Space Walk by Salina Yoon read by Benjamin

Yesterday Glenn Reynolds linked to an item by Dave Mosher, an article titled Jupiter is so big it does not actually orbit the sun. Mosher relates his daughter's one-time favorite book was Space Walk by Salina Yoon. In Mosher's article he states the book says in rhyme Jupiter "circles" the sun and that irritates him so badly he felt like ripping out the page every time his daughter made him read it to her, up to three times a day. Mosher insists due its immense gravity Jupiter actually pulls the orbital point away from the center of the sun to a point just beyond the surface of the sun so it does not actually circle it. Rather, the sun and Jupiter orbit each other. All planets have this same effect but their mass is so minuscule compared with the sun that the effect is barely noticeable. His issue is with the scientific distinction between the words orbit and circle. It's a small nit but it still gets him. He is not writing about the planet's oval shaped orbit.

I wondered if this book might be a good one for my brother's kids. So I looked on YouTube and found a boy, Benjamin, reading the book to Ellie, a girl with a different last name. Apparently Benamin has a bit of help with video production. It's more sophisticated than a child would do. He reads other books on YouTube as well.

It's cute.

Back on Instapundit, MSO remarks in comments that the bodies of the solar system have motion of exquisite complexity. He goes on further about science fiction writers and time travel. He shows this video depicting the sun moving so fast that the movement of sun and planets are described more accurately as a vortex.