Sister St. John asked her seventh-grade class,
”
Can anyone name the nine planets in succession from the Sun?
”
And from the front row, little David
– the class clown – was the only one to raise his hand.
”
Sister, I know,
”
he said.
Sister St. John asked her seventh-grade class, “Can anyone name the nine planets in succession from the Sun?” And from the front row, little David – the class clown – was the only one to raise his hand. “Sister, I know,” he said.
Sister was quite surprised because little David wasn’t known to be the sharpest bird in the nest. She was pretty sure his answer would be wrong or that he’d make fun of the pronunciation of Uranus.
So, she allowd more time to give other students an opportunity to raise their hands, students who might have a better chance at answering the question, therefore eliminating any potential embarrassment courtesy of the class clown.
It seemed like an eternity. Little David’s arm was turning white from pointing to the ceiling, waiting for acknowledgement from his teacher so he could proudly show not only the teacher, but the whole class that he did know the answer.
By now, it was becoming evident to Sister that no one else was going to raise a hand. She had no recourse but to give the front-row, mischievous dweller a chance. She looked at David with concern, and David looked back at her with anticipated excitement. “OK, David,” Sister said. “What is the answer?”
Little David popped out of his chair. The whole class – and the teacher – were wondering what would come out of David’s mouth? Would the class clown come up with something humorous, as he usually did, or would he come up with the right answer?
“Yes, Sister,” David said. “The nine planets in succession from the Sun are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,” – with proper pronunciation – “Neptun, and PLUTO.”
He spurted the answer out so fast that hardly anyone knew if he had answered the question correctly. Well, he was right for sure. And from that day on, everyone knew that if they had a question about astronomy little David would have the answer, and it would indeed be correct.
Most everyone treated me special after that day – you had to know that “little David” was going to be me – and they knew that I at least had knowledge about something. Except for Sister St. John. She always had her hands full with me, and rightfully so.
So, where is big David going with this, you might ask? Well, by now I’m sure everyone has heard about the re-designation of the planet Pluto by a handful of astronomers. I have a little disagreement with this re-naming of our ninth planet the way they did. Next they will be trying to give new names to moons that revolve around the planets just because some might be smaller or farther away from their host planet, or composed of different material. Or maybe a little moon was captured by the host planet’s gravity instead of being formed along with the planet. Who knows?
First off, the word “planet” is a Greek word meaning “wanderer.” Any object around our Sun that wanders in our sky and is not stationary, such as the stars, should be considered a planet.
Let’s look at the nine known planets, Mercury through Pluto. They have all been called planets since the 1930s, when Pluto was first discovered, and that seems good enough for me. They all wander through our sky, so they should be called planets.
Now what about the asteroids? These small bodies wander around the Sun mostly between the planets Mars and Jupiter, and therefore through our dark skies. They should also be called planets. We have comets that come to visit our skies from far out reaches in space. They wander, so maybe we should call them planets as well. And in these far out reaches of space, known as the Kuiper Belt, it almost seems daily that new bodies are discovered circling the Sun, one bigger than Pluto so far. More planets, I guess.
It is my belief that everything that revolves around the Sun should be known as a planet. I don’t care, and it shouldn’t matter, how big or small, or what their contents are – they should all be known as planets. And then we should classify all bodies into different categories of planets.
We could have rocky planets such as Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Next we could have the gassy giant planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. And if you want to call Pluto – and any other object that is discovered later on past this area – a dwarf-icy planet, then fine. Asteroids could be called – you got it – asteroid planets.
And let’s not forget our comets. We could call them dwarf-icy-comet planets, if you would like. I’m sure the astronomers could come up with some better-sounding names for these categories. But then again, I’m not sure if I want them in charge of that job.
If new wandering objects be discovered in time, they could be placed into any one of the established categories. And if we happen to find a new object that doesn’t fall into any existing category, we can come up with a new planet category that will best describe the new object.
It seems so easy to me. Just leave my planets alone. Don’t try to tell me that Sister St. John was wrong all these years in telling me we had nine planets. And especially don’t tell me that Pluto is not one of them. It would make Sister St. John, who is still working with children down in Texas, very mad.
And most of all, it would have made my answer wrong on that day long ago – and I never would have been treated so special after that.
Clear skies.
