When we got in the car, the conversation continued.
Hazel: The moon has a friend. It's a star.
Aspen: Is isn't a star, it's Venus. It's a planet.
Hazel: There are eight planets.
Aspen: No, there are nine.
Hazel: No, there are eight.
Azpen: No, there are nine. Pluto is a planet.
Hazel: No, the people said it isn't.
Is this just my kids? A three-year-old arguing the planetary status of Pluto . . .
We saw this too, or McKay pointed it out to me. I always get fascinated by the stars.
ReplyDeleteWay to be correct Hazel!
...dwarf planet!
ReplyDeletehey. i think it's cool. i much rather have my kids debating planetary status then which jonas brother is the cutest.
ReplyDeleteWe saw this too and was wondering if that was Venus but we didn't think you could see Venus that high in the sky.
ReplyDeleteYou know, these kinds of posts really make me miss your family...even the kids I haven't met yet! :) Let us know when you come through Dallas- we'd love to see you, and you always have a place to stay if you need one!
ReplyDeleteYeah, we saw that last night and almost called you to ask you if it was Venus. If Toby was in the conversation I'm sure he would have clarified that Pluto is a Plutoid not a planet.
ReplyDeleteHazel why to stand up for yourself when you know you are right!
ReplyDeleteFull disclosure here--I am definitively in the "Pluto should still be a full-status planet" camp. My argument is based on purely poetic reasons.
ReplyDeleteIn 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto by comparing photographic plates taken through a telescope several weeks apart. It is amazing that he even saw the difference in the two photographs.
To come in 70 years later and say, "we decided to make the cutoff for 'planet' status a little bigger, so you don't make the cut"--to me, that is just cheap.
You can usually tell which planet you are looking at by where it is in the sky, at least when they are really bright. Mercury can be really bright, but will always be very close to the horizon--usually only visible 45 minutes or so before sunrise or after sunset. Venus can easily be the brightest object in the sky (other than the moon), like it was last night, and can be visible for a couple hours. Since Venus is closer to the sun than the Earth, it will always be within 60 degrees or so of the sun--it will never be in the part of the sky that is opposite the sun. When bright, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will tend to be on the half of the sky that is away from the sun--therefore visible for many hours when the sun goes down. When Mars is bright, you can see the reddish hue. When Jupiter and Saturn are really bright, you will look at them and say "I wonder if that is a planet, or just a really bright star."
we noticed the same thing, it was such a pretty sky, but didn't have the in depth conversation about planets. :)
ReplyDeleteI have the same opinion as you. I think Pluto was robbed.
ReplyDeleteThink of all the science textbooks that became obsolete when they decided to rob Pluto of its planet status??
ReplyDeleteHarry and Esme saw Venus close to the moon Friday as they were returning from Malibu - and told me all about it when they returned.
It wasn't so close last night.
Yep... Hazel is just super smart :) Great job teaching her that stuff.
ReplyDeletePluto sucks. ;)
ReplyDelete