Spend a day with the stars

4:41pm Tuesday 2nd September 2008

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Kerry Ann Eustice discovers space on her doorstep, when stargazing at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Space may be the final frontier, but learning more about it certainly should be your first point of call when visiting Greenwich.

I'd booked my seats at the Royal Observatory's just one-year-old Peter Harrison Planetarium and was so overwhelmed by its Star Life show, I didn't mind spending the hottest Saturday we've had in weeks inside the screening room, under the bronze dome.

Pre-show, my interest was sparked by wandering the planetarium's discovery rooms, where visitors are invited to use interactive features to learn more about astronomy and space. By the time I took my reclining seat, I was eager to understand even more about black holes, supernovas and nebulas.

After a brief intro from an astronomer, who is on hand for questions at the end, Star Life - the show exploring and explaining the birth, life and death of stars - takes us to our star, the Sun.

Using research and actual images of space, it recreates the fiery fountains which explode, often in loops, on its surface, details its intense heat and reveals, despite its magnificence to us, compared to others in the universe it is quite average in size and heat.

These visuals are fantastic - the swirling beauty of spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way, had me contemplating a career change to stargazing - and give a (sometimes scary) sense of travelling in space, but the science was just as enjoyable.

The way the show communicates the vastness of space is interesting and memorable. You learn the London-sized core of the Sun is so dense, a sugar-cube worth of it weighs more than everyone on earth and there are more stars than have ever been heartbeats.

Also, when a star's fuel (hydrogen) runs out and it starts to die (the sun is likely to in 5,000m years), it explodes and the gas and dust it emits form new stars, sometimes planets, and the life which will inhabit it.

Which has led astronomists to suggest we are all made of stardust. This may explain why I was so taken with this inspiring science presentation and so eager to learn even more.

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