GALAXIES

      There are billions of galaxies in the Universe. A galaxy is a large collection of stars.

      It also contains  gas and dust. Many galaxies continue to form new generations of stars.

     There are three kinds of galaxies: spiral, elliptical

    and irregular (which doesn't really have a shape)

   Spiral galaxies look like giant pinwheels in the sky.

   Our Solar System is located in  the Milky Way Galaxy.

   It 's a spiral galaxy like this one.   It has spiral arms and a bright central part.

  The ancient Greek astronomers thought that The Milky Way looked like a river of milk running through the sky.

  Galaxy comes from the Greek word for milk. 

Intermediate
English exercise "Universe" created by lili73 (29-04-2008 19:39) with The test builder
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1.
The disk of the Milky Way galaxy is about 100 ,000 light-yearsyear-lightlight-year in diameter.
2.
The Solar System is located in one of the spiralsspiralspirale arms, out toward the edge.
3.
The bright central part of our galaxy contains old stars and at lastat least one black hole. Younger stars are in the arms.
4.
Galaxies often crash into one another. But stars are so far apart
that the chances of two colliding are very unlikableunlikeunlikely
5.
The Hubble Telescope was launched into space aboard
the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990. It allows us to see objects more clearlymost clearlythe more clearly because it is above the clouds.

THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM

    The Solar System consists of the Sun

    and all the celestial objects bound to it by gravity.

   These objects are the planets, their moons,comets, meteoroids

   lots of small bodies (asteroids, interplanetary dust).  New objects may be discovered .

    meteors  (falling stars)                          comet

   The asteroid belt is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter

The book says that 'The Little Prince' lived on the asteroid  B 612

6. The Earth is a little spot lost in the Universe. Travelling to space is not easy.

On July 20, 1969, Neill Armstrong has becamehas becomebecame the first man
to set foot on the Moon. His first words were: 'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind'
7.
Mars, the red planet. When will humans walk inonat Mars?
Space agencies from the USA, the EU and Japan are going to work together to prepare a mission to Mars.
This mission has a name 'Mars-Human-One' and a logo
8.
According to experts, a 'civilization-threatening' impact such as the one
that ended the age of the dinosaurs occurs about once every 200,000 years.
They think that 65 million years ago an asteroid or a comet strikedstrikestruck the earth.
9.
__ An Earth-destroying collision is possible, for example, a theory for the formation of the moon is
that a body the size of Mars has collidecollidedwill collide with the earth.
A slightly larger object would have destroyed the Earth.
10.
___________ The remaining life time for Earth is about 5 billion years.
Then the Sun will have usewill have usedwill used up its hydrogen, it will expand and swallow the Earth