Vast water vapor beyond solar system found

 　　BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A team of European researchers announced that they have found vast water vapor¹ out of our solar system, according to a study in the U.S. journal Science Friday.

　　Using Herschel Space Observatory², a European Space Agency satellite, the researchers observed that the vast water vapor enveloped³ a 175-light-year-away star and its surrounding dusk disk, which will eventually form a planet.

　　The water vapor, which is "enough to fill thousand of Earth ocean", may rain down and seed the future oceans on the young planet, as it did on the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, the researchers suggested.

　　"Scientists have long suspected there were these reservoir of cold water hiding in the outer regions of planet disk, ... now the theory gets considerably⁴ stronger." said astronomer⁵ Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.

　　The finding not only explained where our Earth's ocean came from, but also indicated that there are likely to be many "ocean worlds" throughout the galaxies⁶, he concluded.

1 vapor   

n.蒸汽，雾气

参考例句：

• The cold wind condenses vapor into rain.冷风使水蒸气凝结成雨。
• This new machine sometimes transpires a lot of hot vapor.这部机器有时排出大量的热气。

2 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

3 enveloped   

v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was enveloped in a huge white towel. 她裹在一条白色大毛巾里。
• Smoke from the burning house enveloped the whole street. 燃烧着的房子冒出的浓烟笼罩了整条街。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

5 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

6 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。