Module 4: SPACE AND TIME.

Part I “The Solar System”

Lead-In 1

Task 1.

Read the introduction.

The Solar System includes the Sun, eight planets, the Asteroid belt, comets, and meteors. All bodies of the Solar System are separated by enormous distances and are visible because they reflect the sunlight. The study of the Solar System has been developing actively since the invention of the telescope in the 17th century. In the telescope planets seem to be larger than the stars as they are closer. Almost all planets rotate and revolve in the same direction, which is counterclockwise, and lie in the same plane.

Task 2. Try to explain each word below in pairs (use cards).

the Solar System

the Sun

the inner Solar System

the outer Solar System

the Kuiper belt

the interstellar space

a planet

an asteroid

a comet

a meteorite/meteor

the Heliosphere

the Milky Way galaxy

a collision

a spacecraft

Task 3. At home, using the information from books or the Internet, come up with your definions of the words and expressions from Task 2. Write them down in your copy book.

For example:

Original text: “Asteroids are smaller than dwarf planets. These rocky chunks mainly circle in the 'asteroid belt' between Mars and Jupiter, although a few have elongated orbits, some crossing the orbit of Earth.”

Your definition: Asteroids are small rocky chunks that circle in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter with some of them crossing the Earth’s orbit.

Listening 1

The Solar System

Task 4. Before the listening, make sure you understand the following verbs:

to grow out of

to collide

to float

to reach

to earn the name

to maintain

to establish

to fail

to demote

to stretch

to clear away

to traverse

Task 5. Listen to OR watch a video about the Solar System done by Space School project. Compare your definitions from the task above with those given by the speaker. Do they differ a lot?

What information was new for you?

Task 6. Put the abstracts from the lisening in the correct order. Listen again and check yourself.

a) After almost 80 years Pluto lost its status as the ninth planet. The international astronomical union couldn’t ignore findings that similar, even larger bodies than Pluto, traverse the outer Solar System.

b) Finally, after millions of collisions, the body must have cleared away other objects from its own orbital neighborhood. This last point is where Pluto fails. So it’s been demoted to a dwarf planet and joined two other dwarves: Eris and Ceres. Astronomers believe there may be as many as 42 dwarf planets in our solar system.

c) Forced to define the word for the first time, astronomers established 3 distinct criteria to earn the name “planet”. First, the object must orbit the sun. Second, it must have sufficient gravity to maintain a planet’s spherical shape.

d) Pluto and beyond is not simply the beginning of endless open space but the inner edge of a gigantic region filled with asteroids, comets, and meteorites. Billions of miles beyond our sun stretches the Kuiper belt – an area larger than our entire planetary system. It’s home to most of our Solar System’s comets, icy flying rocks.

e) Still, despite overwhelming odds, we humans have set out on a journey of exploration. We’re sending one spacecraft after another into the farthest regions of the solar system all in the quest to understand our place in the Universe and the mystery of the great beyond.

f) The four planets of the outer SS make up 99% of the known mass orbiting the sun. It was in that distant region of the outer SS that in the year 2006 astronomy was shaken to its very core.

g) The sun’s gravity then locked them in the orbit. The SS is divided into two distinct regions: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars make up the inner solar system, while Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune make up the outer SS.

h) There’re more than 3, 350 known comets in our SS. Further out, still, is the scattered disk, a belt of strangely orbiting objects, often small and icy minor planets. Finally, we reach the Heliosphere, an immense magnetic bubble, which forms the very outer edge of the SS.

i) This area is thought to be the boundary between solar and interstellar winds – the boundary between our own neighborhood and the great expanse of the interstellar space. For us the SS seems enormous. Its distances are almost beyond our comprehension. But incredibly it’s just a tiny corner of the giant Milky Way galaxy.

j) Today’s topic, at 4.6 bln years old, is the solar system (SS). Its planets, including our own earth, formed out of what was left over after the birth of the sun. Amazingly, these 8 massive celestial bodies grew out of tiny specks of dust orbiting the new star. Time and again*, the young planets collided while floating debris** eventually reaching their current size.

_______________

* time and again = frequently, often, many times

** debris /’deibri/ or /’debri/ – fragments or remnants

Task 7. Answer the questions.

1.Draw in your copy book (or on the blackboard) and explain the general structure of the Solar System and beyond it.

2.What are the criteria for an object to be called a planet?

3.Why Pluto is not a planet anymore?

Task 8. Match an adjective with its Russian translation.

Task 9. In cosmology there are a few adjectives of Latin and Greek origin denoting "having to do with". Complete the list of adjectives:

Mars Martian

Sun

Moon

Sky Celestial

Earth

Star

Task 10. Find the following phrases back in the text above. Translate them into Russian as if you were a professional translator.

astronomy was shaken to its very core

_____________________________________________________________________________

beyond our comprehension

_____________________________________________________________________________

set out on a journey of exploration

_____________________________________________________________________________

in the quest to understand our place

_____________________________________________________________________________

despite overwhelming odds

_____________________________________________________________________________

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1173