美国国家公共电台 NPR--NASA plans to hit an asteroid with a spacecraft to change its course

NASA plans to hit an asteroid¹ with a spacecraft to change its course

Transcript²

NASA is getting ready to give an asteroid a little push, in a test intended to ready Earth's defenses against a potential asteroid approach.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

When a space rock threatens Earth in movies like "Armageddon," the answer is almost always, blow it up with nukes.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ARMAGEDDON")

STANLEY ANDERSON: (As President) This new one you're tracking - how big?

BILLY BOB THORNTON: (As Dan Truman) It's what we call a global killer⁴. Nothing would survive, not even bacteria.

FADEL: Science fiction, obviously - but a more realistic strategy for planetary defense³ is being tested for the first time in history today by NASA. The agency will try to push an asteroid off course by ramming⁵ it with a spacecraft. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce tells us what to expect.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE⁶: Have no fear. The asteroid that NASA is targeting is not on a collision course with Earth. It's about 7 million miles away. And officials stress that there's no way their test could send it careening towards us.

TOM STATLER: We're doing this test when we don't need to on an asteroid that isn't a danger just in case we ever do need to and we discover an asteroid that is a danger.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's Tom Statler, a NASA program scientist for the DART⁷ mission. That stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test.

STATLER: We are moving an asteroid. We are changing the motion of a natural celestial⁸ body in space. Humanity has never done that before. And this is stuff of science fiction books and really corny episodes of "Star Trek⁹" from when I was a kid. And now it's real.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: At 7:14 p.m. Eastern Time, a spacecraft that launched last year will slam into the asteroid, which is called Dimorphos. In terms of size and scale, the scientists say this will be like a golf cart ramming the Great Pyramid in Egypt at 14,000 miles per hour.

Elena Adams is a mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied¹⁰ Physics Laboratory.

ELENA ADAMS: This mission has two parts. The first part is hitting the asteroid. The next part is actually measuring what happens afterwards.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Everyone can watch. NASA will broadcast images from the DART spacecraft on its website. In the last hour, the asteroid will loom¹¹ bigger and bigger as the spacecraft gets closer.

ADAMS: Our last image is probably going to be from about 2 1/2 seconds prior to impact.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: And then, crash. Another little spacecraft nearby will take pictures and send them back to Earth in the coming days. Plus, telescopes on seven continents as well as in space will watch the smash-up and its aftermath. This asteroid is actually orbiting another bigger asteroid. The collision should drive it closer to its big buddy¹² and slightly shorten the time it takes to go around. Asteroid experts have long called for a test like this.

Former astronaut Ed Lu is executive director of the Asteroid Institute, a program run by a nonprofit dedicated¹³ to planetary defense.

ED LU: Someday, we are going to find an asteroid which has a high probability of hitting the Earth, and we are going to want to deflect¹⁴ it.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says he's 100% certain of that because asteroids¹⁵ have been hitting Earth for its entire history. Astronomers¹⁶ who search for space rocks have found most of the really big ones. None threaten Earth. But smaller ones that could take out a city - a lot of those just haven't been seen.

Lindley Johnson is NASA's planetary protection officer. He says more asteroids need to be found and tracked so there's plenty of time to devise a plan - years, decades, even centuries - which is a far cry from the usual Hollywood scenario¹⁷.

LINDLEY JOHNSON: So you have to make it exciting, and, you know, we find the asteroid only 18 days before it's going to impact, and everybody runs around with their hair on fire. That's not the way to do planetary defense.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says, with enough warning, you could just give an asteroid a little nudge, like in today's test.

Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

5 ramming   

n.打结炉底v.夯实（土等）( ram的现在分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• They are ramming earth down. 他们在夯实泥土。 来自辞典例句
• Father keeps ramming it down my throat that I should become a doctor. 父亲一直逼我当医生。 来自辞典例句

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

8 celestial   

adj.天体的；天上的

参考例句：

• The rosy light yet beamed like a celestial dawn.玫瑰色的红光依然象天上的朝霞一样绚丽。
• Gravity governs the motions of celestial bodies.万有引力控制着天体的运动。

9 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

10 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

11 loom   

n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近

参考例句：

• The old woman was weaving on her loom.那位老太太正在织布机上织布。
• The shuttle flies back and forth on the loom.织布机上梭子来回飞动。

12 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

13 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

14 deflect   

v.(使)偏斜，(使)偏离，(使)转向

参考例句：

• Never let a little problem deflect you.决不要因一点小问题就半途而废。
• They decided to deflect from the original plan.他们决定改变原计划。

15 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

16 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。