I remember when I was in preschool how I thought the moon had a light inside it, which made it glow. I also imagined this great big field of dirt, and that's where the sun and the moon and stars would be when they're not in the sky.

Tom

one night, a few years ago, my mom and I were sitting outside and enjoying the starry night. My sister, who was about four or five at that time, came out to join us. All of a sudden, she gave a horrified scream and ran indoors. My mom went after her, puzzled as to what had suddenly startled her. My sister explained that when she looked up, all the astronauts in the sky were shining their torchlights at her! She was talking about the stars!

Petrina

I used to think that Skyscrapers were what made those white streaks in the sky. I never actually saw one launch, though (for OBVIOUS reasons.)

JRE1

In Mexico, the words "rocket" and "fireworks" can be used as synonymous. So, I USED to believe that fireworks could take us to the outer space and in traditional holidays, (where is common use fireworks), I didn't want to go out to celebrate because I was afraid that these "fireworks" take me to outer space and I wouldn't back to my home.

Talia

When I was little, I used to think the moon was a reflection of the earth...that somehow outer space was some sort of huge "lake" and whenever we looked at the moon, we were somehow looking at our own reflection. I had a lot to learn.

Punky

when i was a kid, i bought this book about the history of the earth from a gift shop of a science museum. at the end of the book, it stated that earth will be swallowed by the sun in a few million years. i was scared of that event for days not realizing that i won't be lieve in a few million years.

minh

I believed that we lived inside the earth, not on it. This was probably because there was a cartoon sticker on my cupboard of two rockets exploding through the surface of the earth. The image left me wondering just how space shuttles actually managed to burst through the earth's 'skin' to make it into space. Bizarre

Dave

i used to belive for about half my life that there were three globes the way everyone used to say the third world

lola lady

when i was little, my dad told me that the moon is chasing me..quite cool~

lily

I used to beleive that the northern lights were a set of lights of various colours that flew around the earth.

Anon

i used to believe that the sun was a big heater spining around

rasverone

I used to think that all the planets looked like what they were named after. Mars looked like a giant candy bar, Pluto was a cartoon dog, etc. Some were tough, like Saturn, (which I eventually figured out looked like a car). You can imagine what Uranus looked like...

Lara

I used to think that the sunset was the Sun seperating into the millions of stars in the sky. The stars would, of course, recollect again at sunrise to make the Sun again.

I remember this making perfect sense in my head at the time too :o)

JL

Jonlee Peakman

i used to believe in the expression "once in a blue moon" and that there was really a blue moon that appeared random in the sky

-DM

I used to believe the banded sunset sky was the atmosphere of Jupiter! When I was 6 I studied the planets and I knew that Jupiter had pretty colored bands of clouds and that it was REALLY BIG. So when we occasionally got beautiful banded sunsets, I thought I was seeing the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Glenn Nelson (formerly from LI, NY, USA)

When I was about 3, my parents took me to a museum. There was a display that consisted of a small alcove with a large model of the Moon suspended in it. The walls of the alcove were pitch-black and dotted with stars. Dad asked me if I wanted to touch the Moon and feel the craters. I was really excited, until he lifted me over the railing so I could reach the model. I looked down and saw more blackness and stars, and concluded that I was being dangled over empty space. I freaked out, pleading with Dad to not drop me into outer space!

Nicholas Dollak

When i was about 7. I thought that after space was a giant wall of bricks and lots of millitary guarding it. So i spent loads of days wondering what is behind this wall? My answer was: Heaven.

Anon

My grandmother would take me on walks on warm, summer evenings. I would
hear these noises (which I found out later were crickets) and asked my
grandmother what they were. She told me "That's the sound the stars
make when they twinkle." To this day I think of her every time I hear
the summer crickets.

Sally Mansis

"The stars that you see in the night sky are actually stars from the age of the dinosaurs, because the light is taking so long to reach the earth." I heard this when i was about six years old (on a tv show about supernovas probably), and i was very disturbed that our picture of the sky was so out of date. I had a sneaking suspicion that we were missing out on a lot of good explosions, and was firm in my convictions that if the outer universe was to explode we wouldn't know until we were extinct. i was a philosophical little girl even then.

krashkrash

when i was little i thought that the moon was another earth. and i couldn't understand why i could see it in the middle of the day. cauz i figured when it got dark earth went away so we could see it in the sky (but it was really the moon)

Jackie