{"id":9885,"date":"2025-12-19T00:47:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=9885"},"modified":"2025-12-19T00:47:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T08:47:03","slug":"space-scientist-dame-maggie-aderin-pocock-children-should-reach-for-the-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/?p=9885","title":{"rendered":"Space scientist Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock: \u2018Children should reach for the stars\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2025\/12\/19\/08\/17003842-eefb806f-dbe1-4426-b05c-5b4c437b486a.jpg?width=1200&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=3%3A2\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"main\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"hydrate-root sc-10wlkbs-0\" data-component=\"SupportNSCNative\" data-loading=\"lazy\" data-theme-name=\"base\">\n<aside class=\"sc-hez36s-0 dFpFuY\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-1 iBibVd\">\n<h3 data-testid=\"support-nsc-title\" class=\"sc-hez36s-2 jVZWGn\">Your support helps us to tell the story<\/h3>\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-8 juUDRT\">\n<div class=\"sc-hez36s-13 cqPbFA\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-0 rAFIl sc-hez36s-16 jZSKtc\">\n<div class=\"sc-aja53j-6 PdmgT\">\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content-container\" class=\"sc-aja53j-5 eZqxmv\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-collapsed-content\" class=\"sc-aja53j-4 tawua\">\n<div>\n<div data-testid=\"support-nsc-collapsed-content-tablet\" class=\"sc-hez36s-7 gZmYS\">\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iCTyfe\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 cglitp\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><button class=\"sc-aja53j-1 keLMOw sc-aja53j-7 eMEmGu\"><span data-testid=\"dropdown-with-gradient-dropdown-tablet\" class=\"sc-aja53j-3 dHXFkr\"><span data-action-type=\"Read more\" class=\"sc-aja53j-2 dcYUYI\">Read more<\/span><svg class=\"sc-eaj12q-0 hUgQwJ sc-culv3z-0 eifaJK sc-a5wy94-0 hyKPon\"><use href=\"#ee6613da15642019\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Since childhood, renowned space scientist Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock has had a \u201ccrazy dream\u201d about travelling into space herself.<\/p>\n<p>And while The Sky at Night presenter may never fulfil that dream (although she still lives in hope), she says she wishes other children would identify their own dreams to help motivate them to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe driving force in my life has been that desire to get into space,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if I never make it, just by having that desire and that drive, that crazy dream, sometimes if things don\u2019t go right I\u2019ve been able to overcome barriers and have a successful career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I say to every child, you reach for the stars, no matter what your stars are. For me, I physically want to go out to the stars and see what\u2019s happening. But for others, it could be anything \u2013 have a big, powerful dream and see where that takes you, because it means that when you fall over, you\u2019ll pick yourself up and find another route to get to where you want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a compelling message from someone who had a challenging childhood herself, attending 13 different schools after her parents split up when she was young, and struggling with dyslexia, But space was in her sights from an early age \u2013 although when she said she wanted to be an astronaut, she was told to try nursing instead.<\/p>\n<p>But her dream helped her get a physics degree and a PhD, before forging a glittering career in space science, working on projects including the largest space telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope, before becoming a pioneering figure in communicating science to the public, especially school children.<\/p>\n<p>The mum-of-one knows exactly how to effortlessly chat to children about the wonders of space and time, and her impressive ability to bring the complexities of the universe down to earth at a child\u2019s level is one of the reasons she was chosen to give the 200th anniversary Royal Institution Christmas Lectures this year.<\/p>\n<p>The lectures, which will be on BBC4 between Christmas and the New Year, are designed to explain scientific subjects in an entertaining way to a general audience, including young people.<\/p>\n<p>In the lectures, Aderin-Pocock says she\u2019ll be \u201cliterally speaking about life, the universe and everything,\u201d and admits: \u201cWith only three lectures, it gives me a challenge, but I love a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She says a major theme of the lectures will be are we alone in the universe, and how can we answer that question? She talks enthusiastically about how people are looking for life within our solar system, and one of the most popular destinations to look is Mars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s definitely life out there, and I\u2019m pretty convinced there\u2019s intelligent life,\u201d she declares, although she says we might not even recognise where life is, adding with a chuckle: \u201cI like to point out to kids that maybe the red rocks we see on the Martian surface, they\u2019re alive, but we just don\u2019t realise it. If they see the rover coming they might go \u2018shhhhh\u2019 , and when the rover goes past they start partying again. So there might be life out there, but we might not recognise it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the search for life elsewhere in the universe is the \u201cHoly Grail\u201d, if we do eventually find life it probably won\u2019t look like the aliens portrayed in films or in our imagination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing I like to do is explore what aliens might look like, because we have a loose definition of life and what we think life might be,\u201d says Aderin-Pocock.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut what is life? I guess it can be bacterial mass, but that\u2019s not the life we\u2019re really looking for. We\u2019re looking for intelligent life, that can communicate with us, life that we can share experiences with. It seems to be a fundamental human thing that we don\u2019t want to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She says she believes there\u2019s other life somewhere in the universe \u201cbecause it\u2019s a numbers game\u201d, and explains: \u201cIn the past, we thought we were the centre of everything. Now that we know we live in a galaxy containing 300 billion stars, we know there are 200 billion galaxies out there with all those stars with all those potential exoplanets, so why would life just occur here?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProbability would be skewed if life just occurred here. There must be instances where life has occurred in other places.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But she says the problem is the universe is vast, explaining that the distance between our local star, the Sun, and the next-door star is 4.28 light years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo if we look at the next-door neighbour star, that\u2019s 40 trillion km away, and travelling as fast as you can through space, that\u2019s 16km per second, it will take 76,000 years to get there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd on top of that, how do the aliens find us? There are 300 billion stars in our galaxy, and we are one of eight planets going round one of those stars. How will the aliens know we\u2019re here? \u201c<\/p>\n<p>Over the past 21 years, in her quest to make space easier to understand for ordinary people, and especially children, Aderin-Pocock says she\u2019s spoken to 650,000 people, the majority of them being schoolchildren.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s aware that children can\u2019t grasp the concept of the vast numbers of planets and distances in space, \u00a0so when she speaking to school kids she often tries to break the figures down for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s 300 billion stars in our galaxy \u2013 what does that mean? It\u2019s trying to make these vast numbers, which do seem overwhelming, accessible,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say okay kids, we\u2019re going to count from one to one billion doing one number a second \u2013 how long is it going to take? Is it more than a minute? About an hour? How about a week? And I actually say a billion seconds is 32 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes an alien concept a little more accessible. But what I always like to add is a billion seconds, so that\u2019s 32 years \u2013 you\u2019ll be older than your parents\u00a0 by the time we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She adds: \u201cSometimes I\u2019ve had letters saying \u2018Dear Maggie, you came to my school and I started counting to one billion and I got to 572 and I had to go for supper.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As well as helping children get their heads around the huge numbers associated with space, Aderin-Pocock also tries to help them feel they\u2019re actually a tiny part of space themselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the things I love to ask kids, and it\u2019s the title of one of my books, is am I made of stardust?, because space seems vast and different and cold, but the matter in you, me and everything else was made in the heart of a star. We are literally stardust.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mention the fusion process which powers stars and creates the elements. The universe started mainly with hydrogen, with a bit of helium, but all the other elements have been forged through the heart of stars, so we truly are stardust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The 2025 Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution, with Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer on December 28, 29 and 30 at 7pm.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more Since childhood, renowned space scientist Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock has had a \u201ccrazy dream\u201d about travelling into space herself. And while The Sky at Night presenter may never fulfil that dream (although she still lives in hope), she says she wishes other children would identify their own dreams to help motivate them to succeed. \u201cThe driving force in my life has been that desire to get into space,\u201d she says. \u201cEven if I never make it, just by having that desire and that drive, that crazy dream, sometimes if things don\u2019t go right I\u2019ve been able to overcome barriers and have a successful career. \u201cSo I say to every child, you reach for the stars, no matter what your stars are. For me, I physically want to go out to the stars and see what\u2019s happening. But for others, it could be anything \u2013 have a big, powerful dream and see where that takes you, because it means that when you fall over, you\u2019ll pick yourself up and find another route to get to where you want to go.\u201d It\u2019s a compelling message from someone who had a challeng&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}