All the news today is about Rover landing on Mars. At first I was kinda excited and worried about Rover. I wondered how he would survive on Mars. Would he be cold? Would he miss his owners, would he be able to get food and walks? When I asked N these questions she laughed and explained that Rover was not a puppy as I had thought, but rather a robot that they have sent to Mars to explore the planet.
Oops! I really thought it was a puppy. I think the should have sent a puppy... They would have been much better scientists than a robot, but that's just my opinion ;)
After she had stopped giggling, I asked N what she thought about it. She said that she thought it was cool and a great feat for the scientists that were involved, but overall she said that it was not something that she lost sleep over. Literally. The Mars rover was supposed to land at 1:30 in the morning here, but instead of watching as most would expect, we were all snug in our beds asleep or close to it.
Astronomy is a very vast discipline ranging from what is going on close to home in the solar system to the very far away in the rest of the Galaxy and other galaxies. Just as people have different interests when it comes to entertainment and careers, the same goes for within astronomy (and other disciplines as well). So don't assume that all astronomers know everything about space (or even care to). My astronomers know a lot about spectra and peculiar stars and star formation and bubbles, but if you ask them about the constellations or stuff closer to home, they will usually shrug and say "I don't know" or "meh". It's just not their cup of tea! For N, this is just one of those things.
And now I think I will go back to sleep and dream about puppies on Mars.
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