Is It Jargon Or Do You Really Not Know?

A few months ago I came across this clip (which unfortunately I can't seem to find again) of a random street interview in a few European cities, one of which was Cologne, Germany, so of course I felt intrigued to watch. As it turns out this was a clip of someone asking random strangers to answer the question "How many stars in the solar system?" To me this seems like an obvious question, and in general Europeans receive a must stronger science education that we do, I was sure the majority would get it correct. How very wrong I was. This in turn prompted me to put out a poll asking the same questions. I came back to it, saw that a few had answered. And still the answers astounded me.

So what is the answer? How many stars are there in our solar system? ONE. yup just one, that is, of course, our Sun. This guy:

So is this a matter of jargon or is it true a majority of people can't answer this question for lack of a good science background. To me, as an astronomer, this is so terribly obvious. However, I am starting to believe this may really be a matter of jargon and not a lack of education. I've asked this question randomly to friends and family too, and often the answer was wrong. So where are we going wrong?

I believe the answer lies in distinguishing between the Solar System and the Universe and/or Galaxy. The most common wrong answer is, Billion/Trillions. Hmm...noo... Then upon learning the correct answer, the most common response is something like "Oh wait, the solar system, yeah... I knew that". So let me distinguish:
Solar System: That would be the Sun and Planets (and asteroids, etc). The formal definition would be the sun and everything influenced by its local gravitational field, but let's keep it simply and just say the sun and the 8 planets (of 9 if your still being nostalgic and allowing Pluto in your count, but we won't go there, that's a whole new arguement ;-) ). In this arrangement, the only star is the Sun.

 Galaxy: A large gravitationally bound system of stars, gas, and dust containing billions to even trillions of stars. The best example is the Milky Way, which of course includes our Sun, and most of the stars you can see with the naked eye plus more which a telescope must reveal. Scientists estimated the Milky Way contains about 100 Billion Stars! This is what I believe people interchange when asked the question how many stars in the solar system? Hearing "stars" make them jump to the Milky Way causing a wrong first reaction and a mix up of terms.

Universe: This is the whole shebang, all the galaxies and clusters of galaxies, the whole of space and time as we know it. In the observable universe its estimated there are 10^24 stars (that's 1000000000000000000000000 stars!)

Are these terms, terms that should be common knowledge? Should the majority of educated persons know how to distinguish between the solar system, a galaxy, and the universe? As an astronomer I feel I can't answer this question unbiasedly. To me, I would think the answer to be YES OF COURSE, but I'll leave that for you to decide. What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comment box below, I'd love to know.

A Solid Seven

A solid seven is what I am giving the new movie Oz: The Great and Powerful, a Disney/Tim Burton film released to theaters yesterday. Overall it's an alright film. If your not familar with this film, a short synopsis can be found here.

  

So where is Oz go right/wrong? I'll start with the pluses

It's visually striking: It's a gorgeous film. It starts off in black and white whilst Oscar (Oz), is in Kansas, and switches to vibrant color upon arrival in Oz. This is a great parallel to the classic film, The Wizard of Oz. The depiction of Oz is exotic and beautiful, like jumping into a mixture of Avatar-like alien world and Dr. Suess book. A particular favorite of mine was the emerald scene, complete with emerald/ruby flowers.

Humor: Good for all ages: With a rating of PG its a family film for sure. There is plenty of childish humor, your kids will love (and you too!), but there's also plenty of adult humor cleverly placed so your kids don't see it that way. For a Tim Burton film it's pretty light hearted and steers clear of the usual overall "darkness" that we tend to see with his films. I'll avoid spoiler's here, but as an adult, be prepared for your mind to go into the gutter here.

Alright so now for the downside.

 Awkward-Cheesy Acting: Yes, at times, I'd say the acting was not up to par and caused for some awkward sense here. James Fracco (Oz) makes Oz seem like more of a creeper than the master con-artist Oz is supposed to be. And let's not forget that creepy smile. AH!

Oddly-Placed Scene: Alright just a forewarning, stop reading RIGHT NOW if you don't want spoilers!! Anyway that being said, there is a particular Scene(s) nearer to the beginning of the film, that while they are a necessary part of the film, evolved so fast, that it made me thing "Woah? WTF?" I'm referring to when Oscar (Oz) first arrives in Oz, he meets Theodora, they run into some trouble, get of it, blah blah blah.. and then the next thing he's professing how he "cares" for her well being and about a minute later there is this rapid evolution of her falling in love with him. It's like how did we go from "AH bad scary monsters, run!" to "We are meant to be together"?

In conclusion, this movie is a good family-night movie or a movie night at home. I'd recommend seeing it eventually, but seriously don't waste your money at the theaters, wait until it's on DVD.