Page 149 - Grasp English C1+ (Student Book)
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Stargazing 10
In april 2019 a team of scientists in the usa was able to capture the first-ever
photograph of a black hole. The team included 29-year-old scientist Dr Katie
Bouman who developed a technique to gather data from telescopes around the
globe and use it to construct an image of a distant object. There are different
types of black holes and scientists believe that some may be minuscule whereas
others are called supermassive black holes. According to NASA there is thought
to be a supermassive black hole in every galaxy. In the milky way it has been
given the name Sagittarius a and is believed to be able to hold the equivalent of
a few million earths inside it. A third type the stellar black hole appears when a
star reaches the end of its life and dies. Because of its tremendous mass, the star
implodes which creates an incredible gravitational force in the space around it.
Due to the fact that a black hole sucks everything in its gravitational field even
light towards itself scientists are able to identify areas where they believe there is
a black hole and can then study the area using telescopic equipment. However
there is much that is still unknown about black holes.
D. Read the essay and answer the questions. F. Now write your informative essay (180–220 words).
Use the checklist to help you.
1. How long ago was the first photo of a black
hole taken? Writing an informative essay
2. How was Dr Bouman involved in the project? • write the title
3. How many types of black holes are • write a short introduction
mentioned in the text? • divide your text into paragraphs
4. What’s the name of the black hole in our • write a conclusion
galaxy?
• use a variety of linkers
5. When are stellar black holes created?
• avoid using contractions in formal writing
6. Why do black holes appear to be black?
• proofread your essay for grammar and spelling
mistakes
E. Choose one of the questions below.
• What is astrobiology?
• What is astrology?
• What is planetary science?
• What is the Big Bang Theory?
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