Lyle Lacey,.age 9, of Indianapolis, Ind., for his question:

WILL OUR SUN BECOME A NOVA?

A nova is an exploding star that suddenly shoots its seething gases millions of miles in all directions. If our starry sun became a nova, the disaster would sizzle the earth. But let's face it, some people seem to like spreading scary stories. If we believed them all, we would expect an earthquake, an Ice Age and financial disaster to strike us before next Thursday. But, come Friday, we are happy to report that none of these ghastly predictions came true. However, we then hear somebody is predicting that the sun will become a nova.

We do not have to worry about the sun becoming an exploding nova. No sensible scientist expects it to happen in the near future  or even in the far future, a few billion years from now.  Nor will our lovely world come to an end in the foreseeable future.