英语听力：自然百科 穿越银河系的旅行 Through Milky Way—6

 Look closer and there is something strange about this gas and dust. There're patches where it appears to glow. These bright glowing clouds are called nebulae. And along with the Orion Nebula¹, our Milky² Way has some spectacular examples, the Eagle Nebula with towering pillars up to four light years in size.

The Carina Nebula, a dark canvas of art hanging in the blackness of the space. And these vibrant³ colors reveal what gases nebulae are made of. 

“So for example, if there’s oxygen gas, you get a green glow. If there’s hydrogen gas, you get a red glow. So analyzing⁴ the light from a nebula turns out to be very instructive. It tells us what's there. It tells us what the physical conditions are. We can tell how dense⁵ it is, how hard it is and what it's made of. We can find a lot about the neighborhood by looking at these clues that come directly from the glowing gas.” 

The gases in these nebulae are glowing at thousands of degrees, but what's the source of the heat. To find out, we need to peer/ deep within.

 

“But of course, the gas and dust is in the way, so it's not so easy. It's a very mysterious part of the galaxy⁶. It is a place we have to use the special tricks to look into.” 

 

Kimberly A. Weaver⁷ is an astrophysicist who is familiar with these tricks.   

 

“I’ve got a really neat way to show you this. This is a bag that you can't see through with your eyes, so a normal telescope that looks at optical light could not see through this. In infrared⁸ light, a telescope can see through it.  The infrared camera, if I put my hand inside, you can see my hand. I will wiggle my fingers to show you. Can you see the heat from my hand inside the bag? And this is just like a star that's hidden inside a cloud of the gas and dust that infrared astronomers can detect by using the infrared…

 

1 nebula   

n.星云，喷雾剂

参考例句：

• A powerful telescope can resolve a nebula into stars.一架高性能的望远镜能从星云中分辨出星球来。
• A nebula is really a discrete mass of innumerous stars.一团星云实际上是无数星体不连续的集合体。

2 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

3 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

4 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

5 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

6 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

7 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

8 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。