![\"Jupiter](\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/picSaturnMuseumScienceSouthStation171220_0653w.jpg\")
<\/a>I would read this on the \u201cYou\u2019ve Reached Jupiter!\u201d sign on the pedestal of the basketball-sized metal planet model when I\u2019d notice it at Boston\u2019s South Station\u2014in the main waiting room, kind of near the McDonald\u2019s\u2014and dream of visiting all nine planets. In my head, I could begin to feel the awesome vastness of space if this basketball-sized thing, a mile and a quarter from the \u201cSun,\u201d represented the true scales. Everything is so, so little, separated from each other by vast swaths of emptiness. It was a lonely feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cExhibit developers Mary Dussault and Deborah Sovinee wanted the scale to be large enough so \u2018Pluto was at least the size of a pea,\u2019 but small enough so that the whole solar system was within reach of public transportation,\u201d The Association of Science-Technology Centers reported<\/a> in 1999. \u201cThe resulting model starts with a 3.6 meter fiberglass hemisphere of the Sun in the \u2018Welcome to the Universe\u2019 exhibition [at the museum]. The nine planets are cast in bronze from molds sculpted with tactile surface details by museum preparator Richard Sheffield. Supported by laser-cut steel bases, the planets are located in shopping malls, libraries, transit stations, and other public spaces in and around metropolitan Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, we are in the process of removing the Community Solar System,\u201d Museum of Science Spokesperson Erin Shannon wrote to me in October 2015. \u201cThey were first distributed back in 1997 and what was really special about the project was that they were placed and sized to actual scale of the solar system. Since then however some have needed refurbishments or been moved for renovations at their various homes so we have decided to remove the remaining ones.\u201d<\/p>\n So, with great sadness, I set aside the idea of visiting the \u201cCommunity Solar System,\u201d kind of forgetting about it for a while. But every now and again I\u2019d bump into Jupiter at South Station. And I\u2019d wonder how many of the other planets were still out there. Which is how I ended up asking around about: Have you seen Uranus?<\/p>\n Help WONDERLAND keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n The Sun is still there at the museum\u2019s Charles Hayden Planetarium. A map accompanying Jupiter at South Station told me that Mercury and Venus had also been at the Museum of Science. Earth had been at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, a quarter mile away. I called the hotel and the kind person who answered the phone there had no idea what I was talking about.<\/p>\n Mars had been at the CambridgeSide mall in Cambridge, 0.36 miles away.<\/p>\n Jupiter is still at South Station, the sign reading: \u201cJupiter orbits an average distance of 483,7000,000 miles from the sun. Or in this scale model, 1.23 miles from the model Sun at the Museum of Science.\u201d<\/p>\n Saturn is \u201ccurrently not available,\u201d according to the Jupiter sign, but seems to have been at the Cambridge Public Library on Broadway, 2.25 miles away from the Sun. Uranus had been at the Jamaica Plain branch of the Boston Public Library, 4.53 miles away.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not still at the JP branch, unfortunately,\u201d Rosemary Lavery, senior public relations associate for the Boston Public Library, recently emailed in answer to my question. \u201cIt was given away before the branch closed for renovations and it is not expected back. JP staff cannot recall who it went to, though perhaps someone affiliated with MOS [Museum of Science] or a school.\u201d<\/p>\n Not long later, she wrote more: \u201cSomeone from MOS likely picked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n Neptune is \u201ccurrently not available,\u201d Jupiter\u2019s sign told me. It seems to have been at the Square One Mall in Saugus, 4.53 miles away from the Sun at the Museum of Science.<\/p>\n Pluto had been at the Riverside MBTA Station in Newton, 9.3 miles away\u2014even though it had a sign noting: \u201cIn August 2006, the International Astronomical Union passed a resolution defining a planet in such a way that Pluto no longer qualifies. As a result, the Solar System now consists of 8 \u2018classical\u2019 planets. Pluto now belongs to the newly defined class of objects called \u2018dwarf planets.\u2019<\/p>\n Miles of the blog \u201cMiles on the MBTA\u201d reported<\/a> from his travels all around the transit system that Pluto was still at Riverside in November 2013. (On the train platform, from what I gather.) The Society for the Preservation of Pluto as a Planet seems to have made a pilgrimage<\/a> to the station to visit it in July 2015. \u201cSadly, we found that the model is in need of renovation and repair,\u201d they reported on Facebook. \u201cAlthough the little sphere representing Pluto is intact\u201d\u2014though, curiously, none of the 13 photos they posted seem to show Pluto\u2014\u201cthe descriptive placards are faded and weathered, and the base of the model is rusted. Given its location outdoors, this was probably to be expected. Two of the MBTA employees we spoke to were very proud of the model, and one of them even described how he spent all of this past winter cleaning the snow away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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