How do you plan to fall asleep tonight? Perhaps you'll lay in bed and watch an episode of your latest binge obsession, but I have a better suggestion. Queue up this video of Star Trek and "Reading Rainbow" star LeVar Burton reading "Goodnight Moon" to science luminary Neil deGrasse Tyson. Inspired by the experience, Tyson tweeted his calculations on Sunday of what it would take for a cow to jump over the moon.
FYI: A Cow can jump over the Moon if she aims where the Moon will be in three days, then leaps at about 25,000 miles per hour
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 8, 2017
In case it's been awhile, "Goodnight Moon," by author Margaret Wise Brown with illustrations by Clement Hurd, first came out in 1947 and covers all the things a child says "goodnight" to, including mittens, socks, kittens and a cow jumping over the moon.
The video, released over the weekend, starts with Tyson wistfully tweeting about how he wishes someone would read the classic children's book to him as he falls asleep. Tyson sent out that real tweet back in May.
I occasionally long for someone to read "Good Night Moon" to me as I fall asleep. #ExpressionsOfImmaturity
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) May 17, 2017
The next part of the video is the stuff good dreams are made of. Burton, who has honed his reading-out-loud skills through his "Reading Rainbow" career, appears with Tyson (who has a pillow at the ready) and orates his way through a relaxing rendition of the book.
The astrophysicist leaves us with a question to ponder: "Do you think when the cow says 'moo,' they're really saying 'moon'?" Give that one a thought as you're drifting off to sleep tonight.
