Space has been a topic of daily conversation in our family the last few months. We have been talking about the space station, space ships, planets, asteroids and meteoroids, and our latest addition are black holes. Our son has taken a great interest in black holes, and he keeps asking me so many questions that I cannot answer. What I have been able to transmit is that a black hole has so much gravity that it sucks in everything that comes in its way, even light. So the image of a black hole as a powerful attractive force is something that my son is returning to every day. The other morning, when we walked to the kindergarten bus, my son suddenly decided to jump over every manhole cover on the road. What makes you want to jump over manhole covers today, I asked. They are not manhole covers, my son answered. They are black holes and I must jump over them so that they don’t catch me.
Our play today made to think of a post from a year and a half ago – toddler-problem-solving. My son wanted to play with cars and we made a little town with blocks in the living room, and when finished we drove around and explore the streets of the town with his many toy cars. Then suddenly my son says:
– Pappa, there is a meteorite coming. It is going to crash the
– Oh, that sounds bad, I said.
– What shall we do? he asked.
I try to think of some way we can stop the meteorite, suggesting we can send an emergency robot to move it (no, says my son, the meteorite is too big), we could put a big net over the town? (no, the net will break because the meteorite is too heavy), we can use a spaceship to fly and – no dad, even the emergency robot cannot do it.
– So what do you think we should do to save the town, I asked.
– We need to call the black hole to come and help, he answered.
Of course, there can be nothing better to move a meteorite off its trajectory than the gravity of a black hole! Thank you for the beautiful image my darling son!
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