📘 Part 3: Astronomy and space exploration

This episode's vocabulary

Observe (v) – to watch carefully, especially for study → At night, I like to go outside and observe the stars with my telescope.

Spark (v) – to trigger interest or emotion → The documentary really sparked my interest in astronomy.

Curiosity (n) – a strong desire to learn something → Children often have a natural curiosity about space and the planets.

Philosophically (adv) – in a way related to deep or abstract thinking → Philosophically speaking, exploring space helps us understand our place in the universe.

Heavenly bodies (n) – objects in space like stars or planets → The moon and Mars are two of the most well-known heavenly bodies.

Spectrograph (n) – a tool for analyzing the light from stars → Using a spectrograph, scientists determined the composition of the star’s atmosphere.

Emit (v) – to send out (light, heat, etc.) → Stars emit light and heat as a result of nuclear reactions.

Astronomer (n) – a scientist who studies space → Galileo was one of the most famous astronomers in history.

Astrologer (n) – someone who claims to predict events by studying stars → My friend sees an astrologer to find out what her week will be like.

Guidance system (n) – technology that helps control movement, often in satellites → Modern spacecraft use advanced guidance systems to navigate deep space.

Forecast (v) – to predict based on data → Thanks to satellite data, we can forecast weather much more accurately now.

Inhabit (v) – to live in a place → Humans do not yet inhabit any planet other than Earth.

Terraforming (n) – making a planet livable → Terraforming Mars would take decades of technological effort and research.

Colonise (v) – to settle in a new place → Some scientists believe that we might colonise the Moon in the future.

Adapt (v) – to adjust to new environments → Humans have shown a strong ability to adapt to extreme conditions on Earth.

Exoplanet (n) – a planet outside our solar system → NASA has discovered thousands of exoplanets in the past decade.

Orbit (v/n) – to move around another body in space → The Earth orbits the Sun once every 365 days.

Telescope (n) – a tool for seeing distant space objects → He used a powerful telescope to see the rings of Saturn clearly.

Milky Way (n) – the galaxy we live in → The Milky Way contains billions of stars, including our Sun.

Zero gravity (n) – a condition with no gravity → Astronauts train in zero-gravity environments to prepare for space missions.

Questions and Answers

Maria: Why do people like observing the stars?

Rory: Oh, all kinds of reasons. They might find it sparks their imagination or satisfies some kind of curiosity they have. Lots of writers have written about space, for example, and I'm sure a lot of people find themselves wondering what's going on up there and how the stars move around, or at least how they appear to.

Maria: Why is it important to explore space?

Rory: Well, I suppose, philosophically speaking, people might want to know what we might find out there and if we are alone in the universe. That's something many people want to know the answer to. And then, I suppose, from a scientific and industrial perspective, we might find new materials and elements which could be useful for industry back on Earth.

Maria: Should children know more about stars and planets?

Rory: Not sure, really. Surely that depends on how much they know already. That could vary from place to place, since education systems are different. Generally, though, I'm not sure there's much harm in at least ensuring they know the basics, like the names of the planets and other local heavenly bodies, what they are made of, and how they move around. Even just as part of their general knowledge, and to have something interesting to talk about.

Maria: Is high technology helpful for star watching?

Rory: It could be, if we need to know about something beyond what we can see and understand with the naked eye. For example, something like a spectrograph can use the light emitted by stars to work out things about them, like how hot they are. You couldn't do that with just basic observation. At least, probably not. I'm not a scientist.

Maria: What kind of people are interested in stars?

Rory: Other than astronomers? All kinds of people. Astronomers want to know about them for scientific purposes, but there are people like astrologers who use them as part of spiritual and religious rites. And then the general public might just want to find out about what those big bright lights in the sky are made of and what they mean for us in the grander scheme of things.

Maria: How does knowledge about space affect our daily life?

Rory: Well, it's tempting to say it doesn't, but actually, when you think about it, it really does, doesn't it? The guidance systems on satellites we use for GPS every day need a constant stream of data just to stay up there. And that lets us use them to find our way around. And we use similar things to get weather data or a forecast and send messages. So, if we didn't know how space worked in order to keep those things up there, none of that would be possible.

Maria: Is it possible to find life on other planets?

Rory: I imagine so, though it's hard to predict what form it might take, given the huge variety of environments that exist out there. If the universe is limitless, or big enough to pretty much have none, then the possible varieties are also without limit. Of course, it also means the universe is so huge that it might be hard to find, at least at first.

Maria: Will we ever inhabit other planets?

Rory: I don't see why not. Human beings live in just about every environment possible on this planet and show a great capacity to adapt to new circumstances, so I think we could do it if we applied ourselves. Obviously, colonising another planet isn't exactly a walk in the park compared to colonising the one we evolved on, but our technology might help us overcome the really big hurdles, like terraforming alien atmospheres. We're already doing that in places on this planet.

Discussion

Maria: Sooo, space and planets, and astronomy! We observe the stars, dear listener.

Rory: We do! But why? Wow, so many reasons. And this works for any kind of answer when you’re asked: why people do things. You can say, all kinds of reasons.

Maria: Some people observe the stars to satisfy their curiosity. So, it’s just interesting for them, what’s out there in the sky. People explore space. So they go into space, they explore space. And here Rory says like, philosophically speaking…

Rory: But those are questions just to do with our place in the universe and how to live life.

Maria: People want to find out if we are alone in the universe. And then from a scientific perspective, so you can answer this question from a philosophical perspective, and also from a science point of view. So you can say like, philosophically speaking, tatatatata, but from a scientific perspective people can find new materials for our life on earth. ON Earth, dear listener.

Rory: A very important preposition to have. It’s always ON the planet, not IN the planet, when we talk about where we live.

Maria: Yeah, and also, there is no article. So we live on Earth.

Rory: Are there any other reasons it's important to explore space? To escape.

Maria: People have money to burn.

Rory: Literally, if you're a millionaire, you can shoot yourself up into space and that's fine. But also to escape.

Maria: Children should learn more about stars and planets. You can say that education systems are different in different countries, and the curriculum is different. The programme that children follow at school might be different. And there is no harm if children learn about stars and planets. So there's nothing bad in it. And they should know the basics, the basics of astronomy. And then what exactly should they know? The names of planets and other heavenly bodies. What are heavenly bodies?

Rory: Things in space, basically. Planets, stars, asteroids, moons.

Maria: So all together we call them heavenly bodies. Actually, this phrase is in the Cambridge Online Dictionary. A heavenly body, any object existing in space, a planet, star, or the moon. So heavenly bodies, dear listener. So, children should learn more about heavenly bodies.

Rory: Maybe. If they need to.

Maria: If a person is interested in watching stars or looking at the sky, the activity is called star watching or star gazing. So usually people look at the stars, they watch the stars. They have a telescope to do that. And the question is about technology. So usually, a typical piece of technology is a telescope that people use for stargazing.

Rory: They could also use their eyes…

Maria: So, technology helps if we want to know something beyond what we can see with the naked eye.

Rory: And the naked eye is just when your eye is unassisted by technology.

Maria: And Rory mentioned a piece of technology which is called a spectrograph.

Rory: Spectrograph, that just means a light measuring thing.

Maria: And to observe stars, you can say that several technologies could be used, like binoculars, telescopes. And what do you call a place where they have these huge telescopes?

Rory: They're called satellite dishes. But the satellite dish is not just a small, not just a big thing. It can also be a small thing. Radio telescopes, radio receiver arrays, telescopic arrays, all kinds of things.

Maria: Yeah, but like there's a place where you go to and they have this specific technology.

Rory: Well, in that case, it will be an observatory.

Maria: Yeah, so you can talk about observatories having larger telescopes. And also, there are stargazing astronomy apps, like applications. Yes, dear listener, which you can download on your phone. And they're quite specific, like Go Skywatch Planetarium. So you can say that people use different apps. And then you can go to sky watching tips from NASA. Mm hmm. And NASA recommends using binoculars. Apparently, we have some professional binoculars. And just huge telescopes, which can be found in observatories. They're just called telescopes, right?

Rory: I think so. Yeah, or large telescopes, maybe.

Maria: Yeah, see like how much knowledge we have about different types of telescopes, dear listener. Telescopes. Yeah, they're called like large telescopes. Exactly. Very large telescopes. Extremely large telescope. No, I'm not joking, dear listener, like extremely large telescope. There we go. Yeah, and also like large binocular telescope. Oh, yeah. It's called VLT, Rory.

Rory: Oh.

Maria: So, dear listener, yeah, there you go.

Rory: I love it.

Maria: Very large telescope, VLT. And then you look at the examiner. You didn't know it's VLT, very large telescope that they use in observatories.

Rory: I suppose the role of scientists is to make things easier to explain. So if they used a very complex word, that would defeat the purpose.

Maria: Astronomers are people who are into stars. They're interested in stars. Astronomers, they love astronomy. So they study stars for scientific purposes. But also people like astrologers. Astrologers. Oh, okay. So astrology, right?

Rory: Yeah, astrologers study stars for religious reasons or spiritual ones, depending on how you see it.

Maria: And just amateur astronomers, just like usual people who enjoy watching the stars, who are into stargazing. So you can say that we use satellites for GPS, right? And we get certain data about the weather from different satellites.

Rory: You get data about a lot of things from space, actually. So knowing how orbital mechanics works is really important for knowing how to keep satellites functioning. And you have weather in space as well. Solar winds.

Maria: So, people should know how space works in order to keep satellites up there.

Rory: Up there, meaning up in space.

Maria: Yeah. In space, no article. And then there are some questions, you know, like about life on other planets. Will we live on other planets? Oh la la. Yeah. And you can answer them from a philosophical perspective and also from like a practical perspective. But dear listener, if you have zero knowledge about space, it's a good idea to read some articles in your native language. This would be useful for IELTS reading, writing and speaking, and also listening. Some topics might be about space, unfortunately.

Rory: What do you mean, unfortunately? It's interesting.

Maria: No, but I mean, vocabulary is difficult, right?

Rory: No, space vocabulary is easy.

Maria: A very large telescope, dear listener. So you can say that the universe is limitless. So there are no limits. There's so much space out there. So it's possible that there is life there or there isn't any life. Like, again, what do you reckon? Okay. Or you can say it's hard to predict. Like, we really don't know. There's no proof. But the fact is that the universe is huge. People might inhabit other planets. Inhabit, like they can live on other planets. And here you can use the word human beings live in all sorts of environments. And human beings tend to adapt to new circumstances, to different conditions.

Rory: Not just human beings. Every form of life, I suppose.

Maria: Colonising another planet.

Rory: Without going into too much detail. It just means to move people from one place to another. To settle and control that place. You did not comment on terraforming, Maria. I'm very sad.

Maria: Yeah, because it's far too difficult.

Rory: Terraforming just means to turn something alien into something Earth-like. So let's imagine that a planet has an atmosphere that's only carbon dioxide. If we terraform it, then it will have oxygen, nitrogen. It will be similar to what it's like on Earth.

Maria: So, dear listener, thank you very much for listening. Now you know the super Band 9 keyword is very large telescope. VLT. Right. So that's pretty much enough for you. But yeah, I recommend reading about space.

Rory: Thank you very much for listening. We hope we've introduced you to a new universe of vocabulary. Bye!

Maria: Funny.

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi