英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：木星 Jupiter—10

 This vast secret ocean of seething¹ metallic² hydrogen, not a molten iron core, is the power house generating Jupiter’s dangerous energy shroud³. But there is one more mystery hidden inside this giant alien onion, the key to the origin of the planets themselves. 400 years after Galileo first trained his telescope on Jupiter, Scott Bolton is following in his footsteps. Scott is a tour director for the next spacecraft to pay the planet a visit, the Juno mission launching in 2011.

 

Juno is taking the next step beyond what Galileo foreshowed us which， is the telescope to look at the outside. And we’ve come up with ways of looking at what’s inside of Jupiter. And from this, we’ll understand how it was built and how it came to be.

 

From what we understand, the planet was formed from the disc of gas and dust swirling⁴ around our new-born sun. Matter collided with matter. It was a game of gravitational survival of the fattest, a race that Jupiter ultimately won. Planets, like people, are what they eat. Did Jupiter gobble up most of the abundant light-weight gases first before all the solid stuffs started banging around? Or did it form like all the other planets, but grab more than its fair share of ice and gas from the cosmic chiller? The molecules⁵ of Jupiter’s first meals, rocks, ice, vapors⁶ or dust are still trapped somewhere inside.

 

When the Galileo probe measured higher levels of rare and heavy gases than anyone was expected, things got more complicated.

 

That did not fit any theory of how the planets were made. And so in one quick scoop⁷ of time, all the theories of how the planets were made, including the Earth, were not the window.

 

Juno will continue where Galileo left off, trying to unravel⁸ the mystery of Jupiter’s formation.

 

We do this by looking down deep in Jupiter and understanding first whether there is a solid core in the middle of it.

1 seething   

沸腾的，火热的

参考例句：

• The stadium was a seething cauldron of emotion. 体育场内群情沸腾。
• The meeting hall was seething at once. 会场上顿时沸腾起来了。

2 metallic   

adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的

参考例句：

• A sharp metallic note coming from the outside frightened me.外面传来尖锐铿锵的声音吓了我一跳。
• He picked up a metallic ring last night.昨夜他捡了一个金属戒指。

3 shroud   

n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏

参考例句：

• His past was enveloped in a shroud of mystery.他的过去被裹上一层神秘色彩。
• How can I do under shroud of a dark sky?在黑暗的天空的笼罩下，我该怎么做呢？

4 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

5 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。

6 vapors   

n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• His emotions became vague and shifted about like vapors. 他的心情则如同一团雾气，变幻无常，捉摸不定。 来自辞典例句
• They have hysterics, they weep, they have the vapors. 他们歇斯底里，他们哭泣，他们精神忧郁。 来自辞典例句

7 scoop   

n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出

参考例句：

• In the morning he must get his boy to scoop it out.早上一定得叫佣人把它剜出来。
• Uh,one scoop of coffee and one scoop of chocolate for me.我要一勺咖啡的和一勺巧克力的。

8 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。