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Fourth Rock From The Sun(sphere) LbNA #30451

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Apr 28, 2007
Location:
City:Knoxville
County:Knox
State:Tennessee
Boxes:1
Planted by:Moon and Sun
Found by: butterfly2
Last found:Apr 13, 2013
Status:FFFFFFFF
Last edited:Apr 28, 2007
If the Sun were the same size as the Sunsphere and located in the same place, the planet Mars would pass through the Knoxville Botanical Gardens. Its orbit would have a mean radius of about 2.0 miles.
To find the garden:

South: From Chapman Highway , bare right onto Blount Avenue. Turn left onto Gay Street. Turn right onto Hill Avenue from Gay Street. Turn right onto Dandridge Avenue from Hill Avenue. Continue on Dandridge to Brooks Road (at 5 way stop, travel forward in front of convenience store). Turn left onto Biddle Avenue from Brooks Road. At 3 way stop, bear left to continue on Biddle (there will be a sign at the 3 way stop with a left pointing arrow). Take a right onto Wimpole Avenue from Biddle. The Botanical Gardens office is at 2743 Wimpole Avenue. Parking is across the street from the office.

West:Travel I-40 to Cherry St. exit. Turn right onto Cherry Street. Travel Cherry St. turn right onto Magnolia Ave. Take left onto Chestnut St. Take left onto Biddle Street. Take a right onto Wimpole Ave. Turn left into the parking area.

East: Take I-40 to Cherry St. exit. Travel south on Cherry St. turn right onto Magnolia Ave. Take left onto Chestnut St. Take left onto Biddle Street. Take a right onto Wimpole Ave. Turn left into the parking area.

North: Take I-75 to I-40 East. Take I-40 to Cherry Street exit. Travel south on Cherry St. turn right onto Magnolia Ave. Take left onto Chestnut St. Take left onto Biddle Street. Take a right onto Wimpole Ave. Turn left into the parking area.

On Mars you might find . . .

Mars Rover Spirit was using his miniature thermal emission Spectrometer to sniff a rock at the rim of a small crater call the Golden Roast. Spirit had lived three years past his 90-day life expectancy and was still going strong, but it had been a dusty summer on Mars and his solar panels were coated with many layers of fine dirt. This made it difficult for him to recharge his batteries and he longed for the robot equivalent of a triple shot espresso. Alas, there was evidence for past water all around but not one drop could be currently found, let alone a coffee tree. Just then a Martian dust devil, which by Earth’s standards is a tiny tornado, ran right over Spirit and dusted off his solar panels so they were again shiny and blue. When the Sun came back out, he aligned himself to take best advantage of it and settled down to charge and nap the afternoon away.

He began to dream of electric sheep. They were grazing near a rock wall in a beautiful garden on Earth. One of the sheep wandered over to a cylindrical stone building, which had round windows. Spirit rolled after the lamb.

THUNK! Spirit ran in to a telephone pole. His HAZCAM wasn’t working its best in the dream.

While Spirit calculated a course around the pole, the lamb tuned, crossed the road, and bearing at 140 degree, wandered up a promenade of deciduous trees. Spirit soon followed.

There were many craters in the ground just like there were in Spirit’s waking life on Mars, but these craters had been made by the removal of trees rather than by meteor impacts. Spirit fired up his hazard avoidance software. Spirit rolled until a line of trees--Magnolia, Holley and Pine, stopped his forward progress. The line ran perpendicular to his current path. The electric lamb could be seen wandering down the path bearing at 230 degrees. Spirit rolled after it for about 100 human paces until he came to six magnificent guardians. He rolled all the way to the farthest one and looked back in the direction he had come. He must have been getting too hot as he napped in the balmy -12° F, (-25° C) Summer Martian afternoon, because the dream soon got muddled. The garden morphed in to the solar system and Spirit thought that he was now sitting on the Sun. (ouch!) The guardians were still there in front of him, but now they looked like the first six planets. He rolled through space to the one that represented Mars. There he began sniffing under a rock. First he found some hematite concretions (a.k.a. blueberries) and then . . .Coffee!

His circuits sparked awake from the dream. He was fully charged. The engineers sent him another command and off he rolled to do some more geologic exploration.

While Spirit works, you can sit under the magnificent guardians and stamp up at your leisure. If there is water on Mars, please wipe it up with the provided paper towels. Be sure to enjoy the view of the mountains. It’s a good place to sit and think or have a picnic as long as you clean up after you are done. What you have seen is only a third of this garden. Go explore beyond the stonewall at 50 degrees if you have time.