outer space

When I was little I thought that the stars were the light of heaven shining through rips in the sky (think the fabric of night). When the pieces of fabric from the rips fell to earth they became violets. Good violets became amythests when the died. What's the difference between a good violet and a bad violet? Beats me.

Bear

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

my sister told me that when the moon was waning that neant the air was eating the moon. i never could figure how the moon became whole again.

steve

When I first tried to visualise the infinity of the universe my imagination insisted on a limit. My mind insisted on conjuring up an image of the universe contained in a vast cylinder of newspaper! Outside the newspaper was plain white light but I got dizzy when I tried to imagine where that went to.

Ian

When I was about 8yrs old, my family and I were walking home one night when my mom noticed a shooting star.I was terrified to look up at the sky fearing that one would
fall on me!I was about 16 when I saw my first shooting star and now I search for them constantly.

Racheal

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

When I was a kid, I somehow got it in my head that humans inhabited both Earth and Jupiter. The image in my mind was that the people of Jupiter were just like us, except that their world leaders sat at a long formal table and talked to Earth via televisions. I was very dissapointed when I learned the truth, and realized I would never be able to visit Jupiter.

Dan Bogus

When I was 3 or 4, my dad told me that it was cold on Mars. Being an impressionable child, I assumed that Mars was the outermost planet in the solar system. Fortunately, an early obsession with outer space fixed that when I was 6 or 7.

Mike

I used to believe we lived on the INSIDE of the earth instead of on top of it because I would hear them say "The astronauts broke through the crust of the earth" and I was amazed they could get through all that dirt.

Susan - San Francisco

I used to think that there were many moons. Full moon, half moon, sliver moon, etc. At some point I heard about new moon, and asked my dad what that was. Of course, he explained that it was all the same moon, only parts of it were in shadow.

Olivia Tacellli

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

My daughter was 3 when the astronoughts landed on the moon. She believed that they got there by climbing a ladder

Cathie

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 in fourth grade, I figured out the question that has puzzled scientists and theologists for centuries: I realized that the universe was a large shoebox under the Mr. Rogers' bed. I would have called a press conference to explain my revelation, but after I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out how I had arrived at that conclusion.

Virginia W.

My dad was (and still is) an amateur astronomer. He told me about how we were all made of the same matter as stars. Me being about five at the time, I ran around looking to see if I could find "stardust" in things. I swear I saw some in a brick one time...

Drops of Jupiter

When I was a child I used to believe that stars were holes in the sky & we could see heaven shining through

June

I used to believe that the reason there were nights I couldn't see the stars was because god hadn't paid his electricity bill.

Fiona