'knacks

This week's topic: Space

July 28 - August 3, 1996

İ1996 by Nicholas E. Miller

**************************************** Vol. 1 No. 29 ***

Recently I have been interested in studying astronomy, and a few of my students like this topic, too! Besides, summer is so hot, it is nice to spend an evening outside just looking at the stars. So, letıs look at a few words for the study of the stars.

The nine planets and a mnemonic to help remember them:

My Very Earnest Mother Just Served UsNine Pickles or Pizzas
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Names of some heavenly bodies and other astronomy words:

Asteroids = small rocks circling the sun like timy planets
Black Holes = dense stars which suck everything into themselves
Comets = balls of ice which go around the sun and have long fiery tails
Galaxies = a system of over 10,000,000 stars
Meteorites (shooting stars) = small pieces of rock that burn up coming to earth
Meteors = small pieces of rock that crash on the earth
Moons = a small body circling a planet
Planets = a cold, big body that circles a star
Satellites = any body that circles another body
Solar Systems = a star and it's planets, moons, comets and asteroids
Stars = bright, hot bodies
Sun, the = our star
Universe = all the galaxies, everything that was created

And we can not forget the constellations, especially the Big and Little Dippers, which have helped many people find their way. A few more common ones (see if you know which are in the Northern hemispheres and which are in the Southern hemispheres) include:

Andromeda Andromeda
Boötes The Herdsman
CancerThe Crab
Crux The Southern Cross
Draco The Dragon
Gemini The Twins
Mensa The Table
TaurusThe Bull
Triangulum Australe The Southern Triangle
Virgo The Virgin

Back to English Students' Index | Back to Nick Knack Index | Feedback |

See notes for information on navigating, links, copyright (my own as well as any possible inadvertant infringement on my part) and photo usage, etc.