A Children’s Art Book Inspired by 3I/ATLAS
Before my morning jog at sunrise, I was delighted to receive the following email from a school teacher in Brazil:
“Dear Professor Loeb,
I am Denise Pires, a teacher from Brazil. My 3rd-grade students and I wrote a handmade book titled “Pedro Malasartes and the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS .” I used your Medium.com articles here to bring real science into our classroom. I have attached our book (originally in Portuguese, AI-translated below into English) so you can see the children’s illustrations and how your work inspired them.
If we view events like the encounter with 3I/ATLAS as “corrections,” our perspective on the past and on current global tensions changes. I share this thought with you; please feel free to use or share it as you see fit.
With respect and gratitude,
Denise Pires”
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PEDRO MALASARTES AND 3I/ATLAS
The space adventure of 3rd grade class.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS HERE
Dear readers,
This book is a celebration of intelligence, art, and imagination. Our 3rd grade students embarked on a project where the wit of a folk character, Pedro Malasartes, transported to the universe of rockets, aliens and interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS. Each page of the story that follows contains an illustration created by a student, representing a crucial moment in this interstellar adventure. The art not only tells the story but also proves that creativity has no boundaries — not even in outer space! May this reading inspire in you the same curiosity and wonder that these young artists felt while creating it. Have a great journey!
With Love,
Teacher Denise Pires
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In the backlands of a planet called Earth, in a place where the dust was red, lived a very clever young man named Pedro Malasartes.
One day, Pedro attended a space-themed dinner when he heard a spaceship pilot, a big man named Joca, bragging: “I’ve seen everything in the universe! Even Saturn’s rings, Mars… nothing on Earth can impress me!”
With a sly smile, Pedro calmly said: “Well, I bet you’ve never seen a man lasso the moon with a bean stalk!” Everyone attending dinner burst into laughter! Joca turned red with anger.
“Are you mocking me?” growled the big man. “This is a serious bet,” Pedro said. “If I win, you give me a ticket to your space station. If I lose, I’ll clean your spaceship with my toothbrush.”
Joca accepted the offer immediately.
Outside, under the full moon, Pedro planted a magical bean that grew tall in seconds! He climbed it, spun a shiny rope, and with a trick of perspective, made it look like he had lassoed the moon! The crowd applauded Pedro’s cleverness! Joca, sulking, had to hand over the prize: a one-way ticket to space.
It was then that Pedro saw two things: a very rich and grumpy man, Mr. Bartholomeu Bilhão, and a news report on TV about a mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS.
At that moment, a clever idea popped into his head! Pedro sat on a bench, picked up a tablet, and drew a colorful interstellar object with the words: “Malasartes Voyages — A Dream Cruise to interstellar objects!”
He began telling stories, and soon Mr. Bilhão appeared.
“Do you sell trips to the interstellar object? I’ll buy them all!” said the rich man. To surprise him, Pedro smiled: “Of course! For a special client like you, the price is five hundred thousand cosmic star coins!”
Aboard Bilhão’s fancy spaceship, Pedro was the “Storytelling Captain.” When they saw a nebula, he said: “That is Grandma’s Cosmic big blanket, where baby stars go to sleep!”
Finally, they arrived at the interstellar object. It was beautiful! Suddenly, a small light emerged from it and touched everyone. Each person remembered a very happy moment. Pedro understood: the object was a nursery of memories!
“We can sell happiness!” shouted Bilhão. But Pedro had his brightest idea yet. He turned on the camera and said: “We are live with our hero, Mr. Bilhão, who has just announced that this interstellar object will be a protected reserve for the entire galaxy!”
Mr. Bilhão froze, unable to deny it.
Pedro returned to Earth. At dinner, he pulled a crystal from his pocket. “What is that?” asked a pilot. Pedro smiled: “This? It’s the beginning of another story.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THIS POST
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
