The Little Speck of Life (By Mike Weeks and Carolyn Daly)

The Sciencey bit (For Kids!)
Scientists are people who
work to understand how life
really works. They believe
that our solar system came
into existence when a cloud of
gas and dust specks floating in
space was hit by an explosion
of a nearby star (called a
supernova).
This explosion made waves
in space like those that roll
at sea. The waves squeezed
the dust specks and gas and
they began to join together to
form what is called a, ‘Solar
Nebula’.
If you’ve ever been on a
spinning roundabout in a play
park, you’ll know that when
you pull in your arms you go
faster. The dust cloud began
to spin like this and became
smaller and faster and much
hotter.
Eventually the heated cloud
became dense, like butter gets
made when milk is churned.
The cloud was hot in the center
and cool at the edges and
particles began to stick
together and form clumps
around the outside of it.
Some clumps became really
big clumps, as more particles
stuck to them, eventually
becoming planets or moons.
Near the center of the cloud where planets like our Earth
formed, only rocky material
could stand the great heat
from the sun. Ice settled in
the far outer regions where
the giant planets like Jupiter
formed.
As the cloud continued to
fall in on itself, the center
eventually got so hot that it
became a star, our Sun, which
blew most of the gas and dust
off the new solar system with a
strong solar wind.
By studying left over rocks
from this early time, scientists
discovered that our solar
system is about 4600 million
years old!

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We need more of this kind of science based lessons for kids.