I used to think that astronauts were astrosnorts, which were pigs that flew out of space!

Fahmeda

I used to think the creaters in the moon was the baby that was going to be born tomorrow. It always seemd to look like a baby.

Emma

When I was young I didn't know we lived on a planet or about gravity. Then one day my grandma told me we lived on the planet Earth and how gravity worked. As soon I realized that Earth was just a ball floating in the middle of space I was too scared to move. I thought that my movement would cause the "ball" to drop instantly and we would all die. I would also walk around holding on to things since Earth was a sphere and I was scared of falling off the planet.

Anon

When I was small my cousin told me that the earth had a bubble over it to keep all the trees, sand, and water from falling off. She also believed that space ships had pointed tips to puncture the bubble so they could fly into outer space. Can you imagine how horrified I was when I learned there was a hole in the atmosphere?

Anon

I believed for a very long time that the Moon was the back of the sun. My big brother told me that and it would make sense: Everyday the sun shines because it faces us and at night it faces other people and we're actually looking at it's butt! I feel so silly sharing this!

Tashiana

When I was in third grade, I read in a science book that someday the sun would become a nova. I must have figured "someday" was imminent because would I lay awake night after night wishing that the sun would not explode and incinerate the Earth. The sun seems to be holding together so far...

MaryK

When I was little, my dad used to say that sometime we'd "sleep under the stars." I had this picture in my head of literally sleeping right up underneath a star, possibly in some kind of hammock-like-thing. In my head, the stars would be huge, bright and shiny, but perfectly cool. One day I asked my dad when we'd sleep under the stars, and he said something like, "We did, remember?" He was referring to a recent night when we'd all camped out in tents in the yard. I was a little disappointed, but I got over it.

Amy DeK

I was convinced that the moon was God's fingernail, and that he grew it and grew it and finally cut it, and then it grew again.

Kiwi

I believed for years that the sun and moon were the same thing - it just glowed more in the day :)

Deb

As a very little kid I remember being taken to the planetarium to watch some film about the solar system. The narrarator gave the specific distance between Earth and various other planets. I was outraged because they were obviously making this all up. The only way to record distance was by looking at the mileage numbers on a car's dashboard as you drove. I was smart enough to know you couldn't drive to Mars!

toon

I used to believe that at the end of the universe was a big plywood wall.

matt

When I was a little girl, I used to believe that sometimes the Moon would break down. The only way NASA could tell it was broken was when it would "smile" at the Earth. NASA would send the astronauts way up there to fix it. Astronauts were REALLY smart because they were the only guys in the whole world who could fix the Moon! My dad went along with it!

Charisse

When I was about 4 I found a rock in our backyard, and I don't know how but I concluded that since I hadn't seen it there before it had fallen there from the moon, and my parents agreed w/me and let me believe that for the longest time ...I used to brag to my friends that I had a piece of the moon up until I was like 10... boy did I feel dumb when I found out it was just a stupid rock.

Moon Rock

My aunt has told me that when I was a young child she mentioned something to me about the crickets chirping at night. I was astounded. Apparently I said to her, "Oh. I always thought that was the stars!"

jazmama

i used to think that because people would say that they lived "in" a certain city, or country, like, "I live IN chicago" or "i live IN the u.s.a." that the same thing applied to which planet you lived on. so i figured that earth was almost like an inflatable beach ball, and we lived inside if it. thats how i explained why there was a blue sky and that you would eventually be able to touch it if you got up high enough. i also figured that the astronauts would have to blast a hole in the sky in order to get out. i figured the stars were all the holes the astronauts had blasted.

*BLAST!*

People told me that the Big Red Spot (storm) on Jupiter was big enough to fit 100 earths into it.

For years after I was scared that the earth would get sucked inside Jupiter.

Sarah

I used to believe that the moon lived on top of our house because I could always see it from the window.

Classic NYer

I used to believe that Star Trek was an actual part of the Space Program, that was just using more Advanced Equipment than the Apollo moon shots.

MM

I thought the moon was a beach ball hung up in the sky by a cup hook, and that when my father came home from the Army (World War II) he would climb up a ladder and unhook it so I could play with it. I was incensed at my mother for laughing at me when I informed her that Daddy would get the moon down for me when he came home.

Texas granny

One night when I was about 7 I woke up around 3 in the morning. I couldn't get back to sleep so I decided to read a Richie Rich comic book, and the main story concerned a bunch of bad guys who stole the moon (of course they didn't; they just turned it invisible, and Richie figured it out). I remembered that there was a full moon that night so I went to look at it out my window, which faced East, and... IT WAS GONE! Not knowing that both the Earth and Moon would be spinning/revolving enough to get over on the other side of the house in the 5 hours since I had last seen it, I went into my parents' room and woke Mom up to let her know that someone had stolen the Moon or turned it invisible. She groggily assured me it hadn't and told me to go to bed.

Fortunately, I was wrong.

TlalocW