Elaine Wrenn, age 11, of Chula Vista, California, for her question:

Are there other universes besides ours?

Our Universe is a vast system of stars shaped somewhat like a pinwheel. It is also called the Galaxy, the Milky Way and a Spiral Nebula. it is so vast that it would take 100,000 years to cross from side to side, even if you traveled at the speed of light ‑‑ which is 186,282.397 miles a second. There are billions and billions of stars in our Universe. Yet the telescopes tell us that our Universe is but one of many. Scattered throughout the heavens, separated by oceans of space, there are countless universes like our own. No one know how many, but it is likely that our Galaxy is but one of millions and millions.