British - Lesson
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Listen to the Article about Pluto to practise and Improve your Listening Skills. Complete the Lesson Activity to test your level.
New moons on Pluto are observed with the Hubble telescope...
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The two recently discovered moons of the planet Pluto were officially named Hydra and Nix by the International Astronomical Union, the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies.
The moons were discovered in May last year by the Pluto Companion Search Team, a team of scientists from the Southwest Research Institute, the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, the Space Telescope Science Institute and Lowell Observatory, using images taken from the Hubble space telescope. The moons were designated as S/2005 P1 and P2 upon discovery.
Their discovery comes 27 years after the discovery of Pluto's largest moon Charon. The two moons are currently 5000 times fainter than Pluto and two to three times farther from Pluto, compared to Charon. The two bodies are roughly 50 km in diameter.
The names are derived from Greek mythology, where Hydra is a monster with the body of a serpent and nine heads and Nix is the goddess of darkness and night. Nix is also the mother of Charon, an allusion to the giant impact which is believed to have created the three satellites of Pluto, with Charon borne of the material from which Nix formed. Pluto himself is the god of the underworld.
Listening Advanced - Test
Answer the Questions to Test your Listening Level.
1 Choose True or False
Three moons were recently discovered.
It took twenty-five years after Charon to discover the moons.
Hydra and Nix are the names of the moons.
The names of the moons are derived from Chinese mythology.
The discovery was made through the Hubble space telescope.
The moons are satellites of Pluto.
2 Complete the Sentences
Saturn is the planet with most moons, eighty-one _____ discovered so far.
The solar system has eight planets that revolve _____ sun.
The Hubble Space Telescope _____ into low Earth orbit in 1990.
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, _____ beyond the orbit of Neptune.
The International Astronomical Union _____ safeguard the science of astronomy.
3 Choose the Correct order
Which sentence appears first in the article?
Which sentence appears first in the article?
Which sentence appears first in the article?
Which sentence appears first in the article?
