In which Alex enters the world of scientific debate.

[rivka]

At supper tonight, I was telling Michael about a new-to-us exhibit Alex and I wandered into at the Maryland Science Center: "Our Place in Space," which features an enormous spherical display screen which they use to display planetary images. (OMG that thing was so cool.)

Rivka: And we saw Saturn, and Pluto... Pluto is Alex's favorite planet. Right?
Alex: That's not a planet.
Michael and Rivka look at each other, shocked.
Rivka: Pluto isn't a planet?
Alex: Some people say it's a planet.
Rivka: But it isn't?
Alex: Some people say it is. Some people say it's a planet, and some people don't.
Rivka: Is Jupiter a planet?
Alex: Yes.
Rivka: Is Saturn a planet?
Alex: Yes.
Rivka: Is Neptune a planet?
Alex: Yes.
Rivka: Is Pluto a planet?
Alex: Some people say it's a planet, and some people don't.

We were completely dumbfounded until I remembered that a book we have out of the library, Planets Around the Sun, makes a brief reference to the Pluto controversy. Then we were only mostly dumbfounded. I can't believe that she retained that piece of information and pulled it into a completely different context.

Great. She's not even three years old yet, and we're going to have to be careful about taking her to cons, for fear that she'll get a beatdown from Athena Scalzi.


Edited to add: I checked Planets Around the Sun. It just says, "Some scientists think [Pluto] is too small to be a planet. But most people still call Pluto the ninth planet of our solar system." So what Alex said seems to have actually been her analysis, not a direct quote from the book. Whoa.

Comments

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

This is a little of topic, but I really recommend Is Pluto a Planet?: A Historical Journey through the Solar System by David A. Weintraub. The first couple of chapters deal with different understandings of the solar system throughout history, and may not be as interestng to some as it was to me.