giant orb suspended above the cycle track. From there we journeyed a mere 57,950,000km to marble-sized Mercury, the smallest of the inner planets, and then onwards past Venus, Earth and Mars in relatively close succession. On the model scale, every 100m along the track corresponds to more than 57 million km in space. This truly was a giant leap for mankind – our initial brisk march at 3mph equated roughly to three times the speed of light! Our younger pedalling astronauts kept racing light minutes ahead of us adults, but as they kept stopping to admire planets, we were able to catch up.

After the inner planets, the route runs through a small housing estate and the distances between our heavenly neighbours really open up. Jupiter is a whopping 550,300,000 km from Mars (about 1km for us), so understandably we paused to refuel at Brunswick Organic Nursery café and farm shop, before a big push to Saturn, a further 648,860,000km ahead. As the light was beginning to fade, we decided against an onward journey to Uranus, instead retracing our steps, enjoying the sunset over the swollen banks of the Ouse between Saturn and Jupiter.

Outer reaches

The next day we opted to tackle the solar system in reverse, parking in Riccall just off the A19 before rejoining the greenway. We shortly arrived at Pluto, set above the main trail on an embankment. Named after the Greek mythological god of the underworld, it is the size of a dried pea. In reality, the micro planet, composed entirely of rock and ice, is just over 2,000km in diameter, not much bigger than its moon, Charon (named after the boatman who ferried the dead across the River Styx to the underworld). The waymarker behind Pluto drives home how isolated we really are in the universe. To reach our nearest neighbour star, Proxima Centauri, on the York Solar System Model would mean walking and pedalling another 70,000km (and I don’t mean ‘virtual’ kilometres).

Tired from yesterday’s explorations, we decided on a more leisurely (‘real’) 2.4km return to Neptune, through scenic open farmland. The aptly named Solar System Greenway acts as an important ecology corridor, connecting wildlife populations separated by human activity. Unlike in deep space, the species-rich banks of the trail erupt into a colourful display in the warmer months, with bee orchids and other wildflowers attracting many pollinator species, including red admiral and peacock butterflies. Our recent mid-winter visit was a little bleaker, but we did spy fieldfare and redwing amid the hedgerows and fields, as well as birds of prey hovering overhead.

We passed the tennis-ball-sized Neptune, a methane-rich sphere that has remained a dazzling shade of blue here over the years, then ploughed on a further 2.5km along the trail. A jelly bean was on offer to the first space traveller to spot the gas giant of Uranus – Mimi was victorious. Having now seen all of the planets, we returned along the route, spying the Voyager 1 probe as we passed Pluto by.

It was our son Noah’s 14th birthday, so after a quick brew and a slice of cake we took a lamplit stroll along the Ouse, through York’s walls and into town for tea. On the way we were treated to our own galactic display in the clear night sky: a train of eight or so bright lights gliding silently overhead. Could it be Santa, asked Eleanor? Perhaps a UFO, mused Leah. Google informed us that it was actually a string of Starlink satellites, which would ultimately join a massive ‘constellation’ of others bringing high-speed internet to the world.

Venus the hottest planet

Watch this space

York’s extensive network of cycle paths is wonderfully convenient for getting around the city from the Club campsite, and the next day we followed National Cycle Network Route 66 across the park’s Millennium Bridge and past the barracks to the University of York campus. We had arranged to meet astrophysicist Lily, who kindly agreed to show us around the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology’s own observatory, known as the ‘Astrocampus’.

Astrocampus runs a fortnightly programme of family-friendly evenings from October to March during which guests have the opportunity to observe the distant night sky − weather permitting − and explore the science behind the universe. These popular events book up fast, but Lily has offered to give us a demonstration of what’s on offer. Witnessing the solar system in real time on an app called Stellarium (free to download – it’s the first thing we do when we leave!), we took a close-up peek at Jupiter and its moons. Lily allowed our children to pass around a real-life 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite, before helping them to make their own versions out of craft paper.

Next, we were shown inside the observatory buildings to marvel at the impressive telescopes. Sadly, it was the wrong time of day to see anything, although the room itself was lined with images of distant nebulas and galaxies taken on site. Lily took the time to tell us a bit more about the moon’s tectonic ‘seas’, and the mysterious, crater-pocked ‘dark side’.

After saying our goodbyes, we launched into another interstellar adventure. Inspired by the giant solar system model, in 2016 the student astronomy club, AstroSoc created its own version across the university campus. The trail is open to visitors; a guide, including a detailed map and activities can be collected from the Campus West Information Centre or downloaded as a PDF.

After locating the sun just outside Astrocampus, we took a short, pleasant stroll through the inner solar system, pausing just beyond Jupiter for a cake at the student union, before bracing ourselves for the slog to the outer planets. There was a bitter wind in the air, but this, we discover, is nothing in comparison to the great dark spot of Neptune, where storms can reach 2,000km per hour! A final push brought us to good old Pluto at York’s Campus East, and it was back through the town to Rowntree Park for a well-earned corned beef hash, which, we believe, is a firm favourite of astronauts everywhere.