The Trail of the Planets
It is rather difficult to imagine the real size of the planets and their distance both from each other and the sun.
So on Monte Generoso it was decided to reconstruct a model of the solar system on a scale of 1:10 billion. It takes the form of a virtually straight, flat trail of approximately 600 metres. This means that taking a long stride of about one metre on the trail is equivalent to a distance of 10 million kilometres in the real planetary system.
The trail starts at the panoramic terrace to the east of the Vetta hotel/restaurant with a model of the sun, represented by a metallic sphere, 14 centimetres in diameter, embedded in a panel displaying data and information in four languages. The flat trail which runs along the Italo-Swiss border features panels with reproductions of the planets, from Mercury to Pluto, as well as information on the nine planets which revolve around the sun.
The visitor’s first impression on this “walk” through the planets is the great disproportion between the small dimensions and the enormous distance of the celestial bodies. In your mind, you can visualise the reality of the cosmos represented by a gigantic vacuum and realise how insignificant we humans really are. You will be amazed to learn that on the same scale as the planetary model, the closest star is 4,000 kilometres away. And you will awed to think that you are standing at the beginning of a hypothetical voyage through the unknown universe and galaxies similar to the Milky Way, populated with hundreds of billions of stars and perhaps surrounded by planetary systems not so very different from our own…
