I was reading a book named ‘Space Safari’ which was based on outer space. It had everything one needed to know and everything that wasn’t necessary to know for an ordinary girl like me.
That book was a little boring and my eyes were starting to close. Of course I was ready for a long nap. I shut the book and dropped it on the table, and then I lay back on my chair and closed my eyes. It wasn’t even a minute after I had closed my eyes when my mother called after me. I ran downstairs to her.
My mom is pretty and she has golden brown hairs which are always tied in to a bun. “Jessica, would you please go outside and rake the leaves off the lawn?” Her voice polite so I would melt down and do the work. “Yeah mom, of course I can. But on one condition. You won’t make me read that book”. I am a little business minded so I put forward a good deal. “But Jessica, that book is very nice… If you show a little interest.” She was trying to convince me but it wasn’t that easy.
“Um...no. See the profit mom; you won’t have to do the raking stuff. Deal? My voice was even very convincing. “Okay. Alright. As you wish but do a good job on the lawn or else….”She stopped midway while speaking and looked away. “Yeah sure. Anything. Anytime.” I murmured under my breath.
I took the rake from the basement – which was creepy and stepped into my boots – which was comfortable. I pushed the door open and a gust of wind messed up my hair. I closed the door behind me and my mouth fell open when I saw outside.
Huge rocks were floating in the dark sky. Those which looked like tiny stars from the earth were now huge fiery balls of gasses. I looked across the lawn. I stepped forward and reached the end of the lawn and looked down. I was about to fall after seeing the earth under my house.
“Mom! Mom! Mom!” I was shouting at the top of my lungs while I ran to the door. I kicked it open and looked around. No. No sign of my mom. Tears ran down my hot red cheeks as I called her. “Mom? Mom? Mom!” I was hopping she would appear from somewhere and hug me.
As my crying session was on, something dropped on my head. It was something hard like a book. A book that book I was reading. Every page I had read flashed in my head. I looked down; the book was lying on the floor. I wiped my tears – pulling myself back together. I picked up the book. There was a letter in which there was written a note which read –

Hello, passenger! You are on a Space Safari. In order to end this trip,

You will have to give a space test. Please start preparing. Good luck!

Note: Do not try to get out of your property as there is a specific oxygen bubble around you and your property.

Wow! Now I was abandoned in space with no one with me and to get out I had to give a space test. I signed and opened the book. I started preparing for the test.


I was reading every page very carefully when a huge rock like structure fell in front of me. I studied it carefully. It was enormous and looked like a minor planet. Its look resembled to that of a metallic body. I looked in to the book and compared the characteristics. When I found out the answer, I jumped with joy. It was an asteroid.
Asteroids are sometimes referred to as minor planets. They are rocky metallic bodies that revolve around the sun, usually in a region known as the Asteroid Belt. The Asteroid Belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

That was easy – I thought to myself. I went outside and sat on the porch steps and looked up. Small rocks started to fall in the lawn. When they stopped, I picked one up and looked at it carefully. I knew at once that they were meteoroids. I didn’t need to look in to the book. I had already read that meteoroids are small chunks of stone that are capable of intersecting earth’s orbit. Meteors originate from asteroids that collided within the asteroid belt.

I was reading the book further and it seemed interesting. I didn’t know that Jupiter was the largest planet and it had a dark spot. Its diameter is, 142,984 kilometer at its equator and the density of Jupiter is 1.326 g/cm3 .


Cool – I said to myself and read on further. The next planet was my ruling planet so I had to know something about it. Venus planet is named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty. Venus reaches it’s maximum brightness shortly before sunrise and shortly after sunset, for which reason it has been known as the morning star or evening star.

I thought for a while and then decided to see it myself after I reach back to earth. “Earth” sounded like a very away destination. My house was destroyed by the Asteroid. I missed my planet. I started to cry on the thought of my planet, my home, my friends and family. I shrugged off the sad thoughts and regained my concentration. I read further –

Mars is named after the Roman God of Water. It is often described as the “Red Planet” as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance.

I was reading more about Mars when a long light flashed in front of me. “Comet!” I whispered, although I knew that no one was listening. I read from the book that a comet is an icy small solar system body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes a tail. I had heard about people making wishes coming true but I had ever seen one.

I read about Mercury which was the smallest planet in the solar system, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. Not much information has been known about Mercury yet.

Saturn amused me the most. It has a beautiful ring system that consists of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Saturn is over 95 times more massive than earth. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h.

The last two planets left were Uranus and Neptune. They are nearly identical in their internal structure. The rotation axis of Uranus is tilted by about 90 degrees, causing extreme seasonal variations in sunlight. Triton, the giant moon of Neptune, is a cold world with Nitrogen geysers.

At least I read about Earth. Although I knew that my home planet is the only planet where life exists. I have a view of it from here and it looks like a huge ball with green, blue and white swirls of paint splashed altogether.

Now, after the planets, were the Sun and the Moon. The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma inter woven with magnetic fields. It is about 109 times bigger than Earth and its mass is 2X1030 kilograms which is 330,000 times that of Earth.

Then, I further moved on to the Moon. The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. It receives light from the Sun. There is no gravity on the Moon. The mass of the Moon is 7.3477X1022 kg. It is a beautiful celestial body. When I looked up, I could see the moon so close, just above me.

After I read about every moving body in the Solar System, there were some laws that gave description of the motion of planets around the Sun. As I had read before that the Sun also has a gravitational pull, I always wondered how the planets rotate around the Sun acting opposite to this pull by the Sun. Johannes Kepler’s laws explained the same. Kepler’s laws are:-
1.
The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.
2.
A line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.
3.
The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

After I had read the whole book, I ran to my room to give the test. I closed my eyes for a minute to relax and calm down. When I opened them, found myself sitting on my chair, my book lying on the table in front of, me and my house was absolutely fine. It wasn’t wrecked be any asteroid or something. I ran downstairs to check on my mom, she was working in the kitchen. Without her noticing me, I ran crept outside and I gasped in surprise. Everything was back to normal. The sun was shining, my lawn didn’t look like a cliff, and the holes made by the meteoroids weren’t there.
I was relieved that everything was just a bad and exciting dream. But how did I remember every word of the book that I had memorized for giving the test? Well I guess that extra knowledge is not such a bad thing after all.
My mom called me. I ran to her and asked her what happened? She said “Jessica, would you please go outside and rake the leaves off the lawn?”
Oh! No! Not again. I ran outside to confirm that I wasn’t in space again. I opened the door and my jaw dropped. “Noooooooooooo!!! I can’t handle this again.”
THE END