Written by Samriddhi Thakur, a grade 7 student

People do not believe in some things until they see it. Something similar happened  with Raina, an 18-year-old girl who lived in Goa.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon on 6^th August 2050. The weather outside was not looking usual, the birds were restlessly flying in the sky, closer to the ground, and the temperature was constantly soaring up, and was approximately 55 degrees. The schools were closed due to the weather condition, offices and shops were shut too. Raina’s mother was constantly calling her to be inside the home, but Raina was trying to figure out the changes.

A science enthusiast by nature, she had recently got admission into the most prestigious science college in India. After a while, she observed a strange object passing out of her window. Although being a student of science, she never believed in things like aliens, ghosts, etc, but that day she shrieked out of fear, she nearly got a heart attack! She was scared as there was a big bang in her room; she felt like there were 1000 earthquakes happening at once. She took a second to look at what the object and called her mother. Neither Raina nor her mother understood what it was.

Raina’s father was an astronomer, he came rushing inside the home. He brought the worst news anyone ever heard or thought about- the sun had exploded! This explosion changed the entire solar system, the entire universe. The sequence of the planets changed, many planets which were many many light-years away, started floating in our galaxy. And the object that Raina noticed outside her home was Gliese 581c!

Gliese 581c is an exoplanet located 20 light-years or 120 trillion miles (192 trillion kilometers) from Earth in the constellation of Libra, explained her father. But the good news is that, if the Sun exploded today, the resulting shockwave wouldn’t be strong enough to destroy the whole Earth. Only the side facing the Sun would boil away instantly. The Sun will get hotter and brighter, and it will start to expand. During this process, it will lose its outer layers to the cosmos, leading to the creation of other stars and planets in the same way that the violent burst of the Big Bang created Earth. Explained Raina’s father.

Listening with jaws dropped, she asked her father what is this mysterious planet doing here on Earth? “It might have lost its orbit and is just floating.” Her father said.

The entire world was discussing the solutions to save lives. All the astronomers, scientists, and government bodies gathered together under one forum to discuss and the only solution they concluded was migrating to another planet!

All the space research organizations around the world were now gathered including…

ISRO – Indian Space Research Organization.
NASA – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
RFSA – Russian Federation Space Agency.
ESA – European Space Agency.
CNSA – China National Space Administration.
JAXA – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Maybe we can send one of our satellites to Kepler−442b the only earth-like planet in the galaxy, said the director of ISRO and everyone agreed unanimously. With the research done in the past over a number of years, the scientist had found traces of water on Kepler-442b

Now, it was time to make some life-changing decisions.

Everyone decided to leave the planet earth and migrate to the new solar system. Raina was amazed! Is it that easy to leave the planet! What about her home, her school, her friends, neighbours, her future!

All human and plant life on Earth will eventually die out if the Sun explodes but on the other planets where life still exists there is no harm. We will have to call and gather the world with us for shifting to a new planet and for this Raina, I need you to publish a well-written article on this. Ok father I will do that, said Raina. Shall I report it and telecast it on news TV? Asked Raina’s mother who was a journalist. Sure, said Raina’s father. The article was published and the news was broadcasted Now people from all around the world were well aware of this. People got scared but the scientists and government bodies ensured them that everything will be fine, there will be no harm and everyone will be safe . The people now got very encouraged and were feeling safe.

Now everyone understood that caste, and race does not matter, everyone is equal. Rich, poor also does not matter. It’s about life,

This is going to be a huge change for us right mother? Said, Raina. Indeed. Replied her mother. I am going to miss the earth so much! “So are we dear, but we can do nothing now, what has happened has happened, we can’t help that but we have to take care of the new planet we are going to”. Yes, mother, “you are absolutely right I will contribute as much as I can”. Raina’s mother smiled and said, well-done. Raina’s father noticed many changes in the land, the birds slowly started to die, and the ponds, and rivers evaporated.

After a week the Government of India arrived in Goa.

They helped raise funds, they helped with the logistics, and they made sure that the entire population irrespective of the status of the person migrates successfully. Not only the government but the entire mass was seen lending a helping hand. They developed a new religion that everyone followed and that religion was “Humanity”. That was the day everyone realized the importance of mother nature. They realized how important it was to bow down in front of nature. They realized that life would have been better if instead of fighting over petty things they would have thought about conserving the gift of- nature and our solar system.

During migration, we lost many however everyone learned the lesson of their life. We learned how to adapt to our new habitat- far away from earth.

I Kid You Not now has a large readership across India and also parts of the world. If you want to write for us, you can submit your story here. You can also apply to become a news anchor. Apply here