— VOA Learning English — Everyday Grammar Source: Voice of America Learning English (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:01Sky watchers have had a busy year so far in 2024. There has been much to see among the stars and planets. In April, many people in the United States were able to watch a total eclipse of the Sun. Coming up in the next few months, there will be a nova of two stars. This week, we will learn about some of the special words you can use to talk about objects and events in the sky. A nova is a star explosion. A pair of stars called T Corona Borealis, called the blaze star, will become very bright so people almost everywhere on Earth, even in cities, can see it. Scientists say the event will be visible to the naked eye, which means you do not need any special tools like binoculars or a telescope to see it.
1:19Visible is an adjective form related to the word view. The two stars that form the blaze star produce an outburst, or increased period of energy, around every 80 years. Rebecca Hounsell is an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. We don't often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system, Haunsell said. Material from one star moves toward another and causes the explosion or outburst of energy. This makes the bright light we can see from Earth. Scientists say they are not sure exactly when we will be able to see the nova, but you will surely hear about it on the news.
2:36Your next question might be, how can I find it in the sky? This is when you will need to know the word constellation and how to find one in the Sky. A constellation is a group of stars. Some constellations look like particular shapes to people on Earth. The nova coming this year is in the constellation Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown. There are many uses for the preposition between for talking about the upcoming nova and its constellation. If you make an imaginary line between the stars in it, You get a curved line that looks like a headpiece worn by kings and queens. To find it, you can look for the two brightest stars in the northern hemisphere, Arcturus and Vega. In the space between them, you will find two constellations, Hercules and Boötes.
3:54Northern crown is between them. People enjoyed another event in the sky in April. A Total Eclipse of the Sun The Moon moved between Earth and the Sun, causing a shadow, or an area of darkness on Earth. The path of the Moon's shadow on Earth is called the Path of Totality. We can change an adjective, such as total, to a noun with the noun suffix ity. The resulting noun means the state or condition of what the adjective describes. For example, it is used with active to form activity. The next total eclipse on Earth will be August 12, 2026 and it will be visible in Spain. And that's everyday grammar. I'm Andrew Smith.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.