The Planet Walk begins at the west end of Yukon Drive, near the intersection with Koyukuk Drive. As you move east along Yukon Drive, nine signs represent the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A 10th sign highlights Pluto, which was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Each station presents an image of the planet and information about it.

The location of each sign is scaled to approximate the featured planet’s distance from the sun. The size comparison on the signs is 10 times larger than the distance scale in order to make Pluto visible on its sign; if the sun was scaled to the size of a basketball then a visitor would have to walk almost 10 miles to see the whole installation!

Along the way, you might discover that the sunny side of Mercury is hotter than a pizza oven, or that there are clouds of sulfuric acid on Venus, or that the diameter of Pluto is roughly equivalent to the longest length of Alaska from top to bottom. Planning to land on Jupiter? Forget it – this planet is hot and gaseous, and has no solid surface.

UAF Geophysical Institute faculty and students have contributed to space missions exploring the solar system, including NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Students have many opportunities to participate in cutting-edge research at UAF, a Land, Sea and Space Grant university.

The UAF Planet Walk was developed by members of the Alaska chapter of the Society of Physics Students, a club associated with the College of Natural Science and Mathematics. A student artist from the College of Liberal Arts produced the design concept. The Planet Walk was sponsored by the Geophysical Institute.

Select from the planets below to learn more about them, or explore further online at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/.

Before heading out on the Planet Walk path, download a 10-question scavenger hunt and learn interesting facts about our solar system.