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7 PASSAGE ©, earth, , vou know that the crth goes round the sun and the moon goes ound the, , Nene ee perhaps dhe enre ae seers other bodies whichy ike che earth, £0, , d the sun, They are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Sarurn, Uranus and Neptune., Fa ne ding ous earth, ae called planets of the sun. The moon is called a, Blinc of she earth because it keeps going round the earth. The other plancts have, , also got their satellites., “The sun and the planets with their satellites form a happy family, called the solar, a ne meats belonging to the sun. The sun is the father ofall the planets, so, the whole group is called the solar system., night, you sce thousands of stars in the sky. Only a few of them are planet. We, erly distinguish between a planet and a star. Compared to the stars, the planets, SEIN sery tiny, like our earth. Buc chey look bigger than stars because they are, a tf mance vo un. Compared to a star, the moon is really quite like a baby. It looks, D big because it is very near to us. The real way to distinguish’ a star from a planet, © fais whether it twinkles of not. Stars cwinkle, planets dont. Planets shine only, ccause they get the light of the sun. It is merely the sunshine on the planets or the, moon that we sce., Sars are like the sun, They shine of themselves because they are very hot and burning., fact, the sun itself isa star. Ie looks bigger than stars because it is much nearer. We, ie as a great bal of fire in the sky. Thus our earth belongs to the family of the, an, We think the earth is very big. Compared to our tiny selves, itis truly very big., t takes weeks and months in a fast tain or ship to go from. one part of the earth to, nother. But although it seems so big, it js just like a speck? of dust hanging in the, ie The sun is millions of miles away and the other stars are even further away. That, ‘why they look so small to us., le who make a study of the stars are called astronomers. They tell us that |, ago, the earth and all the planets were part of the sun. The sun was then, mi, wi a mass of flaming matter. It was terribly hot. Somehow, little bits of the sun, ot loose and shot away from it. However, these litle bits could not wholly gee rid, ‘their father, the sun. It was as if a rope was tied to them and they kept whirlin, yund the sun. :, this way, our earth also shot out from the sun. To begin with, i, ery hot. ‘There must have been terribly hot gases Se te ee, much smaller chan the sun, i sated to col. The sun, to, is geting less and, ot, uti will ake milins of years to cool down, The earth took much ls, DF course, nothing could live on the earth when it was hi, , 0 jt. There could be no man, j ee ape ee Everything would have been burnt up then., ee eee nen shoe fede beaame the crt, so als abit ofthe earth shot, Bas ea A ple think that the moon came out of the great, ee the Pacific Ocean, between America and Japan., ook a long time for the earth to cool. As ti ed, the surface earth, 5 cool abhough igsieaad receied ey ke eee ae 2 en, , it becomes hotter and hotter as you go down. Probably jf you could go