When I was eight years old, a mundane school assignment changed my life. In my class at Lomond Elementary in Shaker Heights, Ohio, I had to write a school report about one of the planets. To ensure variety, the teacher picked a planet for each student. Mostly the kids wanted Saturn (the one with the cool rings) or Mars (the one where Martians come from). I got...Neptune.
Bummer. Who wants Neptune? What even is Neptune? I wanted Saturn or Mars, too! I dug out an old copy of the Golden Book of Astronomy that my parents bought for my older brother. I started reading about Neptune. And I was hooked.
Neptune is cold, dim, distant, slow, strange, enigmatic, exotic, alone. (Remember, this was many years before Voyager 2 flew past the planet, so it was really unknown back then.) To my young self — feeling like an oddball in a ...
