#1 Star Forge

If we are all made of stardust... what does that make us? This investigation takes young explorers on a journey across the universe to discover how sleeping clouds of gas wake up to become bright stars.

Big Questions Your Child Will Explore:

• The Awakening: How does a giant cloud of gas and dust start to fall inward and get smaller?
• The Cosmic Whirlpool: Why does a shrinking cloud spin faster and faster, just like an ice skater pulling in their arms?
• The Star Furnace: Why does squeezing gas make it hot enough (15 million degrees) to start a nuclear fire?
• The Balancing Act: How do the inward pull of gravity and the outward push of fusion work together to keep a star stable?
• The Lifespan Paradox: Why do the biggest stars in the universe die young, while the smallest stars can live for trillions of years?
• The Iron Stop: Why is iron the "ash of fusion" that a star cannot burn, and how does it cause the core to collapse?
• Supernova Alchemy: How do exploding stars create heavy elements like gold and silver and blast them into space at 30,000 km per second?

The Big Challenge: In the finale, children travel back in time to trace a single calcium atom in their own bones all the way back to the heart of an exploding star.