50 Watching Stars

该页暂无翻译

Watching Stars by Elsa Raubenheimer Table of Contents Chapter 1 What Is in the Night Sky? page 2 Chapter 2 What Do Astronomers Do? page 8 Chapter 3 How Can People Watch Stars? page 13 Glossary/ Index page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

Chapter 1 What Is in the Night Sky? The moon is visible in the night sky. Sometimes the moon seems big and round. Sometimes the moon is hard to see. Some nights the moon looks like it is getting bigger. Other nights the moon looks smaller. The moon's shape seems to change during a month. Language DETECTIVE Sometimes: Sometimes is a compound word. A compound word is made up of two smaller words. Find a compound word on page 3. The moon has four shapes called phases. Facts About the Moon Years Old: around 4.5 billion years old Distance from Earth: 238,900 miles (384,400 km) Size: About one-fourth of the size of Earth Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon. In 1969, two astronauts landed on the moon. Their boots made footprints on the lunar surface. The lunar surface is the moon's top layer. On the moon, there is no rain to damage the footprints. The footprints may be visible for millions of years. astronauts: people who travel in space

People can look for many things in the night sky with the right tools. A telescope helps people see things that are very far away. Telescopes might help people see some faraway planets. Planets go around the sun in bigger and bigger circles. Mercury is closest to the sun. Next in order are Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune How Many Moons? Earth only has one moon. But Jupiter has 16 moons. Venus has no moons. People can see stars more clearly through a telescope. Many stars are in the night sky. A star is a ball of burning gas. The sun is a star. The sun is not the biggest star. Stars that look small to us may be bigger than the sun. The coolest biggest stars are red. The hottest, smallest stars are blue or white. The sun is yellow and medium in size. Language DETECTIVE Coolest: Coolest is an adjective. It has the —est ending. Find three other adjectives with the —est ending on this page.

A group of stars is a constellation. A constellation looks like a connect-the-dot picture. People thought constellations looked like people and animals from stories. People gave names to constellations. This constellation is named Orion, the hunter. The brightest stars can be connected to make a picture. Stars may seem to move in the night sky. But stars do not move. Earth moves through space. People can see new and different stars. The Center of the Universe People once thought Earth was the center of the universe. Nicolaus Copernicus was a scientist. Copernicus discovered that Earth moves around the sun. Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that stars do not move in the sky, but planets do move.

Chapter 2 What Do Astronomers Do? Astronomers study the night sky. Astronomers use tools like telescopes to learn. Then astronomers share what they learned using computers. computers: machines that store a lot of information Meet Galileo Galileo Galilei invented the first telescope in 1609. This telescope was simpler than telescopes today. Galileo could see stars more clearly than ever before. Some special telescopes are sent into space. Satellites bring these telescopes into space. Satellites are machines that circle Earth. Satellites take pictures of space. The pictures are sent back to Earth. The Hubble telescope circles Earth on a satellite. Hubble telescope