Are Stars Scary?

Let’s take a break from black holes and come home to Earth for a bit. A while back I was in line at a store and was talking to the person ahead of me about what I do. (I was wearing a Hubble Space Telescope t-shirt, which tipped her off, I suppose, that I might be one of THOSE people…)

She asked me if there was anything in the sky that could scare kids. She wanted to take her 8-year-old son to the Museum of Science to look through a telescope, but didn’t want him to get scared. I asked her if he was easily scared and she said that he wasn’t. So I asked what she was worried about. She finally admitted that she thought he might learn something that would scare him, like the fact that our Sun might go supernova.

Now that’s an interesting concept-the possibility of our Sun blowing up as a frightening thing to an eight-year-old child. Most kids I know of that age are really INTO making explosive noises, and their cartoons are chock-full of such stuff. So, there had to be something more to this concern. In the course of our conversation, it became pretty clear that she didn’t want her child to be frightened by science and she was worried that astronomy might have too much violence for a young child.

Just to allay any concerned folks who may be reading this, the Sun isn’t going to go supernova. Its death is going to be more gentle, as star death goes, and it isn’t going to happen for five billion years or so. So, there’s not much to worry about in the near term, and certainly not for an eight-year-old.

I think what intrigued me about this mom’s concern was that her son would get scared of something like this simply by looking through a telescope at other stars. I did mention to her that looking at stars is normally something very enjoyable and thought-provoking. And, I did point out that looking at the Sun was NOT a good idea and I wouldn’t recommend it. I told her that the folks at the museum usually look at planets, especially since those are easy to find in light-polluted skies.

She decided that would be cool, so I guess one of these nights, her son will get to see some celestial delights through a big telescope. I can just about guarantee that he won’t be scared. But he might come home and want a telescope…