 Ever since the stars align to bring her here, Una has loved space, so here does everyone here like space or some people not too sure? Anyone here not too sure of space yet? You're not too sure of space? It's scary. It's very big. Kind of goes on without end, doesn't it? It goes on forever because it's continuously expanding. Maybe. We're still not sure. Are you okay on space? Yeah. So Una loves space from the first time she can remember. Her first step was one giant leap. Who took the first giant leap? Neil Armstrong. That's right. And with each birthday, Una's cakes became ascendingly astronomical. Yeah. Her first word was gravity. Gravity. And so I used to make cakes. My children now are pretty old, but I used to make them astronomy cakes too, but they were more for me than for them. Now, after a few more laps around the sun, what's a lap around the sun? A year. A year, isn't it? It's a year. That's what happens. The earth goes around the sun. Una lives in a world of cosmic curiosity and intergalactic inspiration. What's intergalactic? What's he? Well, more than that. Anyone? I'll find a way. It's a little between the galaxies, right? Actually. We have a galaxy that's got about a hundred billion, a hundred billion stars in it. Actually. And there are a hundred billion or probably even a trillion galaxies like our own. Um, the galaxies out there. Yeah, it's hard to measure them. The theory that of expansion, that universe that's observable right now is 93 billion years. And there's a theory that says that the expansion could be the current universe size could be 150 sextillion times greater. It's big and sextillion is such a big number. I don't even really know what it is. So she has her own little meteorite. I bet you no one here has a meteorite at home. And you know why? They're pretty rare and really, really expensive. That's what I said. We had one up at Mount Stromlo and someone stole it. Oh. Because it was so valuable. Oh, God. Okay. I think we eventually found it again, but someone's probably gonna have to make amends. Anyway, you can see Boone has got all these things, a picture of a black hole or at least a thing of a black hole. The constellation, my favorite constellation Orion. Orion. Has anyone seen Orion up in the sky? It's very, I like it because it's got, well, it's got a big red star. What's the big red star in Orion? Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. What's the big blue star in Orion? There's a red one and a blue one and they're both really bright. Blumen. Rigel. Rigel is the other one. And then there's other great stars like Zeta Orionis, a great star, but maybe not such a great name. All right. Boone dreams of a life in space. Life on Earth is just so, so, so. Especially the last year has been kind of so, so, so. So she has her here, her little notepad and she talks about Earth and she says meh. It's just meh. I kind of feel like Earth's been meh for the last year as well. But she likes the idea of going out and maybe going to a planet. Earth can't zip through space like a comet. Is that true? Yeah. No. How fast is the Earth moving around the sun? Does anyone know? How fast? 30 kilometers a second. That's correct. Now, how fast is 30 kilometers a second? That gets us to Sydney in less than 10 seconds. So that's fast. So we are zipping around like a comet. Now some comets. Which comets? Now here's a hard question. If I wanted to find a comet that goes faster than the Earth, what do I know about it? There's really only one thing I know about it. Yes? I'm going to go back. If I want to find a comet going faster than the Earth, it has to go. That's correct. Well done. That was a hard question. Right? So a comet that goes closer to the Sun than the Earth goes faster than the Sun. Anyway, one day, Una will become an astronaut. She will leave the Earth behind. Hope she doesn't get sick like me. But for now, she is an astronaut in waiting. She's not very tall yet. But I would think being kind of short, what's good about not being super tall to be an astronaut? Yeah? So the ship doesn't have to be big, but there's something even more important. What do you think? No, no. You don't want to be six foot tall to be an astronaut. It's too big. Less than six foot. Less than, but there's something really important about not being tall. Let's go, you. So that's part of something more important. Yes, let's see. I'm looking for someone who hasn't asked a question yet. You've given an answer once. We'll let you go. Get a little taller, but the thing that really is important in going to space is something pretty fundamental. Yes? Let's go for you. Less weight. That's right. Oh, that's right. Someone cheated. All right. Ryan or Tim, you're probably, I know Ryan, Ryan would do that, I bet. It turns out it's really, really expensive to get heavy things into space. So the lighter you are, the better it is. So I don't think I would be going into space anytime soon right now. Yeah, if you could be really tall and thin, that would be fine. But you'd still have to fit inside things. Oona very much likes the astronaut bit. She is not so keen on the in-waiting part. It'll take eons to grow this tall. But we all grow. Yes? And eon. Eon is, court of means, a long, long time. It's sort of a it could be even longer than that. Come on. So eons ago and when the dinosaurs occurred, eons ago is when the big bang occurred. Eons ago, eons just a long time compared to what you want it to be. Right? So for example, lunch can be eons in the future if you're really hungry. All right. But here's the good bit. Oona has been industriously working on an interplanetary plan. This book has really big words that are hard for me to say industriously. That means working really hard with purpose like you would do to build a factory or something. And you can see she's got all figures about how to travel around. And she has astronaut ice cream. I bet astronaut ice cream tastes even better in space. Has anyone had astronaut ice cream here? I think Questacon sells it. It's freeze dried, isn't it? It means it doesn't have any water in it. So when you stick it in your mouth, it kind of it dries your mouth out, but it tastes pretty good. So I bet you it tastes better in space, especially if you add water. So she's been planning her interplanetary plan with accompanying a tire of course. So she's made a fishbowl helmet. I'd be pretty careful about doing that at home because you might not be able to breathe, right? You need to be very careful about doing that because you need an oxygen tank. That needs to be connected to it. Yeah, exactly. So I would not do that at home and I'd be worried about her fish Neil who doesn't have a tank to sit in. So that would be bad. I have a cat at home that would think that was really good. Sorry. Sorry, but sometimes sorry is not enough. Okay, I think Neil would like that. Has a hand-me-down snow suit from Big Cousin Carl. I had snow suits because I grew up in Alaska, but my experience is most people here don't have a cousin Carl with a snow suit. But I grew up in a place where we did have big white snow suits. Why do you need to have a big suit in space? Just go ahead and scream it out. The vacuum is space. So the vacuum is space is one thing. What's the other part of space? It's cold, right? It's black and that's why it is distinctive. It's cold. It's cold. And white's good as well because you can see it. So you can see it. Yeah. Mom's dusty all-white Uggs. Still cool. I have some Ugg boots from 1995, but they're not white and they're pretty ugly. And Carl's ski gloves. Little too big, but they do the trick. And today is the big day. Today, Una will finally swap her humdrum, ho hum, life on earth for an extraordinary extraterrestrial life in space. What's extraterrestrial mean? Someone just tell me. Well, it means terrestrial. Terrestrial means if you're Greek, it means earth. So it's beyond earth is what extraterrestrial means. Well, so she's going to do this, but the first thing she has to do is once she has packed a picnic and said so long to Neil, who's in a little bag, Neil the Goldfish. Oh, poor Neil. I'm worried about Neil. And he's like got his head down. Permission to find life in space. That's going to be tough. That's something I've been trying to do for a long time. I have not succeeded yet. The first thing she has to do is to get there and you want to say something. Lily? Maybe Mars. Yeah, it's because there was something that actually he stung. Someone was, the scientists were stunned once because they saw something that looked like a human face. Oh, the human face on Mars. Yeah, I think that's just a kind of a shadowy thing. It's kind of a cool, you know, how have you ever been? There's we've ever seen a rock face that kind of looks like a human face on earth. Sometimes there are little places. I think that's what that is. And we still have not found life on Mars, but we think it's our best chance of a place to look. The other place to look is my favorite place is the Moon Enceladus. Okay, so the first thing she needs to do is she's got to get there, okay? So Una needs to try to get to space first. So our first attempt, it looks like she's made a soda and mints. Has anyone done the soda and mints trick? Well, may I suggest only trying it with parents involved, but it does work pretty well. I can tell you if you can use diet soda so it doesn't get all sticky and the right type of mints. Attempt two, giant party balloon filled with hydrogen. I reckon that might have worked. I don't know who here has a tank of hydrogen at home. Why do you have a tank of hydrogen at home? You don't think it's helium? Yeah, I bet you it's helium. Hydrogen is what they made the Hindenburg out of. Yeah. And hydrogen goes kaboom if you're not careful. So most people don't have tanks of hydrogen around, okay? Yeah, that's right. Well, we're going to have hydrogen. You may well have hydrogen in the future to power your car, but we're not there yet. There's one hydrogen fuel station in Canberra. And I think we're the first place in an Australia to have one. So she got up 56 centimeters. Attempt three, she made a rocket. Well, that's pretty fancy rocket. And Neil's counting down. Look at that. She must know Elon Musk. That's the only thing I can think. So up and away she goes. Space was even more extraordinary than Oona had hoped. There was no so-so, no humdrum, and certainly no ho-hum out here. The spol isn't connected to her like suit. It's got holes in it. So that tells us maybe this is a bit of a dream, don't we think? Yes. But she's got Mercury. Mercury is closest planet to the sun. So it's very hot. But interestingly enough, Venus is further away, and it's the planet that's the closest in size to Earth, but it's even hotter than Mercury. Yes, because it actually has an atmosphere. And it's so dense, like mad. Yeah, so it's got that really big greenhouse effect. Yes, it has stupid lima. Yeah, and we don't want to have that greenhouse effect here on Earth, do we? Amounts of carbon dioxide. Mars is the next planet with Earth in between. Exciting. And we have, is everyone watching the pictures from Mars from- Titan. Yeah, and what about the helicopter? People ready to see the helicopter taking off? What's about Titan? Yeah, well, we'll talk about Titan in a second. We got to get to Jupiter first. Now, not here. What's between Mars and Jupiter? Asteroid belt. Asteroid belt. Yeah. And then we get out to Jupiter. Now, Jupiter was almost a star. Almost, this missed it by this much. What would have happened? What needed to happen in Jupiter to become a star? Yep. Well, you need, so it needed to actually be a little heavier, and then gravity would have started a nuclear engine in the center, and it would have shined. That didn't happen. You want to- You reckon? You reckon? I think it needed more than that. Finally, we get to Saturn, and we have- Saturn has a really big mood called Titan. I like Titan. It's a pretty thing, but it's got methane. Methane. All over it. Methane smells bad, at least here on Earth. You know why methane smells bad here on Earth? Made out of fox. Well, yeah, it's because we add things to make it smell bad, actually. You can't smell methane unless you add something to it. And it turns out your body or a cow does that naturally. But yeah, methane is a good thing in small quantities. Finally, speaking of methane, getting to Uranus. Uranus. Uranus, as I like to call it. Uranus. I'm sticking by Uranus. And then- Methane. What's the real funny thing about Uranus? Yeah, we're going to let someone else try. What makes Uranus interesting besides its name? Okay, I'm going to go for you. You can also call it your aim. Okay, anything other than its name. Yes, what do you think? Massive. It's got a pretty good storm, but it's not unique. What do you think? It's because its rings are the one way around. The rings are wrong, and that's because of something else. It acts as tilt. It's on its side, right? And that's because we think when it formed, it got, you know, it got smacked. Probably is do things come together. So it's way over on its side. It's got with a rude name. Anyway, she goes all the way out to almost to the edge of the solar system. Uranus was really smelly, even if I called it that way. She's worried, I'm alone. Did I remember to feed Neil? I don't think she remembered. That's why Neil was happy to count down, because I think Neil is kind of sick of Una. Doesn't treat her very, doesn't treat him very well. Did I remember to feel Neil? She's thinking, maybe there's no life in space. Una's mind expanded like the universe with each new moment. Space and time seem to stand still as she traveled further towards the edge of the solar system. Well, it's not an easy edge. It's not like a wall. What's the furthest thing that humanity has put out? Yes? What? Voyager 1. Voyager 1 or Voyager 2? Voyager 2. Voyager 1. Brain's trust. Brain's trust. Ryan, what's the answer? Voyager 1. Voyager 1. Voyager 1. Okay, we'll have Ryan tell us. It's 1. Voyager 1. Thank you. It's either 1 or 2. Voyager 1. Space and time seem to stand still as she traveled further towards the edge of the solar system. Neptune, the most distant planet we know of in our solar system. I'm still kind of think Pluto is a bit of a planet, but anyway. But I think there are other things like that. If Pluto was, there are a few moons in Jupiter as a planet. So, Neptune's pretty chilly minus 214 degrees Celsius. That's cold. That would keep your ice cream cold. Probably pretty frozen. No life on Neptune. What's Neptune made out of, mainly? Not water. Ice. No. It's gas. It's made out of methane as well. And an ice layer inside. Yep. Probably got a big ice layer inside. With all of this astronauting, Una had worked up quite an appetite. So, she found a lovely spot on a ring of frozen rocks and launched into her cheese sandwiches and astronaut ice cream. I reckon at minus 214 degrees, that cheese is going to be pretty hard. How can she eat it when she has a helmet on? Well, I think it's pretty hard, but maybe you can sneak up. Who knows? It'd be hard. Now, she's out way out at something called the Kuiper Belt. Kuiper Belt. It's named after Gerald Kuiper. Yes. Where I was an undergraduate. He discovered the second largest moon on Neptune. And many other things he was. So, the Kuiper Belt, as I will call it. Kuiper. Kuiper. All right, Brains Trust. Is it Kuiper or Kuiper? Kuiper. I think he's Dutch and I think it's Kuiper, but I might be wrong. Kuiper actually discovered that the two stars exchange, the binary stars exchanging matter. So, the belt out here is where we think a lot of comets come from. Okay. So, this is a place though where there are lots of like Pluto and some other planets. What's the only thing out in the Kuiper Belt that's bigger than Pluto? I forgot the name. It's does of E. Eres. Eres. All right. There might be something else. What is the mystery thing out there? There's something. There's a bigger mystery that one of my friends thinks might be there. Planet X. Planet, well, Planet Nine. Planet X is the old version. This is Planet Nine. Planet Nine is, we think there is evidence there might be an undiscovered planet much bigger than the Earth out beyond Neptune and Eres. But they haven't, we've all been looking, we haven't found it yet. We shall see. I've been told there's going to be some sort of news on Planet Nine in the next few weeks, but probably not a discovery. All right. Let's look down here. C3H602. I've read that the center of the Milky Way tastes like raspberries. I can't believe that's true. Then it will explode. Tastes like raspberries, thanks to the compound ethyl formate C3H602. Wouldn't that be cool if the center of the Milky Way tastes like raspberries? It means you wouldn't have to flavor your ice cream. You can just bring it with you that way. In the distance, you can see Oona there. Something caught Oona's eye, shining the light of a nearby star. A tiny blue speck seemed to shimmer as if it were alive. Captivated, Oona quickly packed up her picnic and set off towards it. What do you think that is? You think it's probably a good place to go back? She's going very fast, 30 kilometers per second. You're right. It spins at 1,600 kilometers per hour. So how long, if the Earth spins at 1,600 kilometers per hour, how long does it take to completely turn around? 23 hours and 56 minutes. And four seconds, correct. Well done. It's like having a marching encyclopedia here. It's great. And as she moved closer to that blue speck, she could see the shimmering blue planet was orbiting on a tremendous loop around its star. And it has one moon. What's interesting about our moon? What do you think? What's interesting about our moon? It's because it sort of stops us from going into an elliptical orbit. Something more fundamental than just that. What do you think is important about our moon? It makes tides, but why does it make tides so big? Yes? Say it again? The moon's gravity. It's big. Yeah, so the moon didn't even smash into us. Something else smashed into it. And the moon actually is just the Earth. If you look at the moon, it's essentially a big piece of the Earth from four and a half billion years ago. It would have been a really bad day to be on Earth on that day because something probably the size of Mars hit Earth. What could it be that blue speck? Had she discovered life in space? A trillion possibilities rushed through her una's mind as she approached the spinning sparkling sphere. Let's not give it away. And just like that, it came into sharp focus. The blue planet was the Earth. Tum-dum. Suspended in space, her beautiful blue home now shimmered even more brightly than before. That's right. Australia, New Zealand, but no Switzerland. Just New Zealand for Ryan. In that moment, Una made the most marvelous observation. There is life in space. We are life in space. And we are all the crew of the most spectacular spaceship in the universe. That's our Earth. It's pretty amazing, our Earth. Everything we need to explore the cosmos is already on board. Fresh water, air, lots of lovely food, especially the ice cream, fellow travelers of all species shapes and sizes, and plenty of room to live, love, learn and play. It is a very good spaceship, Earth. With her mission complete and astronaut ice cream supplies severely depleted, it was time to return home and begin a new mission. We are all traveling through space right now. The Earth is our spaceship. And it's only home we've got. It's our mission to take care of the Earth so that we can explore the universe for light years to come. Uh-oh. What's that light years to come? The distance like travels in a year. Yeah. It's kind of like what Star Wars got wrong on traveling the blah, blah, blah, parsec thing. Kind of grates a little bit, doesn't it? So the last thing we're going to finish on is a quote by Neil Armstrong, the person who 52 years almost ago went through and said, I put my thumb and shut one eye. And my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. Because although it seems really big to us and there's so many of us on the planet, it's beginning to feel smaller and smaller. So we do need to take care of it.