Você está na página 1de 3

Name

Date

Beyond the Solar System


By Patti Hutchison

Caption: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300


photographed by Hubble telescope.
Our solar system extends billions of miles from
Earth. But there is still something bigger. It is the
Milky Way, our galaxy. But wait, there's something
even bigger than that- the universe!
There are billions of galaxies in space. A galaxy is a group of stars, gas, and dust
that are bound together by gravity. If you look into the sky on a dark night, you can
see our galaxy, the Milky Way. It is a shimmering belt that stretches across the sky.
The Milky Way contains the solar system we live in.
The smallest galaxies contain only a few hundred thousand stars. The largest
can contain trillions of stars. Galaxies bump into each other every so often. The
Milky Way has had other galaxies pass through it. But there is no danger; the stars
are so far apart that a collision is not likely to happen.
Galaxies come in different shapes. There are spiral, elliptical, lenticular, and
irregular shapes. About half the galaxies in the universe are spiral galaxies. A
spiral galaxy looks like a twirling octopus. In the "arms" of the galaxy, new stars
are formed. Some of them are very large. They cause the surrounding clouds of
dust to glow brightly, also. Spiral galaxies are beautiful to see.
New stars are not formed in elliptical galaxies. The stars in them were formed
many years ago. They are often close together, making the middle of the galaxy
glow very brightly. If there were any planets in an elliptical galaxy, it would never
be night. The sky would be bright all the time.
Lenticular galaxies are shaped like a lens. They have ripples like a spiral galaxy
but are more flattened. Like elliptical galaxies, lenticular galaxies have older stars
in them. The stars are spread out evenly.
Any galaxy that is not spiral, elliptical, or lenticular is said to be irregular.
Irregular galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. They have very little
organization. Scientists think some galaxies are irregular because some event has
disturbed them. Others just lack the organization and the rotation of a spiral galaxy.

Name

Date

The universe is made up of billions of galaxies. The galaxies cluster together in


groups. If you could look at the whole universe at once, it would look like a spider
web. Between the galaxies, space is almost completely empty. Tiny atoms are
hundreds of miles apart.
No one knows how big the universe actually is. Scientists are constantly trying
to measure it. They do know, however, that it is expanding all the time. Space
missions travel farther and farther into space. Will they find life somewhere else in
the universe?
Beyond the Solar System

Questions
1. What is a galaxy?

2. Other galaxies have passed through the Milky Way.


A. false
B. true
3. A galaxy with twirling arms is called:
A. a spiral galaxy
B. an elliptical galaxy
C. a lenticular galaxy
4. Where are new stars formed?
A. in the arms of a spiral galaxy
B. neither a nor b
C. in an elliptical galaxy
5. What kind of galaxy does not form new stars?
A. elliptical
B. spiral
C. irregular

Name

Date

6. What is the space between galaxies like in the universe?

Write a paragraph about the relationships between the solar system, the Milky Way, and the universe.

Você também pode gostar