No Sun

Helen: Em… What will we blog about?

Any ideas?

Scott: X Box.

Helen: 360.

Scott: Probably.

Will that be interesting?

Helen: Probably. Nah…

Scott: As interesting as when we blogged about toothbrushes.

Helen: Did we?

Scott: As interesting as most of the other blogs we’ve done.

What’s the most important thing in the world?

Helen: Probably the Sun.

Scott: No, we can live without light.

Helen: If the Sun wasn’t there, none of us would live.

Scott: How would that work?

Helen: Sun gives us one of our vitamins.

Scott: And any other reasons?

Helen: Dad, tell Scott…

It keeps us warm.

Scott: Would it kill us not to be warm?

Yes.

Scott: We can use fire.

Helen: Fire is warm, Scott…

With no Sun, the Earth would die.

Scott: How?

Because it gives us atmosphere and warmth and lets everything live.

Scott: How does it give us atmosphere? If we were freezing, humans would learn to grow fur.

There would be nothing living on our planet.

Scott: But wouldn’t anything with warm fur evolve into something bigger with fur?

I don’t mean a wee bit…

Scott: What about miles of fur? Okay – I can kind of understand that, now it makes sense.

It’s not the difference between a hot day and a chilly day, it’s the difference between life and death.

Scott: I understand that now.

What about you, Helen?

Scott: (whispers) She doesn’t care.

The Sun

Helen: I’m wondering…

What are you wondering?

Helen: What we should blog about. I’m not sure…

What’s the most important thing in the world?

Helen: Eh… I guess it’s the Sun because if the Sun wasn’t in the world, then there wouldn’t be any people, until… Nothing would grow – it would be horrible. If I was still alive, I’d think it was horrible. Only clouds and rain – no sun. We wouldn’t be able to go on holiday. Well, we would – but it wouldn’t be very good. It would be a rubbish holiday. I think the Sun is the most important thing…

Is it more important than the Moon?

Helen: I’m not sure.

More important than Mars?

Helen: I don’t know – but most of the planets are the same, but the Sun is one of the most important ones.

Would you like to go into space?

Helen: Maybe. I’m not so sure – maybe.

Would you like to walk on the Sun?

Helen: No way.

Why not?

Helen: It’s just like… So hot if you were walking on the Sun.

You could go at night.

Helen: That would be cool.

I think you would die before you got anywhere near the Sun.

Helen: I would die because the planets would be too hot – like Mars…

People have walked on the Moon.

Helen: Huh?

And people are hoping to go to Mars soon.

Helen: Cool – but Mars is a very hot planet, isn’t it?

I think so.

Helen: I bet it’s so hot.

Our solar system

Planet Earth, as seen from space.

Scott: Why don’t we talk about the solar system?

Okay.

Scott: The solar system is, like… All the planets that we know of so far – Pluto, Venus, Mercury, Saturn etc. Mars.

Helen: Jupiter. 65 planets is enough.

Scott: We don’t have 65 – I think we’ve only got 10.

Helen: I think 65 is enough.

Scott: Did I say Mercury? If I’ve said it, don’t put it in.

Helen: Pluto.

The solar system isn’t all the planets we know, it’s just the planets near us – our local planets.

Scott: Like, it’s like a city and the planets are the people.

Exactly.

Scott: And Planet Earth has nits and that’s all the people walking around on it.

What’s your favourite planet?

Scott: Mars.

Why?

Scott: Well, once when I was in P1 or P2, one of my table groups was called Mars.

What’s your favourite planet, Helen?

Helen: Eh, Jupiter.

Scott: Why?

Helen: Just because… Jupiter.

Why do you like it?

Helen: That’s a very hard question.

What’s your least favourite planet, Scott?

Scott: Pluto.

Why?

Scott: No, I mean Neptune… I mean… Yeah, Neptune, because if I… Let me try and… Yeah… If you… Spend a year on Neptune you’d be at least 150 years older.

What’s your least favourite planet, Helen?

Helen: Saturn.

Scott: But Saturn’s rings are really beautiful, they’re made of ice and rock.

Helen: I just got it mixed up – Jupiter.

Scott: I’m guessing everyone who reads this is going to learn a lot of facts. (whispers to Helen) We learnt it from Mr Boom.

Do aliens exist?

Helen: No.

Scott: Sometimes. I heard an eye witness guide to space and it showed you a real-life picture of a big-eyed alien from space. Honestly. Real-life! It didn’t look remotely cartoony…

Infinity

A map of our solar system.

What is infinity?

Scott: Infinity is the number that no-one in the world can count to. No-one can even get to the 10 numbers before it.

How big is infinity?

Scott: So big that I can’t even say. I don’t even know how many numbers make infinity. The biggest number still isn’t big enough. Infinity is the biggest number in the world, isn’t it? Isn’t it?

Well, it’s not really a number – it’s really a concept.

Scott: What’s a concept?

Well, something that you try to understand rather than something you can touch.

Scott: So it’s a number no-one can count to, mostly?

Sort of. Space is infinite, because it’s got no beginning and no end.

Scott: How does space never begin? People have been to the moon and that’s the beginning of space.

Well, that’s part of space – not the beginning. The moon is in space, but it’s not the start of space.

Scott: The end of space?

No, it’s not the end of space either.

Scott: Somewhere in the middle? A quarter of the way through?

It’s got no beginning and no end.

Scott: How does it have no beginning? If it has no beginning, how can people go to the moon?

The moon’s in space, but it’s not the beginning – we’re in space already.

Scott: How? Yes, it is… Of course… because we can see the moon and the moon’s actually the sun, isn’t it?

The moon’s the moon and the sun’s the sun. The moon’s a planet, the sun’s sort of a planet and the Earth is a planet.

Scott: But Daddy, why don’t we float into space?

Gravity.

Scott: Yes, but there’s no gravity in space.

We’ve got gravity here and it helps us stick to the ground.

Scott: But not too sticky, because I can still jump in the air. I wish there was a little less gravity so I could jump higher.

And there is the atmosphere, which protects us and means we can breathe.

Scott: Yes, but the sun has made a hole in this atmosphere so it sometimes gets a teeny bit hotter.

But we’re still in space, does that make sense?

Scott: A teeny bit. Earth is like the second or third smallest planet. Pluto is definitely the smallest, isn’t it?

The smallest near us I think.

Scott: Are any planets smaller than Pluto? I don’t think we’d fit on any smaller than Pluto.

There are billions and billions and billions of planets in space, some of them will be smaller than Pluto.

Scott: One’s so tiny I don’t think an alien would even fit on kit. If aliens lived on Pluto, they’d be the size of tiny ones.