Stella’s Cosmic Adventure
A Zoom Through the Universe with Galaxio the Alien!
By: Alan K. Yarborough
Once upon a time in the bustling town of Astroville, lived a curious young girl named Stella. Stella was no ordinary girl; she had a telescope bigger than her dog and a fascination with the stars that was even bigger than her telescope!
One night, Stella’s telescope started to glow and hum, and out popped a friendly alien named Galaxio. Galaxio was from a galaxy far, far away, and he had come to take Stella on a cosmic adventure.
“Stella,” said Galaxio, “I’ve heard about your love for the stars, and I want to show you the Universe!”
Stella’s eyes twinkled like the stars themselves. “Really? The whole Universe?”
Galaxio laughed, “Well, as much as we can see in one night!”
With a wave of his six-fingered hand, Galaxio and Stella were zooming through space, faster than the speed of light.
“See that bright spot?” Galaxio pointed. “That’s our Milky Way Galaxy. It’s home to about 100 billion stars, and each star might have planets around it. That’s more planets than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth!”
Stella gasped, “That’s enormous!”
“But wait, there’s more!” Galaxio grinned. “The Universe has over 2 trillion galaxies, each filled with billions of stars and even more planets.”
Stella’s mind was spinning faster than a spinning top. “But what about the Andromeda Galaxy? How far is it from Earth?”
Galaxio’s eyes sparkled. “Ah, Andromeda! It’s about 2.5 million light-years away from Earth. If you were to travel there with the fastest spaceship we have now, it would take more than 2 billion years!”
Stella’s jaw dropped. “2 billion years? That’s longer than all the history of Earth!”
Galaxio nodded. “The Universe is vast, Stella. It’s so big that it makes everything on Earth seem tiny in comparison. But remember, even in this enormous Universe, there’s only one you, and you are special.”
With that, Galaxio waved his hand again, and they were back in Stella’s room. The telescope stopped glowing, and Galaxio was gone.
Stella looked out her window at the night sky, filled with a new understanding of the Universe’s size and her unique place in it. She knew that the Universe was vast and mysterious, but she also knew that her curiosity and dreams were just as boundless.
With a smile, she whispered to the stars, “Thank you, Galaxio. I’ll never forget our cosmic adventure.”
And with that, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of galaxies, stars, and the endless possibilities of the Universe.
