Some fowk jalouses that the’r mony universe, an that oors is jist ane. Whit we ken for shair is that oor universe haes billions o galaxies intil’t, an that oor galaxy is cryed the Milky Wey. The Milky Wey galaxy itsel haes millions o sun girds intil’t. We bide in ae sma Sun Gird that’s on the end o ane o the airms o the Milky Wey, weel awa fae the Galactic mids. We are the Rockall o the galaxy.

Aboot 4.571 billion year syne a muckle clood o cosmic gas gaithert in tichter an tichter fawin in on itsel makkin heavy stour until the mids wis that hot an thrang that it gaed aflist an the Sun wis born. The swaw that traivelt ootwards fae the muckle flist blew awa awthing licht leain jist the heavy rocks tae gang-roond the new Sun. It wis the stert o oor Sun Gird.

The sindry rocks that noo traivelt aboot the sun whiles clattert intil ane anither, smushin the life oot the sma anes but clingin tae the bigger bodies until the first planets kythed. As lang, lang ages gaed by the nummer o rocks grew less. It is jaloused that ane o thir bodies – the early Yird – bairged intil anither rock some 4.53 billion year syne, sheavin aff pairt o the sphere an flingin materials awgaits an that the ither rock wis gaithert intil a sma body aboot a quarter oor size an syne claucht tae gang-roond us for evermair. We cry this body the Moon.

Aince thon flegsome steer haed gien ower, plates cam thegither tae mak the continents. The watters rose up, aiblins brocht throu comets. Syne cam life. Oor blue-green warld is a ane-aff ferlie. No ower near tae the sun that it byles the watters awa, but no that faur awa either that the cauld jeels them. Jist richt for life.

But we’r no oor lane. Thae ither rocks fae the early days gied birth til ither warlds, but anes that isna fit for life like oors, at least sae faur as we ken. Benmaist the sun is Mercury that wheechs aboot the Sun ilka 88 days. Whiles it is bleezin hot. Traivelin oot fae the Sun the neist planet we come tae is Venus – the greenhoose warld. It glents brichtly in oor lift.

We noo come til oor ain hame, the Yird, an gauin by it we heid ootwards tae the rid planet, Mairs. In mony weys Mairs is oor deid twin an ane that we hae mony tradeetions aboot in auld fernyears. Aince we gae by Mairs we lea the rocky inner warlds ahin an heid for the gaseous warlds.

The first o the gas warlds is cryed Jubiter an it is the biggest o the planets. In fact, it is that undemous muckle that it cuid swally aw the ither planets in oor Sun Gird. It haes thon Muckle Rid Plouk an 79 moons o sindry sizes claucht in its wechty gravity. Forder oot fae Jubiter is Seturn wi its rings o ice an rock that will dwyne in time tae come. The neist warld is Uranus that taks 84 o oor year tae gae aboot the Sun. But it is a warld asklent - pit sidelins at some time lang syne - aiblins throu a stramash wi anither warld. The hinmaist o the planets is Neptune an hit taks 164 o oor year tae gae aboot the Sun. It blaws the maist pouerfae winds in the hail o oor Sun Gird.

Awa by Neptune is poor wee Plutock. We fund it in 1930. A wee warld that taks 248 year tae gae roond the Sun. But in 2006 Plutock, aince the nint planet, haed its staunin as a planet taen awa on the grunds that the’r that mony ither bodies in its neeborheid o muckle the same size. Ayont Plutock is the Kuiper Belt whaur the comets bides. The sun’s gravity dwynes thareawa an syne we gae ayont its gird intae the Oort Clood.

The'r nane o thir airticles in Soothron.

Text bi Dr Dauvit Horsbroch.