Light travels at a very fast speed. It is about a million times1than the speed of sound. You can get some idea of this2by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke from his gun before the sound gets to your 3.
This great speed of light4some strange facts. Sunlight5about 8 minutes to get to us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, 6 that the light rays(光线)leave the moon 1.3 seconds before they get to you. The nearest star is so7away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to8towards you several years ago. In some cases, the light from one of tonight's stars had started on its journey to you before you were born.
So, to be exact, we can't say, "The stars are shining 9."We have to say instead, "The stars10pretty. They were shining several years ago, but their light has only just got to the Earth."
