YEAR 2 children at Brookham Pre-Prep School in Liphook visited the South Downs Planetarium in Chichester as part of their ‘Space’ topic.

The children began by exploring the night sky and, once simulated light pollution was removed, the sky became a dazzling jewellery box full of stars, planets, comets, satellites and meteors.

They explored the constellations, visited Mars and watched huge solar flares and sun spots erupting from the sun.

They also learned how Tim Peake only took six hours from leaving earth to dock with the International Space Station.

The children were fascinated and enjoyed asking and answering questions with the helpful and knowledgeable volunteers at the planetarium.

To finish, they returned to the theatre to explore Europa, a moon of Jupiter.

Trip highlights included learning about a recently discovered planet orbiting another sun in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ and the opportunity to hold a four billion-year-old meteorite.

The children were told The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) would love to be sending astronauts to Mars within the next 25 years – maybe someone at Brookham will be the next astronaut?