Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

ALIENS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM? WITH PROFESSOR NOVA NEFARIOUS

BEFORE WE START OUR JOURNEY TO FIND ALIENS, WE HAVE TO THINK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHERE ALIENS MIGHT LIVE. It's hard to imagine anything living in empty space (THERE'S NOTHING TO EAT OR BREATHE, PLUS IT WOULD BE REALLY BORING). It's hard to imagine anything living on a star (THE SUNBURN WOULD BE THE WORST!). It's hard to imagine anything living on something like a neutron star (WHERE THE GRAVITY IS SO STRONG EVEN A MOUNTAIN WOULD BE SQUASHED FLAT). AND DON'T EVEN THINK OF SETTING UP HOME ON A BLACK HOLE.

THE ONLY THING LEFT IS A PLANET. If aliens do exist, we're pretty sure they have to live on a planet somewhere. And so, if we want to find aliens, first we're going to have to find the planets that could have aliens living on them. So... how do you find a planet? THIS IS HOW YOU FIND A PLANET Let me kick things off by asking you a question. ARE YOU READY? (That wasn't the question.)

WHO WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO DISCOVER A PLANET? IT'S GOT TO BE SOME FAMOUS ASTRONOMER, RIGHT? MAYBE... GALILEO? OR, ERR, DR. TELESCOPE? Nope. The first person to discover a planet probably didn't have a name. Or, if they did, they were called "Ug" or something. That's because anyone can see lots of planets just by looking up at night! The very first people walking around TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO would have seen planets in the night sky (although they were probably too busy running awayfrom saber-toothed tigers to do much stargazing). The first people to pay proper attention to the planets were called the BABYLONIANS, who lived around 4,000 years ago.

FUN FACT: The Babylonians are the same people who came up with the idea of having 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. They sure liked counting to 60. Maybe they had 60 fingers? The Babylonians noticed that there were FIVE BRIGHT STARS IN THE SKY that moved around in a weird way, realized they were special, and decided to name them after their most important and favorite gods. They called them NAB, ISTAR, NERGAL, MARDUK, and NINURTA. When I say these bright stars "MOVE AROUND IN A WEIRD WAY," I don't mean they DANCE AROUND or zip all over the sky like PLANES or METEORS.