Here’s another edition of the Thursday Evening Post. 🌍

Have you heard about Punch the monkey? 🙉

He’s SO SWEET! 😍 I hope the other monkeys start accepting him!

I think it’s so adorable that he carries around a stuffed animal! 🧡

I hope Punch brought you some joy today! 😊

On a different note, what are your thoughts about space? 🌕

When I was in fifth grade, I remember doing an assignment about Saturn and watching something from The Magic School Bus about outer space. 🚌

Other than what I had to learn for school, I had never taken time to learn about space. It wasn’t something that interested me.

All that changed when my friend introduced me to StarTalk!

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an absolutely FANTASTIC educator! Chuck Nice is very gifted at adding humor to the StarTalk episodes! 😁

I can’t get enough of StarTalk! ❤️

If you’ve seen or listened to it, what’s an episode that you have really enjoyed?

Ever since I started listening to StarTalk, I have been enjoying reading books written by Neil deGrasse Tyson. I am currently reading The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet.

I remember learning about Pluto being a planet when I was a kid. I remember being surprised as an adult when I learned that Pluto was no longer considered a planet.

However, I didn’t know how EXTREMELY UPSET some people got about the reclassification of Pluto! 😮

I HIGHLY recommend this book! It’s hilarious! 🤣

In the book, Neil deGrasse Tyson references a song about Pluto. It’s called “Planet X” and written and performed by Christine Lavin.

Lyrics:

In Arizona at the turn of this century
Astromathematician Percival Lowell
Was searching for what he called “Planet X”
Because he knew deep in his soul
That an unseen gravitational presence
Meant a new planet spinning in the air
Joining the other eight already known
Circling our sun up there

Percival Lowell died in 1916
His theory still only a theory
’til 1930 when Clyde Tombaugh
In his scientific query
Discovered Planet X, 3 point 7
Billion miles from our sun
A smallish ball of frozen rock
Methane and nitrogen

It joined Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
Our solar system’s newest neighbor
Two-thirds the size of our moon
A tiny, barely visible speck
Cold! minus 440 below
Not exactly Paradise
They named the planet Pluto

That same year, 1930, Walt Disney
Debuted his own Pluto as well
But a cartoon dog with the very same name
As the CEO of Hell
Was not your normal Disney style
Most figured he was riding the coattails
Of Pluto-mania sweeping the land
(not unlike our modern love for dolphins and whales)

For the next five decades mysterious Pluto
Captivated our minds
As late as 1978 its own moon Charon
Was seen for the very first time
But now telescopes and satellites
And computer calculations
Say Pluto may not be a planet at all
Creating great consternation

(Some scientists say)
It’s a “trans-Neptunian interloper”
Swept away by an unknown force
Or a remnant of a wayward comet
Somehow sucked off course
Others say that Pluto is an asteroid
In the sun’s gravitational pull
But if you ask Clyde Tombaugh
He’ll tell you that’s all “bull”

“I get hundreds of letters from kids every year,”
He says, “It’s Pluto the planet they love
It’s not Pluto the comet or Pluto the asteroid
They wonder about above”
And at the the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group
For Planetary System Nomenclature
They too say that Pluto is a planet
Reinforcing Tombaugh’s view of Nature

Norwegian Kaare Aksnes, professor at the
Theoretical Astrophysics Institute
He too says that Pluto is a planet
And a significant one to boot
But at the University of Colorado
Astronomer Larry Esposito
Says if Pluto were discovered today
It would not be a planet. End of discussion. Finito.

He says that it was not spun off from solar matter
Like the other eight planets we know
By every scientific measurement we have
Is Pluto a planet? No!
And now twenty astronomy textbooks
Refer to Pluto as less than a planet
I guess if Pluto showed up at a planet convention
The bouncer at the door might have to ban it

St. Christopher is looking down on all this
And he says, “Pluto, I can relate
When I was demoted from sainthood
I gotta tell you little buddy
It didn’t feel real great”
And Scorpios’ll look up in dismay
because Pluto rules their sign
Is now reading their daily Horoscope
Just a futile waste of time?

It takes 247 Earth years
For Pluto to circle our sun
It’s tiny and it’s cold but of all heavenly bodies
It’s Clyde Tombaugh’s favorite one
He’s 90 now and works every day
In Las Cruces, New Mexico
Determined to maintain the planetary status
Of his beloved Pluto

But how are we going to deal with it
If science comes up with the proof
That Pluto was never a planet
How do we handle this truth?
As the PhD’s all disagree
We don’t know yet who’s wrong or who’s right
But wherever you are, whatever you are
Pluto, we know you’re out there tonight

And in the year 2003 you’re going to see
The NASA Pluto Express
Fly by and take pictures of your way cool surface
To send to this web page address:
h t t p colon slash slash d o s x x dot Colorado dot edu slash
plutohome dot h t m l
You’ve got your own web page?
For a little guy,
You’ve made quite a splash

Yes, at the turn of the 20th century
Astromathematician Percival Lowell
In his quest for “Planet X”
Started this ball to roll
But at the end of the 20th Century
We think he may have been a little off base
so we look at the sky
And wonder what new surprises
Await us in outer space
we look at the sky
And we wonder.

What do you think of the song?

I think it’s so creative!

I also think its quite humorous—especially the parts that refer to Pluto as “buddy” or “little guy.” 🤣

Did you learn any new facts about Pluto as a result of this song?

The song captures many of the things that I learned about Pluto in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s book! It’s a very detailed song!

May you find excitement in learning something new today! 💚

May you be well! ❤️

If you’d like to support my mission to share my passion for music with the world and spread joy, love, and positivity, you can do so here. Thank you so much! 💜