Shooting Stars Nina and the Neurons: Earth Explorers

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons and they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

-# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

-Yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Hello. I'm just finishing off a picture of the night sky.

Look at all the lovely sparkly stars.

I've just got one more thing to do.

-SHE LAUGHS

-That's right.

It's a shooting star

whizzing across the night sky.

Wee!

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash. I wonder what they're going to ask.

ALL: Hi, Nina.

Hi.

We've got a question for you.

What is a shooting star?

That's a great question. What is a shooting star?

I've just put a shooting star in my night sky picture.

Why don't you come down to my workshop and we'll investigate?

ALL: See you soon, Nina. Bye!

Bye. I'm going to need some help to answer this one,

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina.

OK, today's question is - what is a shooting star?

Which Neuron do you think will be most useful

in helping us find the answer?

ALL: Me! Me! Me! Oh, me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much

if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear.

If there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

For looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy but you can't tell,

my messages help your sense of smell.

Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet,

I'm your taste buddy whenever your eat.

It's Luke.

CHEERING

Cool, Nina. I'll be looking out to help you.

Today's question is - what is a shooting star?

Because shooting stars are something we see,

Luke will be helping us today. But stand by, Neurons.

I have a feeling I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the explorers arrive.

Amy loves painting.

Leon loves going to school.

Jack loves going to the Beavers.

They want to know - what is a shooting star?

Shooting stars are sparkly.

They shoot across the sky.

What are shooting stars?

So, today, for one day only,

Amy, Leon and Jack become the Explorers.

-Hi, guys.

-AMY AND JACK: Hi, Nina.

Welcome to my workshop.

Thank you for your great question - what is a shooting star?

To find out the answer, let's start by using our senses.

ALL: Whoop, woo! A senses experiment. We're ready, Nina.

When we look up at the night sky, we can see lots of stars.

They're the sparkly, twinkly things.

Most of them stay still, but sometimes we can see a light moving.

These moving lights are called shooting stars.

Let's have a look at some over here.

LUKE: Wow! It's amazing.

It looks like a firework.

They do look a bit like fireworks

but they're something different.

What do you notice, Explorers?

They move really fast.

Yes, and the funny thing about shooting stars is

they're not really stars at all.

What are they, Nina?

They're actually little pieces of rock like this.

Way up in space far away from us,

there are lots of rocks moving around.

Sometimes these rocks move nearer to Earth.

If they get nearer to Earth, they heat up and start to glow,

which makes them brighter and we can see them in the sky.

BUD: Wow! Glowing rocks from space!

Are they still hot now, Nina?

No, Felix. When they land here on Earth, they cool down.

Here, have a feel.

-Hold on to it.

-That's cold and heavy.

-Yeah.

It's cooled down now.

Cooled like a cake after it comes out of the oven. I love cake!

Yes, Bud.

But this looks more like a burnt cake.

If they're not stars, Nina, why do we call them shooting stars?

Good question. It's because when they glow

they look like stars shooting across the sky.

But they're actually called meteors.

When we can see them moving across the sky, they're called meteors.

But when they land on Earth, they're called meteorites.

But meteorites hardly ever land on Earth,

so we shouldn't worry about them.

We have some more meteorites over here.

But I've mixed them up with ordinary Earth rocks,

so can you guess which ones are meteorites from space

and which ones are the rocks from Earth?

Sometimes meteorites look and feel different from rocks we're used to.

-So what can you see?

-A bubbly rock.

How does it feel?

-Bumpy.

-FELIX: It feels cold, Nina.

Is this a meteorite, Nina.

Yes, it is. Well done. You've found a meteorite. And it feels heavy.

And it has a bubbled-shaped surface.

These are all meteorites too.

And that one as well. Well done, Amy.

It can be hard to know which are meteorites by looking at them

because they can look like ordinary rocks.

I wonder if they're easier to spot in the sky.

Let's go somewhere dark to find out.

BELLE: Where do you think we're going today?

-BUD:

-Nina said it was somewhere dark. Oooh, exciting!

-LUKE:

-I hope we can see something.

FELIX: I'm not sure I like the dark.

-OLLIE:

-Don't worry, the dark isn't scary.

Looks like we've arrived, Neurons.

We're in a dark sky park out in the countryside.

-What do you notice?

-It's dark and quiet.

Yes, it's really dark and very quiet.

We're here because it's a great place for meteor-spotting.

There are about six times every year when we can see meteors,

and luckily, today is one of those special times.

So, who's ready to see some shooting stars?

-KIDS: Me!

-Well, let's go. Come on!

Remember, you always need to take a grown-up with you

if you're going out at night.

Let's have a look up and see if we can see any shooting stars.

Oh, wow.

Oh.

What a beautiful night. It's a shame we haven't seen any.

But let's go inside to find out some more.

This is a planetarium.

It's made to feel like we're outside under the night sky

but we're actually inside.

LUKE: Whoa, Nina. This is really cool.

It is, isn't it, Luke!

Why don't we have a sit down and we'll look up to see

if we can spot any shooting stars?

Oh, did you see?

Nina, why do they have a tail?

That's a great question. Let's go and find out.

We're in an observatory.

It's a place for people to look at the night sky.

We're going to do a little experiment.

We have a tray of water here.

Underneath is a pretend night sky.

So let's see what happens when I add this fizzy tablet.

Tablets can be dangerous. You shouldn't play with them yourself.

It looks like it's got a tail.

Yes, you're right.

This fizzy tablet is a bit like a meteor moving through the sky.

As it moves, it fizzes and makes a tail of bubbles.

Why don't you guys try?

Yay.

NINA LAUGHS

There are rocks moving around way out in space.

If they move near to the Earth they heat up,

which makes them glow. As they move through the sky,

tiny little bits of the glowing rock break off.

That leaves the glowing tail,

just like the tail of bubbles in the water.

But what happens when they land?

Let's go back to my workshop to do one last experiment to find out.

So you asked, "What is a shooting star?"

So far we've discovered that shooting stars

aren't actually stars at all.

They're meteors which are little bits of glowing rock

that we can see moving across the sky.

They very rarely land on Earth, but if they do we call them meteorites.

Let's find out what happens when a meteorite lands.

Here we have a close-up picture of the moon at night.

What do you notice, Explorers.

-There's circles on it.

-That's right.

The circles are made when meteorites land on the moon.

They're called craters.

There are hundreds of craters in the moon

made when meteorites land on it.

Why don't we see if we can make our very own craters?

Okey-doke. Here we have a tray of flour.

This is a bit like the surface of the moon.

Underneath, there is some coloured powder

so we can see clearly what's happening.

I have some balls here of different sizes.

We're going to pretend that these are meteorites

about to land on the moon. Here you go. Pass that along for me.

We're going to drop the balls into the flour.

Amy, you hold your hand out for me. Are you ready? Drop.

NINA GASPS

And drop.

NINA LAUGHS

And drop.

NINA LAUGHS

I'm going to lift them up carefully.

-LUKE: Wow! Would you look at that?!

-What can you see?

-Craters.

Yes, you've made craters.

The big ball made a crater and the little ball made a...?

-Little crater.

-That's right, a little crater.

So now we know that rocks from space are called meteorites

and when they land they make craters.

Remember, big rocks from space hardly ever land on Earth.

So your question was - what is a shooting star?

I think we've answered it.

We found out shooting stars aren't really stars at all.

They heat up and glow, leaving a tail of light.

They're called meteors.

You need to go somewhere really dark to see meteors.

When they land on Earth, they're called meteorites.

But they don't land here very often.

Feeling a meteorite was marvellous, Nina. They felt bumpy and heavy.

I hope we answered your question.

ALL: Thanks, Nina. Bye.

You're welcome. Bye.

If you want to know more about the science around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun.

# Every day the sun comes up it brightens up the sky

# A brand-new day to understand

-# A chance to ask ourselves why

-Why?

-# There's a world of possibilities outside our front door

-Front door

# So every day take a look around and explore

-# Explore

-Explore

-Explore

-Explore

-# Exploring in the garden

-Grass

-Exploring in the park

-Rivers

-# Exploring in the daytime

-Mountains

-And even when it's dark

-Planets

# Look at the Earth look at the sky Look at the world before us

-# Explore

-Explore

-Explore

-Explore

# We're always on the lookout

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

-# We're Earth explorers

-O-oh, o-oh

# We're Earth explorers. #

Exploring is about looking at the world around us,

asking why and finding out the answer.

Whether it's deep underground, at the end of your playground

or way above the clouds, keep exploring our exciting world.

See you again soon. Bye.

ALL: Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd