Day 124. Planets that resemble a tree

Inspired by The Wellcome Trust’s 12 Days of Science Christmas (thanks @upulie) and last night’s #onsci chat on The Science of the Holidays, over the next 12 days I’ll count down a dozen items which represent science, Christmas, being on holiday and reflections of 2012 in my house.

On the first day of Christmas, ScienceforLife gave to me:

• Planets that resemble a tree.

This beautiful painted wooden model of the planets circulating our sun was sent from my sister in Paris to my 9 year old son for Christmas 2011. It’s been to school for show and tell, and we refer to it a lot when talking about orbits and eclipses and units of time such as days and years.