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Coffee Break

9:30 Coffee Break: Planets

The solar system.
The solar system.WP - Creative Commons

by Jill Riley and Sean McPherson

July 13, 2015

Earlier on the show, we talked about how tomorrow, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will fly past Pluto to photograph it and transmit those images back to Earth. New Horizons has traveled 3 billion miles over the past nine-and-a-half years to get to this historic point.

Now, we all know Pluto was demoted from "planet" to "dwarf planet" status back in 2006, but there are a lot of us who still cheer for Pluto. Perhaps Walt Disney's cartoon character was presciently named, given dwarf-planet Pluto is our solar system's underdog.

But all this talk about interplanetary exploration has reminded us there are a lot of songs that mention the planets, some of them by name.

So for today's 9:30 Coffee Break, what songs do you want to hear that mention the planets or name-check planets? Send us your requests.

Songs Played


They Might be Giants "How Many Planets?"
The B-52's "Planet Claire"
T. Rex "Planet Queen"
The Rolling Stones "2000 Light Years From Home"
The Flaming Lips "Watching the Planets"
David Bowie "Life on Mars?"
Jeremy Messersmith "Tatooine"

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