Planet Walk Event Combines Education with Exercise

On April 13 people  traveled the length of the solar system in just an hour or two.  And the Millenium Falcon was not required. 

The means for this journey was the fifth annual Planet Walk which has been held each year on the B & A Trail. The remarkable trip began at the Sun Station behind the Harundale Plaza in Glen Burnie and ended at the Pluto site near at Earleigh Heights Ranger Station in Severna Park. Stainless steel markers along the way indicated the relative position of each of the planets. The scale model of our solar system extends 4.7 miles, representing the 3.6 billion miles from the Sun to Pluto.

The stars of the event were the docents, many of them scientists and astronomers from NASA’s educational outreach program. They provided facts and information at each planet stop of the trip.  

Participants in the walk were evenly divided between walkers and bicyclists.  Numerous children also navigated the trail. Planet Walk participants heard conversations about lunar maps, missions to Mars, chemistry on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and saw Landstat maps of the Chesapeake Bay taken from outer space.  Not science fiction, but science fact.

“The events gave participants a chance to gain greater insight into the makeup of our solar system,” said Jack Keene, Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails.  “It also helped people gain knowledge of some of the ongoing research which continues to bring us new and exciting revelations.”

Bob and Mary Ruck have participated in the Planet Walk each year and are members of the Trailblazers, a group that monitors the safety of the entire length of the B & A trail. “We’ve lived here for 50 years, and love being around the trail and its activities,” said Bob.

Christina Richey,  NASA senior scientist and program officer, was a member of the Planet Walk team for the third time. “I’ve done a lot of outreach for NASA and what makes this program great is it’s an opportunity to inform people who would not otherwise learn about planetary science.  To see it combined with exercise makes it even better.”

The event concluded in the evening with a public multimedia presentation by Dr. Kelly Fast, a Mars program scientist with NASA's  Solar System Exploration Division.   Her topic was the status of current Mars exploration missions and research proposals for Mars missions proposed for the next decade.  The presentation was well attended and followed by a question and answer session.  The evening concluded with a Star Gazing party at the AACC Observatory, sponsored by the AACC Astronomy Club.

Planet Walk was sponsored by the Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails, the Anne Arundel Community College Astronomy Club and the Astrophysics Science and Planetary Science Divisions of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.

For more information about Planet Walk, go to http://www.friendsofaatrails.org/planet_walk.htm.