It's Not Your Parents' Solar System

This talk discusses the changing view of our solar system that has occurred in the last decade or so. We are learning much more about the outer solar system in general, and, in particular, this new knowledge has changed our view of Pluto.

In addition, for the first time in history, we now know details of other planetary systems. This vast increase in our data has created a similarly vast shift in our view of how planets, stars, and life may develop in the universe.

It is definitely "Not Your Parents' Solar System".

Versions

I often give the same talk several times, updating and improving the talk each time. When there are significant changes between versions, I will post both versions and you can choose whichever version works best for you.

Boston Area Schools - March 2008

This talk was given at two Boston area schools to a fourth grade class (which included my niece Katie) and at a seventh grade assembly (which included my nephew Bryce). Since the 2005 version, the 2006 IAU definition of planet came out, confirming my assertion that Pluto is not a planet. I also made numerous small changes to the talk based on my experience creating a DVD course on the solar system for the Teaching Company (to come in summer 2008). In both talks, I only got through our solar system, and did not have time to address extrasolar planets. That is generally to be expected, as this talk really needs about 90 minutes to be done well. More if there are lots of questions, and there usually are.

Park School - Lower School Assembly - March 2005

This talk was given at the Park School, which my son attends, on March 1, 2005. I presented this talk at a Lower School Assembly, and thus I smoothed out the talk for a younger audience. As my son had attended the "Copernican Redux" talk discussed below, I had advance scouting on what material might work best with this age group. In particular, the slides where I decry things as "Wrong!" went over well with him. I hid about 20 slides to make it shorter, but also added an introductory section on the solar system for kids who don't have an astronomer for a dad. The audience had from 1st to 5th graders, a wide span of learning levels, which was a challenge. Still, it seemed to go over very well.

Space Telescope Public Lecture Series - April 2004

This talk was given as part of the Hubble Space Telescope Public Lecture Series held at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD on April 6, 2004. For this presentation, I played with the idea that the new knowledge of the solar system is similar to the Copernican Revolution. This allowed me to contrast the "known" ideas (dogma) against the new discoveries (heresy). I changed the title to "Copernican Redux: Dogmatic Views vs Heretical Facts in the 21st Century Solar System". This version is longer than either of the previous versions. It is probably too long.

Villa Julie Pre-Service Educators - March 2004

This version was presented to a group of pre-service teachers from Villa Julie College on March 23, 2004. Just to show how quickly things can change in only 4 months, this talk includes the important discovery of Sedna, announced only a week before. Also, this talk is a bit shorter, as the extrasolar planet discussion was mostly omitted.

NSTA Institute - November 2003

This is the first version of this talk. It was presented to middle school (grades 5-8) science teachers at the NSTA Institute Symposium held following the National Science Teachers Association convention in Kansas City in November 2003.

Page last updated on: April 2, 2008