New Solar System Exhibition Coming to Community Trail in Dover, New Hampshire

A new exhibition is coming to the Dover Community Trail between the Fisher St. and Rutland St. Trailheads, and some might say it's "out of this world."

Those who frequent the Community Trail might notice some new marks between the aforementioned street trailheads. Kinda random, huh? But thanks to a Facebook post by the Dover Community Trail, we now know why these markings are here.

According to the post, a Voyage Mark II Solar System exhibition will soon find a permanent home on the trails. This exhibition is "a highly accurate 1 to 10-billion scale model of the Solar System," and as you walk, "you'll be able to travel from the Sun to Pluto along the trail!"

Basically, the chalk marks represent a precise (and incredibly scaled down) measurement of distances between planets, to show how far apart they are from one another. The real-life calculations are mind-boggling to wrap your head around. According to NASA, these are how far the planets in our solar system actually are from the Sun:

Mercury: 57 million kilometers (~ 35,418,158 miles)

Venus: 108 million kilometers (~ 67,108,089 miles)

Earth: 149 million kilometers (~ 92,584,308 miles)

Mars: 228 million kilometers (~ 141,672,632 miles)

Jupiter: 780 million kilometers (~ 484,669,530 miles)

Saturn: 1437 million kilometers (~ 892,910,403 miles)

Uranus: 2871 million kilometers (~ 1,783,956,693 miles)

Neptune: 4530 million kilometers  (~ 2,814,811,501 miles)

Holy. Moly.

This writer's always been intrigued by the sheer scale, majesty, and mysteries of space. Perhaps the addition of this exhibit will be helpful in piquing the interest of others as well. Click here to learn more about this upcoming planetary exhibition as well as preexisting ones, or click here to see where the planets will be located on the Dover trail specifically.