The title may be confusing, and that is to be expected. But our solar system really does exist in the capital area of Finland - only in miniature. And not just any miniature, but a giant one. More confusing?
Well, a hobby astronomer by the name of Leo Sulamaa had a brilliant idea in the 1990’s. He wanted people to understand the distances between the different planets of our solar system to the Sun and in relation to one another. But instead of molding another solar system in scale, he decided to place the Sun and the planets in nature. That time Pluto was still considered a planet, so it too is part of this giant model.
The model - if you now can call it so - was created in the co-operation with the Astronomical Society of Finland (called URSA) and the City of Helsinki, and was ready to be explored in 1992.
The Sun was placed in Pajamäki on top of a small hilly park called Patterimäki in the northwestern part of Helsinki, where Leo Sulamaa once had his own little observatory.
Then, around the Sun, there are all the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Tellus and Mars) surrounding it at their relative distances. All of them fit in the park. The symbol for our sun stands on top of a 20-meter high pole.
Jupiter and Saturn were placed of course a little further away, and Uranus quite a bit further in another area altogether. To get to Neptunus, you would need a ride (or a brisk walk) there, in the island of Lehtisaari.
And Pluto being the furthest away, you would have come almost 10 kilometers (around 6 miles) from where the Sun is in this piece of art.
It would easily take hours to go through all these planets, but by bike it could be an ideal excursion for a summer day. You have help of the information given in the guideposts in three languagaes - Finnish, Swedish and English. So you don’t really need to have any knowledge on astronomy to get the most out of this field trip. But you might have trouble getting the vast distances between the planets in our solar system. Which is precisely why the “model” was made.
The scale in this Pajamäki model is relative to 1: 1 000 000 000. So one millimeter equals a thousand kilometers, and one meter a million kilometers.
So, if you really plan to do this, be sure to stock some supplies and a good binocular too. When you get to Uranus, you could at the same time visit Villa Elfvik, an old Espoo manor.
Hopefully all the planets are intact when you visit them. Pluto was stolen in 2006 (and retrieved, thankfully), and after that some security measures were put in place. The only planet that might be missing these days is Saturn, and the reason for that is merely an infrastructural one: the city of Helsinki is building the Raide-Jokeri. But when that is finished, Saturn will be put back in its loriginal place, or at least in its close proximity.
Aurinkokuntamalli Helsingin ja Espoon maastossa
Ursan aurinkokuntamalli havainnollistaa aurinkokuntamme rakennetta ja mittasuhteita. Malli on rakennettu mittakaavaan yhden suhde miljardiin, jolloin millimetri mallissa vastaa aurinkokunnassa tuhatta kilometriä tai metri miljoonaa kilometriä.
Since I live around the area, I took it upon me to walk this solar system route, starting from the Sun, going through the planets all the way to the distant Pluto. In the map above, Maa stands for the Earth.
The first five planets were a piece of cake of course. Here’s the whole route, completed on a sunny day in April.
Updated 6.3.2022