英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行：土星 Saturn—11

 Here’s the surprise entry into search for life, this little moon that you’d expect to be pretty dead and dull, and coming out of the South Pole of it is a jet of water ice, all the things you need for life are there. There’s an energy source, there’s a water source, there’s an organic material source, there’s a nitrogen source, check, check, check, check, all the requirements for life. This is the little moon that has it all, and the samples are coming out in space, there’s a big sign there “Free samples, take one.” We just fly through and grab it on our way.

 

I think it is the go to place on our solar system right now for investigating issues of astrobiological importance. It wins out the game over Mars, over Europa, over Titan even, simply because of accessibility, it’s accessible, if these jets are deriving¹ from liquid water, then they are there for the sampling, 

 

The Cassini teams has been flying the spacecraft at height as low as 15 miles on its way to the plumes³, unbelievable precision flying for a remotely controlled robot that was never designed for such a feat⁴, a billion miles from earth. 

 

From Cassini we learned that there’s methane⁵ in the plume², nitrogen in the plume, ammonia in the plume, organic molecules⁶ in the plume. It’s a real soup, we’re seeing a soup of organics being spewed out into space or it’s frizzy, you can almost go there and jar it, put it in a can and sell it on earth as organic nutrient⁷ soup, 

 

On earth, geysers and hot springs are home to bacteria with pedigrees dating back to the beginning of life. They can also be breathtaking, but nothing on earth matches the Saturnian cold faithful. 

 

 

The sitting there in the South Pole of Enceladus, and taking a look at Saturn⁸, while you’re sitting there watching this eruption⁹ going on would be beautiful, 

 

 

It wouldn’t be a dangerous thing, you would see these towering, towering dramatic thousands of just icy particles. We’d never see them stop because some of them actually extend/ tens of thousands of kilometers into the space above the South Pole, and in fact into orbit around Saturn. This is how the e-ring of Saturn is formed.

1 deriving   

v.得到( derive的现在分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• I anticipate deriving much instruction from the lecture. 我期望从这演讲中获得很多教益。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He anticipated his deriving much instruction from the lecture. 他期望从这次演讲中得到很多教益。 来自辞典例句

2 plume   

n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰

参考例句：

• Her hat was adorned with a plume.她帽子上饰着羽毛。
• He does not plume himself on these achievements.他并不因这些成就而自夸。

3 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

4 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

5 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

6 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

7 nutrient   

adj.营养的，滋养的；n.营养物，营养品

参考例句：

• Magnesium is the nutrient element in plant growth.镁是植物生长的营养要素。
• The roots transmit moisture and nutrient to the trunk and branches.根将水分和养料输送到干和枝。

8 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。

9 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。