812
Helpful guide
(reddthat.com)
Hey buddy, they admitted they didn't know what the star even was.
Huh for some reason I'd never considered that fact that the songwriter would have no idea what a star consisted of. Just a mysterious light in the sky.
Interesting, I think of the lyrics as describing the way a baby or toddler feels when looking at the stars. They don’t know what those bright lights are yet, they just know they’re shiny and too high up to reach.
Apparently the sun's spectral absorption lines were discovered 4 years before the song was made
I don't expect children's song writers have ever been sufficiently into science that they know about new discoveries that don't matter to them at all quickly. I doubt many people knew even the top five elements that the sun consists of
I think it's fair for them to wonder what a far away star was. They probably didn't even know that the sun was a star
They thought it was made of carbon.
Literally the next line.
"How we envy you, envy you! Lucky humans, who can close your minds to the endless deeps of space! You have this thing you call... boredom? That is the rarest talent in the universe! We heard a song — it went 'Twinkle twinkle little star....' What power! What wondrous power! You can take a billion trillion tons of flaming matter, a furnace of unimaginable strength, and turn it into a little song for children! You build little worlds, little stories, little shells around your minds, and that keeps infinity at bay and allows you to wake up in the morning without screaming!”
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
GNU Terry Pratchett
You guys are waking up in the morning without screaming? Or just not about the stars thing?
This is from a fantasy world. The not screaming is one of the ways you can tell.
I wake up to the screaming of tiny flying dinosaurs
I like to imagine the big ones used to scream all the time too.
Oh man. This is where my mind goes whenever I'm getting stoned with my chickens.
No
Did a star draw this
We are made of star stuff, so kinda!
Maybe it's about a neutron star. Those are typically on the order of 10 km radius. And it's hard to know their exact composition, which is why cosmologists dream up fun terms like "nuclear pasta" for degenerate matter.
I'm trying to make "twinkle twinkle star-whose-angular-size-from-earth-appears-small" scan but it's proving a challenge...
Twinkle twinkle little star
Not really little but very far
Some with elevation high
Like a diamond in the sky
The same planet where a dude figured out that everything is relative.
The Hapsburgs?
Then again it could be super close and the size of a potato.
Written ironically by an alien astronaut.
It’s not written about the sun
it doesn't say it's the sun in the picture
this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
812 points (100.0% liked)
Science Memes
17164 readers
2723 users here now
Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!
A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
- Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
- Keep it rooted (on topic).
- No spam.
- Infographics welcome, get schooled.
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Research Committee
Other Mander Communities
Science and Research
Biology and Life Sciences
- !abiogenesis@mander.xyz
- !animal-behavior@mander.xyz
- !anthropology@mander.xyz
- !arachnology@mander.xyz
- !balconygardening@slrpnk.net
- !biodiversity@mander.xyz
- !biology@mander.xyz
- !biophysics@mander.xyz
- !botany@mander.xyz
- !ecology@mander.xyz
- !entomology@mander.xyz
- !fermentation@mander.xyz
- !herpetology@mander.xyz
- !houseplants@mander.xyz
- !medicine@mander.xyz
- !microscopy@mander.xyz
- !mycology@mander.xyz
- !nudibranchs@mander.xyz
- !nutrition@mander.xyz
- !palaeoecology@mander.xyz
- !palaeontology@mander.xyz
- !photosynthesis@mander.xyz
- !plantid@mander.xyz
- !plants@mander.xyz
- !reptiles and amphibians@mander.xyz
Physical Sciences
- !astronomy@mander.xyz
- !chemistry@mander.xyz
- !earthscience@mander.xyz
- !geography@mander.xyz
- !geospatial@mander.xyz
- !nuclear@mander.xyz
- !physics@mander.xyz
- !quantum-computing@mander.xyz
- !spectroscopy@mander.xyz
Humanities and Social Sciences
Practical and Applied Sciences
- !exercise-and sports-science@mander.xyz
- !gardening@mander.xyz
- !self sufficiency@mander.xyz
- !soilscience@slrpnk.net
- !terrariums@mander.xyz
- !timelapse@mander.xyz
Memes
Miscellaneous
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS