Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Let’s Help Write a New Mnemonic for the Solar System. My Very Excellent Mother…

The current most-used Solar System mnemonic for remembering the planets and their order from the Sun is “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles.” But, it’s the “Year of the Dwarf Planet” and some folks are hoping all the dwarfs of our Solar System will get a little more respect and possibly be considered “real” planets.

A group of science writers from The New York Times are among those who are “rooting for the dwarf planets to be considered actual planets.” But if that were to happen, one issue would be that we’d need a new memorization mnemonic (I know… this is a a horrible dilemma.)

It wouldn’t be just adding P for Pluto (and reverting back to the old “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas) — you’d have to add a C in the middle for Ceres, along with E for Eris, H for Haumea and M for Makemake at the end.

So, Universe Today readers, let’s help The New York Times find some new mnemonics.

Here would be the order:

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Ceres
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Haumea
Makemake
Eris

And while we’re at it, we’ll take suggestions for a new (family friendly, please) mnemonic for the current 8 planets we have, something without Mothers and Noodles, perhaps. Planet hunter Mike Brown from Caltech (one of the folks responsible for all this planet arguing) has suggested “Mean Very Evil Men Just Shortened Up Nature.”

Put your ideas in the comments below.

13 Replies to “Let’s Help Write a New Mnemonic for the Solar System. My Very Excellent Mother…”

  2. Many
    Verified
    Ephemeris
    Might
    Cause
    Jumpy
    Scientist’s
    Unnecessary
    Nixed
    Planet-
    Hood
    Manifesto
    Errata

  3. National Geographic held a contest years ago!
    The winning entry was by a little girl (al a Pluto)

    My very exciting magic carpet just sailed under nine palace elephants.

    My (Mercury)
    Very (Venus)
    Exciting (Earth)
    Magic (Mars)
    Carpet (Ceres)
    Just (Jupiter)
    Sailed (Saturn)
    Under (Uranus)
    Nine (Neptune)
    Palace (Pluto)
    Elephants (Eris)
    Haumea and Makemake, not having Latin or Greek names are not very well known. You can’t possibly add Sedna, Vespa and the thousands of many others. Ceres, Pluto and Eris are it for me, as far as dwarf planets go.

    1. Throwing out some of the dwarf planets based on their names? Disagree with the IAU definition all you want, but it makes more sense than doing that.

  4. Marie valiantly examined metals,
    causing justified scientits uttering:
    “nobelprize physicist has majestically enlightend”

  5. In college, a dude next to me during Astro 101 made me split my sides laughing when he suggested for the Hertzprung Russell spectral classification… Ohh Boy A F***** Gonna Kill Me. I’ve never forgotten it though.

  6. Very disappointed that Universe Today would carry this story. A mnemonic that includes these 13 objects makes absolutely no sense, for two reasons. One, because a cut-off point that includes the largest four KBOs but no others is arbitrary and silly. Two, because the very notion of ordering objects by distance from the sun makes no sense in the kuiper belt, where elliptical and inclined orbits make a mockery of the enterprise.

    Such a mnemonic would serve only to take something very trivial and meaningless, and blow it out of all proportion in the minds of the people using it. It would be detrimental to people’s understanding of the solar system. You should not be encouraging this.

  8. I agree with Adrian Morgan. Why turn what is a purely scientific issue and make it seem like social issue on Earth.

    “…some folks are hoping all the dwarfs of our Solar System will get a little more respect and possibly be considered “real” planets. ”

    Seriously?

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