Sunday, December 02, 2007

Fact For The Day

Just when I thought I was caught up with the latest in whether-it's-a-planet-or-not, I learned something new in our first issue of National Geographic Kids magazine. Here goes... the order of the planets now includes 3 dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, and Eris.) Here is the official order:

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Ceres Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto Eris

They're having a contest for a slogan (mnemonic device) to help us remember them. They've suggested
My Very Excellent Mother Can Jump Slowly Under Nelly's Plastic Elephant.

Enter the slogan contest at kids.nationalgeographic.com, and click on planet contest.

2 comments:

Nan Patience said...

Fun way to get the kids up to speed on the universe and changes in the way scientists are thinking about things out there.

I also heard something on the radio the other day that scientists are revising the categories of living organisms. Apparently with more knowledge of DNA, new categories make sense now, which is mind-blowing.

Anonymous Mommy Blogger said...

So I am wondering...is a lot of what we learned in school (science, history) no longer valid? Will my children be teaching me new things, and will I have to learn everything all over again? :-)