Warnemünde Planet Trail

The Warnemünde Planet Trail is a model of our solar system and has a length of approx. 6 km.

Travelling through our solar system in a spaceship is still a dream. But you can now explore our cosmic home on foot or by bike. This is possible on the Planet Trail in Warnemünde.

The Warnemünde Planet Trail is a model of the planets and their orbits in our solar system and stretches over a length of approx. 6 kilometres. This astronomical educational and hiking trail, created in 1979 by chief engineer Alfred Hellwig, is maintained and designed by the Rostock Astronomical Society. The current trail was created in cooperation with the Institute of Physics at the University of Rostock after a young group of doctoral students won €10,000 in the Science Year 2023 to redesign the educational trail.

The actual distances and sizes of the planets were taken into account and transferred to the model for the planetary trail. The scale is 1:1 billion, i.e. 1 metre of the planet trail corresponds to 1 million kilometres in space.
The starting point is the model of the sun with a diameter of 1.4 m at the Warnemünde lighthouse. From there, the trail leads westwards along the sea promenade and Baltic coast via Wilhelmshöhe through the Stoltera nature reserve to Elmenhorster Bach, where the dwarf planet Pluto is the destination. The planet trail visualises the scale of the universe. It also presents surprising findings about the celestial bodies in our solar system from current research