大学英语泛读第七单元.pptVIP

Unit 7 What’s Beyond? Solving Mysteries in Space (I) I. Background Information Our solar system consists of an average star we call the Sun, the planets mercury, Venus, Earth, mars, Jupiter, Saturn (土星), Uranus(天王星) and Neptune (海王星). The originally ninth planet Pluto is no longer a true planet, according to a new definition of the term voted on by scientists on August 24, 2006, at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Pluto will now be labeled a dwarf Planet (矮星), like the large asteroid (小行星) Ceres (谷神星). There are finally, officially, eight planets in the solar system. Besides those, the solar system also includes the satellites of the planets, numerous comets, asteroids, meteoroids (流星体，陨星体), and the interplanetary medium. The Sun is the richest source of the electromagnetic energy (mostly in the form of heat and light) in the solar system. The planets, most of the satellites of the planets and the asteroids revolve around the Sun in the same direction, in nearly circular orbits. When looking down from above the Sun’s north pole, the planets orbit in a counterclockwise direction. The planets orbit the Sun in or near the same plane, called the ecliptic. The axis of rotation fro most of the planets is nearly perpendicular(垂直)的） to the ecliptic (黄道;日[月]蚀的). The exceptions are Uranus and Pluto, which are tipped on their sides. The Sun contains 99.85% of all the matter in the Solar System. The planets, which condensed out of the same disk of material that formed the Sun, contain only 0.135% of the mass of the solar system. Jupiter contains more than twice the matter of all the other planets combined. Satellites of the planets, comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and the interplanetary medium constitute the remaining 0.015%. II. Further Information on Text-Related Details 1. the Smithsonian Institution (史密斯学会): It’s a collection of scientific and cultural institutes, most of which are in Washington, D.C.