Solar System Model

The scale of Wooster’s planet walk is approximately five billion to one. Disks engraved on 3.5-inch brass markers embedded along the west sidewalk of Beall Avenue through campus represent the planets (and circles represent planetary rings). The four terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars are near the sun between Pearl and Stibbs Streets. Of the giant planets, Jupiter is alone on the block between Pine and University Streets opposite the Gault Alumni Center, while Saturn is across from Andrews Library. Of the modern planets, Uranus (discovered in the 1700s) is opposite the tennis courts and Neptune (discovered in the 1800s) is just before Bloomington Avenue. (Dwarf planets like Ceres, Pluto, and Eris are too small to be included.) The model was designed by Amanda Steinhebel ’15 and John Lindner (Physics) in 2012-2014 and installed for less than $3500 in November 2014.