Richard F. offers these answers to the five questions since they are all similiar.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, contains lots of huge clouds of gas and dust. Some of these clouds start to collapse, or fall in to the middle of the cloud. The gas at the middle keeps getting thicker and hotter. If the cloud is big enough, the gas at the middle gets so hot that it starts to shine. That is a star. Our sun is just one of these stars.

The dust particles in the cloud also collect together, and form rocks, asteroids and planets. Our Earth is one of these planets.

To find out more, try reading the book called "Stars", by Seymour Simon. It has catalogue number 523.8 SIM in your school library. Older kids might enjoy a book called "Private Lives of the Stars", by Roy A. Gallant. I found it at the Carlingwood branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

For your immediate enjoyment, we have found two issues of National Geographic magazine that talk about the creation of the univers. One copy will go to room 8 and the other to room 11. When you've finished looking at it, you could pass it along to the other room. When you have seen both, give it to your librarian to add to your collection.

Also, there are printed copies of images from the Hubble Space telescope of the Orion Nebula where scientists believe new stars are being created and a picture of a new star that is surrounded with dust that could very well form into planets in a few millions years.

Thanks for the interesting questions and keep asking them. That's what science is all about.

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