英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行：土星 Saturn—8

 Saturn¹’s apparently² peaceful appearance is due to a haze³ of high level ammonia in the upper atmosphere,  by looking deep into Saturn in the infrared⁴, using the planet’s own internal heat as a light source, Cassini has revealed the planet’s true nature. 

 

The winds on Saturn vary dramatically from the equator to the pole. / In fact, at the equator we have huge winds, wherein close to 900 miles an hour now, near the speed of sound in that planet. 

 

The winds are stronger at Saturn than they’re in Jupiter, and that’s a surprise, because the two planets are rather similar in terms of basic composition, they’re both gas giants and yet Saturn has less sunlight to power the winds, and the winds are stronger. 

 

 

Try explaining the 6-sided vortex at the North Pole. Saturn has a hexagon, it’s some kind of a wave, but it’s a permanent wave. It’s been there since Voyager discovered it back in 1980. So this is just one more example of how atmospheric⁵ features which are basically nothing but gas. They last forever on these giant planets. 

 

 

There is another permanent storm at the South Pole, not quite too strange, but gigantic in size. At 5,000 miles across, you could almost fit the whole earth inside. The South Pole has something that looks very much like a hurricane eye, except the clouds are 5 times the height of the eye wall around a terrestrial hurricane. So it’s kind of a window into the depth of Saturn, showing us just how dynamic the planet really is, and it’s sort of kind of need.

 

 

And at the bottom of this window, storms within the storm, adding their own level of complexity⁶ to the weather forecasts of this alien planet are the rings. For half a Saturnian year, the rings block the light in the northern hemisphere, and the other half of the year, it’s blocked in the southern hemisphere.

1 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• 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。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

4 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。

5 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

6 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。