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Pluto near Riccall

The York to Selby cycle path follows the level, straight course of an old railway. It is constructed to a high standard, and is much used by enthusiasts, commuters and leisure cyclists alike. It forms part of National Cycle Network, route 65 and is a spur on the Trans-Pennine Trail.

The path is the site of an interesting demonstration about the size and spacing of bodies in the Solar System. It is easy to be misled not only about the relative sizes of the planets and sun, but more tellingly about the distances between these bodies. As part of a Millennium project, scale models of the sun and the planets at their correct scaled distances were established along the path between the York By-pass and Riccall. The scale is nearly 600 million to 1 so that a cyclist can travel with ease at ten times the speed of light!

This image shows the model of Pluto and its oversize moon Charon, rather heavily bedaubed with graffiti. The model stands at the top of a ramp; possibly, the ramp is intended to indicate that the orbit of Pluto is highly inclined to the orbit of the other planets, but if so, it is not to scale, as the inclination is of the order of 17 degrees. The model of Pluto is situated at a distance of over 2 km from its nearest neighbour, Neptune.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decreed that Pluto would henceforth be demoted from its status as a planet, to a mere "dwarf planet", but there has been no suggestion that the model of Pluto should be dismantled.