Science / Medicine : ‘Cosmic Illiteracy’ Common

Many American adults suffer from “cosmic illiteracy,” with nearly half surprised to find out the sun is a star, researchers said last week. A nationwide survey of 1,111 adults found that only 55% knew that the sun is a star, only 37% believed that the sun will eventually burn out and only 24% knew that the universe is expanding.

“Only a third of American adults have a minimally acceptable understanding of the universe,” researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northern Illinois University concluded in the British journal Social Studies of Science.

When asked whether the sun is “a planet, a star or something else,” 25% said the sun is a planet, 15% said it was “something else” and 5% had no idea whatsoever.

Only 24% of those surveyed thought that the universe is expanding, a concept generally accepted since 1929 findings by American scientist Edwin Hubble.

Only 37% of those polled said the sun will eventually burn out. “That was established in the 19th Century by Lord Kelvin, a British physicist. It will burn out in about 10 billion years, so we don’t have to worry right now,” said MIT Prof. Alan Lightman, co-author of the study.