Roman Rabbitskin is so passionate about space that he is recreating the solar system in his neighbourhood.
The 13-year-old created a walking route along the Lawson Heights and Silverwood Heights neighbourhoods that accurately represents the distances and scales of planets in our solar system.
According to his family, Roman has been fascinated with space ever since he wore diapers.
His cousin Morgann Taylor explained that Roman could already name all the planets before he was in kindergarten and that he used to run around the house singing songs about space.
Roman worked for 13 months on his own calculations and the logistics of setting up the route. He wanted to accurately represent the distances and scales of each planet in the solar system.
Using his own front door as the sun, Mercury and Venus are placed in his front yard and Earth and Mars along his street. To reach the last planet, Neptune, takes about four kilometres and an hour of walking — a walk Roman did himself to set up the sign.
“I wanted to really give people the sense of the scale of our solar system,” Roman said.
The pictures of the planets are also to scale, making Earth and Mars smaller than a fingernail and the largest planet, Jupiter, the size of a baseball.
Beyond Neptune, his favourite planet, Roman is planning to add dwarf planets Pluto and Eris even farther along the route, adding another three kilometres and a good 45 minutes to the total walk.
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Roman’s family was proud of Roman for trying to share his knowledge with the neighbourhood.
“We are very proud of him and we support him in everything he does. He has so much knowledge and is so kind to share it. I hope he goes somewhere really big with it, because he has the ability to do it,” his grandmother Elsie said.
For now, Roman hopes people learn about space and the solar system, but he does have plans to improve the experience.
“I am planning to add 3D models and also add some of the dwarf planets and comets, but I am still in the middle of figuring out how.”
The route starts in the Lawson Heights neighbourhood around the Pinehouse and Saguenay Drive intersection, where Earth and Mars are placed on streetlights on opposite sides of the road. Jupiter and Saturn can be found along the Meewasin walking trail next to Whiteswan Drive on posts next to rest areas. Uranus is placed at the start of the bike trail and Neptune is just outside the Silverwood Dog Park.
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