Central Illinois Community Solar System Model - Mars - Peoria, IL - Solar System Models on Waymarking.com

In Peoria, along a park walkway is a detailed model of Mars that is part of the Community Solar System model in Peoria.

The model is located in a park along the Illinois River, along the Pimiteoui Trail. It is over 1 mile away from the Peoria Riverfront Museum, which is in the center of the city and is the location of the sun. The model includes (or will include) not only the primary planets, but other bodies out to the Oort Cloud. Thus, the model stretches for many miles around Peoria. This model is an update to a previous model. The previous model was at one time the world's largest solar model, centered at the Lakeview Planetarium, which has since been closed and merged with the Peoria Riverfront Museum.

You could park at the museum and follow the trail northeast to the model. If you can't walk, you can drive northeast on NE Adams Street to Morton Street about 1 mile away, then turn right and drive to the parking lot at the end. The Mars model is further northeast along Pimiteoui Trail from the parking lot about 1/2 mile.

The Mars model is mounted within a metal cylinder with a glass-poly window to see the planet. There is also a sign at the bottom with more information. The planet itself is painted, with different shades of dull red and white for the polar icecap. It is 2.7 inches in diameter.

"You have reached the planet
MARS
Mars, "The Red Planet", has much in common with Earth, including a 25-hour day, seasons, and polar ice caps. Its color comes from iron oxide (rust). The surface reveals evidence of past water including dry river beds and lakes. NASA scientists have identified sulfur, nitrogen, hudrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon, key chemical ingredients for life, in sedimentary rock near an ancient streambed.
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The Central Illinois Community Solar System is a scale model with both size and distance to the same scale. (99,000,000:1) The 46' sun is on the Sun Plaza at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Learn more at PeoriaRiverfrontMuseum.org."

The museum web site has the following about the model:

"The current Community Solar System is the most complete large-scale model of the solar system in the world! The museum's solar system model is scaled to the size of the planetarium and stretches over 2,000 square miles in central Illinois, making this the most complete large-scale solar system model in the world. "

Address: Off Morton Street Parking Lot Peoria, IL United States of America 61602 To-Scale by distance: yes To-Scale by Size: yes Is the model an Orrery?: no Web Page: [Web Link] Hours: Daylight Hours Admission Fee: 0.00 (listed in local currency)

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