Page 1- In the beginning, there was nothing but darkness.

More than 4,500,000,000 years ago – before

even the dinosaurs existed, before even the Earth existed – there was space. And in one part of space,
there was a huge collection of stars mixed in with massive clouds of gas and dust, that today we call the
Milky Way galaxy.
Page 2-In a small corner of that huge galaxy, in an area that would later become our solar system, there
was a big cloud of gas that had been swirling around since the Big Bang. There were also some dusty
remains of an old star that had exploded long ago.
Page 3- The gas and dust were floating, swirling and spinning past each other - but they were all quite
far apart. But then… a nearby star exploded, in what we call a supernova.
Page 4- This supernova sent a shockwave of light and energy rippling across space, pushing some of the
gas and dust towards each other. This gas and dust soon became a ball, which started to get bigger and
bigger because of gravity.
Page 5- Gravity makes everything in the universe move towards everything else - and when things get
really big (like, planet-size big), they start to pull all nearby things towards it.
Page 6-As the ball of gas and dust got bigger, the gas and dust started to crush in on itself until
something called a “nuclear reaction” happened right in the middle of the ball. A nuclear reaction is
super powerful, and this particular one turned our Sun into a brilliantly shining star, throwing light
across the rest of the gas and dust that was still spinning around it.
Page 7- Some of those other swirling, twirling chunks of gas and dust (that hadn’t been sucked into the
Sun) were bumping and clumping into each other. Soon, those clumps got big enough that gravity
started pulling in all the other gas and dust around it, all while still going round and round the giant
shining Sun.
Page 8- Some of these twirling bits clumped together to make our Earth. Others clumped together to
make Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – and all of their moons too.
Page 9- All these baby planets swirled and spun, and pulled in all the nearby matter. They squished
together to become super-tight big giant hot balls of spinning stuff.
Page 10- Our own Earth was getting hit by rocks that were falling towards it. It kept getting bigger and
hotter until it was a giant ball of melted rock.
Page 11- Then, a really huge rock smashed into Earth and made it even bigger. And a little bit of that
rock flew off and floated into space to make the Moon.
Page 12- So the Earth was just out there floating in space, near the Sun. But it looked totally different to
the Earth we live on today. There were volcanoes all over the place, with hot lava and gas everywhere.
Page 13- But slowly over many years, Earth started to cool down. Some rocks full of ice and gas hit it and
melted to make the sea.
Page 14- This is continuing today - every year more than three tons of space rocks hit the Earth.
Page 15- But slowly, over many years, the top layer of the Earth was cool enough to harden. This is the
ground we walk on today. We call it the Earth’s crust, like a crust of bread. Deep down underground, the
Earth is still full of melted hot rock.
Page 16- And gradually, over a long time, plants started to grow, bugs started to live and life on Earth
began to form (which is a whole story on its own).
Page 17- Earth is really ancient, and humans have only been around for a tiny part of that. All the
buildings and the cars and the restaurants, and the phones and even everything that’s inside of you… it
all started with an exploding star, billions of years ago.