Step by Step 3000 第3册 Unit4:News reports(1)

Part 2. News reports.
In this section, you're going to hear 2 news reports.
A. Keywords.

discovery, smallest planet, most earth-like, temperatures.
Vocabulary.

extrasolar, telltale, wobble, tug, mass, dwarf, proximity. Gliese 581C, Neptune.
Now listen to the first news report, complete the summary and give brief answers to the questions you hear.
A team of European astronomers has announced the discovery of the smallest planet ever found outside our own solar system.
They are also claiming it's the most earth-like of all the extrasolar planets so far found, with surface temperatures similar to those here on earth.
Over 200 planets have now been detected beyond our solar system.
Most of them are gas giants like Jupiter with only about a dozen thought to be small rocky objects like our earth.
Most have been detected by looking for tell-tale wobbles in the movement of their neighbouring star.
These wobbles can betray the presence of a planet, tugging at the star as it orbits.
The new planet called Gliese 581C is the smallest detected yet at only 5 times the mass of the earth.
It orbits a red dwarf, a small, slow burning star over 20 light years away from us in the Libra constellation.
The astronomers have also calculated, taking into account of distance of the new planet from its star and the size of that star, the surface temperature on the planet are likely to be between 0 and 40 degrees, temperatures which could support water.
But what would it be like to stand on Gliese 581C?
Stephane Udry is one of the term that discovered the planet.
For the ground, it's very difficult, couble be rocks, or it could be a big ocean.
But if you look at the sky, then you would see a big star.
Because of the proximity of the star, the size and the scale of that star would be about 10 times the full moon.
So you would see a big red star illuminating your sight.
The new planet also has some neighbours for company.
The same term of astronomers from Switzerland, France and Portugal discovered a planet similar in mass to Neptune in orbit around the same star two years ago.
They also announced today the discovery of a third planet in the same solar system.
That planet is about 8 times the mass of the Earth, and probably very, very cold.
Questions. 1. Among over 200 extrasolar planets so far found, how many were small rocky objects like the Earth?
2. how big is the newly discovered planet, Gliese 581C?
3. Which star does the planet orbit?
4. How many neighbours have been found for Gliese 581C?
5. How big are they?