Sometimes words or phrases are so fetching that I just can’t get them out of my head without finding a way to use them myself. I felt that way about “tiny exoplanet,” a phrase being bandied about by the Wired Science crew today, so I wrote a song about it.
No music yet. That will have to wait until I get home and can mess around on the ukulele. One thing is for sure — it will have 3 chords, since that’s all I know. I’ll try very hard not to rip off Singing Science Records‘ “Why Does the Sun Shine?” too much.
Corot-Exo-7b
aka “Tiny Exoplanet”
There’s a tiny exoplanet
circling round a star
it doesn’t have a fancy name
and it’s very very far
there’s a tiny exoplanet
though it’s very hard to see
it’s four hundred light years off
and it’s not on my TV
the only way we know it’s there
is by looking at stars’ light
when a planet circles one
the star becomes less bright
it’s one of many exoplanets
about three hundred that we know
but most are gassy giants
big and heavy and slow
this is a tiny exoplanet
made of lava rocks
the ground is hot and melty
so wear your shoes and socks
it’s very hot and very fast
with an orbit 20 hours long
a tiny, rocky exoplanet
spinning around its sun
this little lonely exoplanet
is a bit like you and me
all it wants is to be loved
and for us to let it be
there’s a tiny exoplanet
circling round a star
it doesn’t have a fancy name
and it’s very very far
