all about space

7 gr "l-,&. { HT All About Space Atex Raynham Read and discover alt about oul gat,rrv .tttrl everything in the universe . What are stars made of? . When did the first person walk ot: llrr' lll',',rr Read and discover more about the worlrlt This series of non-fiction readers provrrlr", interesting and educationaI content, wrlll activities and project work. Series Editor: Hazel Geatches S Rudio CD Pack available @ O Cover photograph: Phototibrary {Astronaut taking a spacew,tlk Slot klt.k t ,,,1, Level 3 600 headwords Level 4 750 headwords sbs,"fi' / a f.tXo"l,,.u",,* AflM Space Alex Raynham Introduction 3 1 Our Solar System 4 2 The lnner Planets 8 3 The Outer Planets L2 4 Rocks and lce 16 5 Astronomy 20 5 Life on Other Planets 24 7 Peopte in Space 28 8 Our Future in Space 32 Activities 36 Projects 52 Glossary 54 About Read and Discover 56 9*I9*R OXFORD \' : I \'lllSIT\' lllESS (;rcJl Cllrendon Street. 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Oxfbrd Univcrsity I'rcss (lischitDs rny responsibility fbr the content rstsN: 978 o 19 464560 7 An Au(lio (ll ) l'a( k ( orrtiliD ing t his book rnd a CD is also ivailiblc, IsBN 97ll o 19 46.t6oo 0 The CI) lus a choicc ol Aru('ricilD ind llritish ljnglish recor(lings ol thc (l)nrplclc lc\1. An iccomprnying A(l ivily ltrx)l( is rlso irvaihblt'. IsBN 978 o 19 464570 6 I'rint.'d in Chinr This book is printt,rl on l).rlx.r lr1rilr rt.rtilit'cl rrIci we'll- managed s(^trces. IlllrJltirl!)il\ /,1 : l(r.llV ht rrrrrrlr l'lJ'). l l. l l i l )rs.rrr l'rrr,lit7 llt't'ltivt lllrrstr,rtron |l, lo. l l l('.,\l.rD ll(ru'r'l)l) 10. 1.1 16i liIr M(r)['\ l)l) 5. l.l lh( llilri!ir( r\ \ri,rl,i irl\,,lrl,' lir rl,!rf lir, /i,llrNrril /r,r lirr ir Lirrri lr',rrrissr)rrlr,rr'/,rrri|(,1,Ir{rtirirr\ril,rlrli,rr(i)i)tjr{,,lrrirl{,irrl: /\1.il)r\ l)ll fl I I lrr'l'rrrl ( ()ll((lr)f) 1-l (Nlrfr Alt:r(lis/l')'X'/liil) lllrloD/Ar( llivcs (lu 7( n)r' Arl/l'hr)l(|s I f); ( (lrl)is I)l).5 rn(l () ( N'liclt:rel llerr:rrrt/l ltA(.1: sur), 1 8 (( llriil l('s & l(,\el lc l ('Dirs/ ( rirl('r). .,|5 ( N/\S/\^'l)ir/Mirrs I r\ l)lor ('rl. 26 ( NASn Jl'l. Sl)IC(' SticD<t'Irtstitrrtt/l ilirn). 2lt (() (i)rl)is/S()yu/ r1x li( l ). :10 (S(1)tl AD(lrews/S( i(.D( (. li.r( I ior)/sl)ir.c sh ut I l( , NASA/l liilr(lout/(.N l,/ ISS). :ll lo (.orbis): (;.rLlclj(Suilr.(r)r)l l).;Jf; (;(lly Irrrirges p.20 (Khrlc(l I \'sortki/Alil'); l\4iiry Iivirrs I'i.l ur( l.ibrirrv l) 12 ((lalilert): NASA/t ourl csy ol nirsir inlrlt(,s ()rL l)l) .r ( NASA/lrSA/ 'l hc llul)l)lc I lcritrltc/lcirnr (S l S( l/nt IRA) J. lllrk('sl('e t ll lt l) rD(l R. l hoD)l)s(r) (l lDiversily rrl r\rizoD.r)), 6 7 1 l uD.if .rn(l Phnctrrv Lil)orilto|y/NnSn inlrg('s/s()l.il svslcnr), () (l\4,rrs 'I win l,eal(s). 8, 10. 1:1. | 5. 16 (NASn /11,1 (.irllc( h/l . l'] lc (SSCil. 23 ('l.A.Rec1{)r (tLrivcrsity ol Alirskrr Anclrorrgc, NRA(YAtll/ NSI; and NOAO/AIlRA/NSlr) rD(l ll.;\.lVolp.r (Nt)Ao/AtlRA/ NSF)/Eaglc Ncbutr). 26 (NASA/(irxld:rrrl Sllir(c l:ligl)t (lerrter Scicntific VisualizatioD Slud io). 29 ( | )irvid R. Sc()l I ), :':l USC/ NAS hr)ages), :],1 (NASA lt)rirces/l)bonNt), :t5 (l)('r)is(' Wirlt/ NASA Jmilges/rsteroid rninirlg), lu ll.uDrrrn(l l'lrrcliuf l-aboralory/NASA irrages); Oxford tLriversitv l'ress P.:l (errtl1, noon. suD, saturn).9, 11. 17,23 (Hubtllc tcles(\)pc), 27 (Lllro) Scicncc Photo Library p.3, (David Nunuk/Hrle llopI ovcr ol)servatory), 14 (NASA/ISA/SI SCI/R.Bccbc. Ncw Mcxi(1) Strl( tJ.). 19 (Richard Bizley),22 lAllan Morton/DcnDisj Will fJkinks fo: Ann Fullick fbr sciencc checking 'thc jtllowing imttges are digrteny created phoLo-reol illustratiore, trotphotogl?ph-sr pp6-7 solar system, p15 asteroid belt, p19 Chicxulub meteorite, p25 Mars robot, p27 alien solar systen, p32 space hotel, p33 Moon base, p35 space in the filture. Space is everything that's around ptanet Earth, and it's bigger than we can imagine. When you took at the sky at night, you can see thousands of stars. Did you know that the 5un is a star, too? There are also billions of other stars in space, and bittions of ptanets! How many planets do you know? What do you know about them? What can you see betow? Now read and discover more about space! @qm Soilaffi SysGem Stars are huge balts of hot gas. A star with planets around it is ca[[ed a solar system. Our Sun has eight ptanets - this is our solar system. Our Galaxy Groups of stars are called galaxies. Each galaxy has billions of stars. Our solar system is in a galaxy called the MilkytVay that has 200 billion stars.There are billions of other galaxies in the universe. Our Amazing Sun The Sun and all other stars are made of two gases called hydrogen and helium. The hydrogen changes into helium in a process called nuclear fusion. This process produces heat and light. Our Sun is about 150 million kilometers away from Earth, but it's hot enough to burn you at the beach! Plants on Earth use energy from the Sun to grow. Animals and also get their energy from because they eat plants. Earth and the Sun people the Sun A planet goes around, or orbits, a star. It takes our planet Earth one year to orbit the Sun. A planet also turns on its axis. It takes Earth 24 hours to do a complete turn on its axis. \fhen a place on Earth is opposite the Sun, it's daytime in that place. The universe is everything that exists - alt the stars in all the gataxies. lt appeared in a single moment, catled the Big Bang, about 14 bittion years ago. Before then, there were no stars. frrtr H All the planets in our solar systcm orbit tl-rc Sun. A year is the time that it takes a planct to orbit the Sun - it's 365 days for E,arth. Mercurv antl Vcnus are near the Sun, so they have shorter ycars bccausc they travel a shorter distance around thc Sr-rn. A vcar on Mercury is the same as 88 days on Ilarth. I)lancts that are further from the Sun have longcr orl-rits. A year on Neptune is the same as I (r5 vclirs on liarth. Each planet in our solar system is different, but Mercury, Venus, and Mars are rocky planets like Earth. If you landed on these planets, you would find rocks, and you could walk around on them. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called gas giants. They are much bigger than the rocky planets, and they are made mostly of gas. Astronomers have discovered five dwarf planets in our solar system. Dwarf planets are like very small planets and they orbit the Sun. The biggest dwarf planet is called Eris, and it's 2,500 kilometers across. The most famous dwarf ptanet is Ptuto. lt was discovered in 1930, and for more than 70 years, it was called the ninth ptanet in the solar system. Now it's ca[[ed a dwarf ptanet. q -i1 '1 -t I ri I I I { I I ii;i. iit $ ,.1 ,,'t n+ Go to pages 36-37 for activities. The inner ptanets in our solar system are Mercury Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are the nearest planets to the Sun and they are made of rocks and soil. Venus, Earth, and Mars have gas around them, called atmosphere. Mercu ry Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and it doesn't have an atmosphere. A planet's atmosphere traps the Sun's heat, and keeps the temperature warm at night. Mercury is very hot in the daytime because it's the nearest planet to the Sun, but it's very cold at night. \When the temperature on one half of Mercury is 427 degrees centigrade, the other half is minus 173 degrees! Venus Vcnus is the second planet from the Sun, and the ncarest planet to Earth, but it would not be a nice place to visit! Pressure is the force or weight of something on your body. Venus has more gas in its atmosphere than Earth, and all that gas creates pressure. If astronauts visitedVenus, the pressure would kill them. In the atmosphere aroundVenus, a gas called carbon dioxide traps heat from the Sun. The temperature on Venus rs 462 degrees centigrade - that's hotter than a pizza oven!The sky onVenus is yellow because there are clouds of sulphuric acid. This dangerous chemical can burn metal. 'j.,:lf'tir"l, E,arth is our home, and it's the third planet from the Sun. Billions of years ago, Earth was very hot. Later, the planet became cooler and oceans of water formed. Life began in these oceans about 3.5 billion years ago. Earth is a great place for life because it isn't too hot or too cold for liquid water. Plants, animals, and people need liquid water to live, and they also need oxygen. Most of the gas in E,arth's atmosphere is nitrogen, but 20.7%o is oxygen. A moon orbits a planet, and often looks like a small planet. Earth has one moon, but some planets have a lot. Our Moon takes 27 days to orbit Earth. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune all have moons, too. MAr -\ t\tars is the fourth planet from the Sun and it has two snrall moons. Mars is smaller than Earth and it's called tlrc red planet because chemicals make the soil red. Mars has some amazing places. Mons Olympus is a volcano, and it's 25 kilometers high!That's three times higher than Mount Everest, the highest mountain on trarth.TheValles Marineris is a huge canyon. It's ten times longer and three times deeper than the Grand Canyon, the biggest canyon on Earth! ':l';rt.;r f-i ffie@q@mfilon@& The four outer planets in our solar system are the farthest away from the Sun, and they are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Do you know what they are made of? Gas Giants The outer planets are bigger than the inner planets, and they don't have a rocky surface. \We call them gas giants because they are made of hydrogen, helium, and other gases around a rocky center. Inside these planets, pressure changes the gases into a liquid. Jupiter Iupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. It's the biggest planet in our solar system, and it's more than a thousand times bigger than Earth! Jupiter has about 60 moons, and some of them are bigger than planets. Huge storms move clouds of gas around Jupiter, and they make beautiful colors in the atmosphere. Jupiter has a big red circle of storm clouds called the red spot. This is the biggest storm in our solar system. Storms on Earth can last for days, but this storm started 300 years ago and it hasn't finished yet! Jupiter and the other gas giants have a lot of moons. Scientists are discovering new moons all the time. Satu rn Saturn is the second biggest planet in our solar Uranus and Neptirn# Uranus is the seventh planet in the solar system. It's 2.4 billion kilometers from the Sun! If you travel another 2 billion kilometers out into space, you will reach Neptune, the farthest planet from the Sun. Uranus and Neptune are far from the Sun, so they are very cold. The temperature on Neptune is minus 214 degrees centigrade. Both planets are made mostly of gas, like Jupiter and Saturn, but different chemicals in their atmospheres make them green and blue. system and the sixth planet from the Sun. There are thousands of rings around Saturn. The farthest ring is millions of kilometers from Saturn. The rings are made of billions of pieces of dust and ice. Some pieces of ice are very small, and some are bigger than houses. Saturn's rings are different colors because of chemicals in the ice. Saturn has about 60 moons. The biggest moon is called Titan. Titan has atmosphere, clouds, and lakes, but the lakes are made of chemicals. not water. ,aa ^ a -\', ffi \g Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings, but they aren't as big or as beautiful as the rings around Saturn. LJranus ];,.as 27 moons and Neptune has 13. There are two rings around the sun, catted the asteroid belt and the Kuiper bett. The asteroid bett is between Mars and Jupiter. lt's made of rocks calted asteroids. The Kuiper belt is further away than Neptune. rt's made of pieces of ice. l*ffi Comets are hugc picces ;rntl tlttsl. lttttl sttllle tll them are 50 kilon-rctel's tlL'l'oss. ( .olttt'ls c()l'llc lrtltlr the I(uiper belt, or li'ottt lttt'tltt't' rl\\'i.tv itt spacc, but sometimes their orbits brirrs tltcttt ltctlrcr liarth and the Sun. \When comcts c()nrc ltcLll'cr thc Sun, they become hotter and thcy lcavc picces of ice and dust behind them. This is callcd a comet's tail and it can be millions of kilometers long! " .,. slt, &WW qb ,l[M. * ',.,, fr 'iE Some rocks in the asteroid belt are the size of h'uses, but others are many kilometers across. when planets come near them, or other asteroids hit them, these rocks can leave the asteroid belt. Somctimes., they travcl toward the inncr planets. t | -,d \-:i/ HaU,ey's Comet is a famous comet. lt comes near Earth every 75 or 76 years. We wit[ see it again in 2061. [...]... buggY! ;1 ,,1 Space uttles Sh in Living Space In 1981,a new type of spacecraftflew for the first time It was called a spaceshuttle Space shuttles can fly into space many times becausethey take off like a rocket and they land like a plane They have taken very big things into space, like the Hubble Space Telescope If you drop something on Earth, it falls to the ground becauseof gravity In a spacecraft,... satellite Then on l2'h April 196l, another Russianrocket called Vostok carried a small spacecraft into space. Inside there was a man calledYuri Gagarin He was the first person in space. His spacecraft orbited Earth for 108 minutes, and then returned to Earth Later, Russiaand America built bigger and better rockets,and more astronautswent into space f"lr flf,y \{ry Today, hundreds satettites of orbitEarth... becausetheir spacecraftis moving very fast.This is called zero gravity, and you can float! In space, things float, so astronautsuse a material called Velcro'*'tostick everything to the walls.Astronauts cook food in specialcontainers,and they use a special shower becausewater floats, too They also use special sleepingbags to stop them floating when they sleep! Space Stations A spacestation is a place in spacewhere... A space shuttle takes tikea ptane off 4 A space station where is astronauts [ive can 5 Gravity yourbodystrong makes 6 TheInternational Space Station builton Earth was tF OurFuture Space in 3 pages Read 32-35 1 Comptete sentences the the chart 3 Comptete tourism on systems robots Mars space othersotar exploring hotels veryfastnewspacecraft finding atiens space ptanes astronauts Mars on a Moonbase space. .. Wonders the Past of AUAbout Plants How to Stay Heatthy Machines Thenand Now Why We Recycle At[ About DesertLife All About OceanLife Animals Night at Incredible Earth Materials Products to MedicineThenand Now Transportation 900 Then headwords and Now Witd Weather * * * * A[1Aboutlslands AnimalLifeCyctes Exploring Wortd Our Great Migrations r 1,050 headwordso e Helping A[[ About Space Around the... thinkthattheyarealienspacecraft' Some or battoons comets' thingsLike but theyareusually 46-47for activities' Goto pages trtr fr,/,{,rtrrt On AStfOnaUtS th{,:, Morethan450 astronauts haveseenEarth from space Theyhavedoneexperiments, visited Moon,andtaughtus a lot about the our sotar system Woutdyou tiketo travel in space? TheFirst Astronauts In L957, Russiasent the first rocket into space. It took a machine called... around solar system a sunwith Earth andoutside around space everything atmosphere Earth's through that travels spacecrafta machine space that spaceshuttle a spacecraft cango into m space anyt im es for spacestation a ptacein sPace in to astronauts live that protect ctothes spacesuit speciaI astronauts spot a roundshape of shaPe a Person, statue a man-made often madeof stone step to put yourfeet on something... otherplanets? or why not? T the 3 Complete puzzte People Space in + pages Read 28-gL 1 Comptete chart the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 orbited Space Station ree{tet Moon person space shuttle TheHistory Space of Travel L957 Thefirst wentintospace 1961 Thefirst y thi In space, ngs w hen oudon'thol dthem in sleeP a sPecial Astronauts - don't Astronauts feel- in sPace strong theirbodies to have Astronauts to use- machines... experiments The first spacestations were very smalr,but the Internationar space Station (ISS) is much bigger It was built in space The first astronautsvisited it in 1998 Now, teams of asffonauts from different countries live and work on the spacestation all the time Gravity makes you strong on Earth becauseyou exerciseyour body every time you walk or lift something.Yourbody doesn't do this in space, so astronautscan... years ago,spee€'travel was a dream people livingin space Now, are Whatwitt happen the next in hundred thousand or years? Living theMoon on Space Tourism A few tourists have alreadyvisited space, but their trips cost millions of dollars Now, people have designedspecialspaceplanes to take tourists into space They are cheaperthan rockets,but at the moment, spaceplane trips only last a few hours In the future, . Russian rocket called Vostok carried a small spacecraft into space. Inside there was a man calledYuri Gagarin. He was the first person in space. His spacecraft AStfOnaUtS. big things into space, like the Hubble Space Telescope. Space Stations A space station is a place in space where asffonaurs can live and do experiments. The first space stations were. things. Space Sh uttles In 1981, a new type of spacecraft flew for the first time. It was called a space shuttle. Space shuttles can fly into space many times because they take off