Children Told That Space Travel Is Not Impossible

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27435, 23 August 1954, Page 10

Children Told That Space Travel Is Not Impossible

Several little potential “space cadets” in the Civic Theatre on Saturday afternoon sat on the edge of their seats, their faces glum; They had been told by Mr I D. Thomsen, director of the Carter Observatory, Wellington, that travelling to ,a star would not be impossible, but it would be mighty difficult. The figures he gave to the large audience of children and parents caused the temporary disappointed expressions. Rarest star i he Said - hl the Milky Way, was four and one-third light years away from earth. Travel- - I n n& n aL nn e ‘tenlh tb . e s P eed of he* l *. a second . the rocket ship would take 40 years to reach the tin£ sparkling dot m the heavens The average stars were 500 to 600 light th^ r M<iv Om w he world - Some, even in sV ay ’ W e. re up t 0 40 ’ 000 light i ea Sin d J stanc ?' Stars were known to bC Tur?°Tl, mes lar ®er than the sun. Mr Thomsen, a Fulbright scholar who recently yisitedlhe Lick ObservaiS 1 ?’ College Observatory and Palomar, spoke on . lhat ranged from Egyptian th ll6 .* , wben man looked on the sun as ‘heruler and giver of all life to the SJhS 6 - t ,i,? a^’v Wpen man has a weapon Witt Which he can control the future J? Hls advice to budding atom physicists who one day might S K?n’l e m^ th ». hyd . rogen bombs was: Don t make them too big. The hydro?5 n A < ’5l b may ho the deciding footer on whether we remain on' earth. Always remember that it is not the bomb MMt.-^ 1 * 1 of - but ‘ h ™ „„}'2 le . n Christchurch summers do not t 0 be as warm as the previous s»v r th’ o » P u rSons have been heard to in J c ?. uscd by the sun cooling down. Some have gone so far as to m 100 years New Zealanders will have to live on the Equator to Mr Ttloms en smashed rato’tS home-grown theory when he “ v was getting warmer. On he raid ' tee temperature de grees; in its interior the P ” ature was 20.000,000 to 30,000.000 At question time hands were un in all sections of the audience, and*Mr SSI P re P a £ ed for the most •obvious. “When is it going to endT"

“How did it begin?” and other questions like it, received the obvious answer.

, U° you think the moon came out *22 Paciflc Ocean?” one boy asked. Mr Thomsen replied that that theory j e^d by Sir Gerald Darwin. But it had now been proved by geologists that he was incorrect. The earth, sun, i2I med at the same time—about 3,000,000,000 years ago. He ™&™ e ?>. W j7. stars were °* different S?(5 U ?% th 2 t J lfe J could exist on’Mars, and told of the dangers of looking at the sun with the naked eye. 0.55 ‘'to tog qnestion had not been The shuffling of the children suggested that many wanted to ask Slin Were a £ aid ' Tt came from a man o^-„° VCr 50: ., I ? ave you ever seen a flying saucer?” Mr Thomsen said he had not.