A new space record has been set by the USA's NASA space agency. In 2018, NASA sent a spacecraft to photograph the Sun. The spacecraft is called the Parker Solar Probe. It made history on Christmas Eve by going closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before. Parker holds another record. It is the fastest object ever made. In 2023, it flew at a speed of 635,266 kph. At this speed, it could go from New York to Tokyo in 1.025 minutes.
The Parker Solar Probe is named after a scientist. He spent his life studying the Sun. He wanted to know why solar flares are hotter than the Sun's surface. The temperature at the Sun's surface is 4,100ºC; while the temperature of the flares can reach 1.1 million degrees Celsius. Scientists also want to find out how solar winds originate. NASA said Parker has faced amazing 980-degree heat on its record-breaking trip.
Try the same news story at these levels:
The Sun - Level 0, The Sun - Level 2 or The Sun - Level 3
Sources- https://www.space.com/nasa-parker-solar-probe-christmas-flyby
- https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/23/science/parker-solar-probe-sun-close-approach/index.html
- https://phys.org/news/2024-12-nasa-probe-closest-sun.html
- https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/23/science/parker-solar-probe-sun-close-approach/index.html
- https://phys.org/news/2024-12-nasa-probe-closest-sun.html
Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)