Duration: 25 Minutes
Suitable for children starting from 6 years old and above
Beyond the moon, beyond the sun and stars, far beyond the Milky Way, we enter a realm of perpetual darkness … the cold, black emptiness of space. Yet, even here, small amounts of matter can be found, these microscopic particles form the raw material of the evolving cosmos.
About five billion years ago, a new, rather average yellow star condensed from a great cloud of gas and dust. Relatively close to the star, a place of blue skies and liquid looms into view.
Here we find our "Oasis in Space".
Our star dwindles in the distance, circled by a family of planets and moons. Water exists on many of these worlds, but only on Earth did it become the major component of evolving life. But the Sun is just an average star; small, stable, like billions of other stars in the Milky Way galaxy. And our galaxy itself is typical of billions of galaxies in the known universe, each in turn, home to untold billions of stars.
How many other "water planets" orbit just the right distance from their own "average" stars?
The search for life goes on. We listen for a faint echo from some far-off civilization for a signal from an alien world … for signs of another … Oasis in Space.