The average temperature on Mars is a chilly -60°C. Frankly, it didn’t feel much warmer than that when we set out on the “De Saturn” solar system-themed hiking trail near Schifflange on the coldest day of the coldest winter in years…
The concept behind the trail is star-gazingly simple: A tour through the solar system, starting – where else? – at the Sun.
As you spacewalk along the cosmically beautiful “De Saturn” trail, you encounter metal plaques and information boards about the planets – and other inhabitants of near space – in order of their (average) relative proximity to the Sun. In practice, this means that you rocket past Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars within the first 150 metres of the trail, a close encounter with Jupiter occurs after around 500 metres, and you land on Saturn itself before even finishing your first kilometre.
Pausing at this spot got me thinking – why Saturn? Schlifflange is Red Rocks territory supreme, and Lalléngerbierg the perfect spot for viewing the strange rusty-red soil of Luxembourg’s industrial south. Why not Mars instead?
After Saturn, the scenery grows more and more dramatic… and the waypoints more and more distant. Saturn is approximately the same distance from the Sun as it is to its neighbour Uranus. A vicious freezing wind crushed the temperature down ever lower, giving us a great practical reminder that Uranus is actually the coldest of all the planets*: -224°C! Suddenly we didn’t feel like complaining anymore…
It was around this point that we got Lost in Space. A combination of out-of-this-worldly natural beauty and some very inconsistent (and unclear) signs meant that we somehow zoomed past Neptune without even noticing it. Arriving unexpectedly in Pluto, we retraced our steps a bit… but it’s billions of kilometres between the two heavenly bodies so we quickly pressed on anyway, the Martian winter wind now thankfully at our backs.
Almost six billion kilometres covered in ninety minutes, nearly four times the speed of light. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon outing for the whole family. Galactically recommended!
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
- Park your earthly vehicle and blast off to outer space outside the athletics stadium on Montée du Cimetière, 3815 Schifflange.
- The tour is 3.9km long and very family-friendly. A few close encounters with steep drops and black holes; mostly suitable for
moonbuggies. - I’ll stop the bad space puns now.
(c) 2021 Jonathan Orr
*Neptune has the coldest average temperatures, but winters in Uranus are brutal. Basically, you can forget about a skiing holiday there; it holds the record for the lowest solar planetary temperature ever – a toasty -224°C.
Luxembourg Outdoors 