Hypothetical News Network 2

4 BILLION YEARS AND COUNTING: THE SUN STILL RISES EACH MORNING

Scientists and poets are grateful that the sun still rises each morning for the last 4 billion years.

"Strictly speaking," said one scientist I interviewed, "The sun really does not rise in the morning, but simply radiates its light in all directions. The rotation of the Earth combined with our position on the the surface of the Earth causes an 'event horizon' that allows us to see the sun rise." The scientists interviewed went to describe how they measured the timescape of the Earth and how they came to the conclusion that the Earth is approximately 4 billion years old.

"Atmospheric conditions differed in the early days of the Earth," said another scientist, "We are still debating when the blue sky appeared and which atmospheric gases cause which kind of color sky, and further how they affect the colors we see during sunrise."

"Just think," said another scientist, "If the sun suddenly turned off, the Earth would start to become a frozen ball within about 5 minutes. The sun has been very reliable over these billions of years, maintaining the basis for life and evolution all this time."

"Best news I heard all day," said a fellow reporter, "In fact, without the sun we would have no day to have news to talk about." Further discussion went into various sun worshiping songs, including one called, "Here Comes the Sun." A few people even shared poems they had written about the sun and one religious person commented that once a week we have a day dedicated to the sun.

"I guess we sometimes take for granted something as reliable as the sun," said one person, "Perhaps we should have a sun gratitude today. Maybe the ancient sun worshipers had the right idea about occasionally focusing attention on the sun and honoring how important it really is to us. The sun rising each day is always good news. Life continues. The sun rarely gets much press unless something is eclipsing it."