Time’s a kind of mystery,
not made of anything.
We treat it like a measurement.
A time-line piece of string.
But NOW-time can be different,
depending where things are.
We look back over many years
when gazing at a star.
The speed time passes, tick & tock
depends on where things go.
If gravity’s extremely strong
that tick & tock go slow.
Since Einstein showed us Spacetime,
THEN & THERE were surely wed.
And WHEN & WHERE got married too …
and share a Spacetime bed!
Horses trotting happily while
pulling on a cutter sleigh
was quite a common sight to see
in winter’s north-west USA.
This was the eighteen-fifties, when
Pierpont made his catchy song.
Created for Thanksgiving, then
it stayed ‘til Christmas came along.
New gramophone technology
soon spread this song across the seas.
Now JINGLE BELLS stars frequently
in winter-time festivities.
Two astronauts on Gemini Six,
December nineteen-sixty-five,
with sleigh bells and harmonica
performed this song in space – yes LIVE!
https://www.britannica.com/one-good-fact/what-was-the-first-song-played-in-space
LUCA is the Last Universal Common Ancestor
We don’t know how it started:
this awesome life on Earth.
Were muddy ponds or thermal vents
the source of all our births?
Life is so incredible
and beautiful as well.
Growing many Earthly forms
from LUCA’s lovely cell.
And when our Earth eventually dies
engulfed by ageing Sun,
five billion years or so from now,
will ALL of life be gone?
Or should we plan a rocket-launch
of microbes to the stars
and set life’s cycle off again
on planets wide and far?
Image from Pixabay
First, un-pleat some solar cells
and wag that space antenna tail
to give our telescope some power
for data-sending mail.
Open sides, like two long arms,
then stretch-out layers of silver veils
to make a heat-shield from the Sun.
Too hot, our Webb could fail.
Next, erect the smaller mirror
then a radiator,
before reflective parts hinge wide.
That giant mirror’s locked, both sides,
to make a golden-petal flower
with infra-red its viewing power,
to be an ancient star-locator.
Deepest history translator!
Inspired by animation of deployment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzGLKQ7_KZQ
You can find more poems for Science Week here:
Australian Children’s Poetry 
