英语听力：自然百科 穿越银河系的旅行 Through Milky Way—19

 One of the puzzles about our galaxy¹ is that we know that it's had stars forming continuously for about the last ten billion years. But at the rate/ it's eating up its gas now, it's forming new stars, it should burn out that gas soon, should run out of fuel, and so there has to be some source/ for new fuel.

 

That source must be beyond the galaxy. And recently, astronomers² have made an astounding³ discovery. Globular clusters are not the only groups of stars orbiting the Milk Way, there are also ultra-faint dwarf⁴ galaxies⁵.

 

The reason why we haven’t known about these dwarf galaxies for very long, these so called ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, is that they contain just a few hundred stars, a thousand stars. So, you try to find a column of a thousand/ stars while looking through a mass of a billion stars, it is not easy. It's the needle-in-a-haystack problem. And it's only because we have the precise maps, it's precision of modern astronomy that's allowed us to discover these extremely interesting dwarf galaxies.

 

They may be illusive⁶, but they can help to solve the mystery of what's fueling the galaxy.

 

So these dwarf galaxies are whizzing around our galaxy, they are orbiting around it. Now sometimes they get to close, and when they get too close, they get ripped apart, in fact they get eaten as some things by our galaxy.

 

This computer model shows dwarf galaxies as colored discs. Over time our galaxy at the center devours⁷ many of them, pulled in by gravity, supplying more gas and dust from which / new stars / will eventually form.

 

So in much the same way that a large city might sort of cannibalize its neighbors, the Milky⁸ Way is cannibalizing its dwarf galaxy population. 

 

Globular clusters and dwarf galaxies give an insight just how old our galaxy is, and how it's survived for so long.

1 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。

2 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》

3 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 dwarf   

n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小

参考例句：

• The dwarf's long arms were not proportional to his height.那侏儒的长臂与他的身高不成比例。
• The dwarf shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. 矮子耸耸肩膀，摇摇头。

5 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。

6 illusive   

adj.迷惑人的，错觉的

参考例句：

• I don't wanna hear too much illusive words.我不想听太多虚假的承诺。
• We refuse to partake in the production of illusive advertisements.本公司拒绝承做虚假广告。

7 devours   

吞没( devour的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光

参考例句：

• If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. 若有人想要害他们，就有火从他们口中出来，烧灭仇敌。
• It eats away parts of his skin; death's firstborn devours his limbs. 他本身的肢体要被吞吃，死亡的长子要吞吃他的肢体。

8 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。