{"id":55,"date":"2009-02-18T16:25:49","date_gmt":"2009-02-18T03:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/physicsstop\/2009\/02\/18\/whats_your_favourite_planet\/"},"modified":"2009-02-18T16:25:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T03:25:49","slug":"whats-your-favourite-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/physicsstop\/2009\/02\/18\/whats-your-favourite-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s your favourite planet?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the magazine Physics World (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/physicsworld.com\/cws\/home\">on-line version here<\/a>), produced by the UK Institute of Physics, I recently read a neat little article about physicists visiting primary schools. The essence was that young children can ask some pretty insightful questions, but also that they can see science in a different way to&nbsp;adults. &nbsp;For example, the writer (Pete Edwards) frequently gets asked &#8216;What&#8217;s your favourite planet?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>That got me thinking. What&#8217;s my favourite planet?&nbsp; I had to admit that I don&#8217;t actually have one. I tried thinking back to when I was five, but that didn&#8217;t help me.&nbsp;(Of course, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.astronomynewsblog.com\/planetary-news\/funny-billboard-about-the-planet-pluto\/\">there were more planets to choose from back in those days<\/a>&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I guess if I had to pick one, I&#8217;d pick Mars.&nbsp;There&#8217;s something rather&nbsp;neat about seeing Mars in the night sky.&nbsp; Given its orbital period is about two earth years, that means it only appears every second year, and it is only at its brightest for a couple of months. That makes seeing it a bit more special. And it has a clear orangey tint to it rather than the boring high-visibility white of Jupiter and Venus. Plus it has two moons, reassuring close to, but different from, the Earth. We have photos of its surface, and it&#8217;s just possible that someone might visit it in my life time (me, me, pick me!). And martians live there too.<\/p>\n<p>As for the rest of them, Mercury is just too close to the sun, Saturn&#8217;s pretty but it&#8217;s rings don&#8217;t quite do it for me, and the rest are just too far away to be of much use. Mars it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the magazine Physics World (on-line version here), produced by the UK Institute of Physics, I recently read a neat little article about physicists visiting primary schools. 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