黯淡神秘的冥王星引起科学家关注

 

Dim and Mysterious, the Planet Pluto¹ Has Scientists' Attention

黯淡神秘的冥王星引起科学家关注

 

Don't pace the floor waiting for the results of the visit to this far-off hunk of rock, which meanders³ around the sun for 248 years in a single orbit. If the New Horizons probe is launched, it will take 11 years to reach Pluto.

 

Bruce Betts: Sounds like there'd be no rush, but there actually is a rush, scientifically.

 

Bruce Betts, a scientist at the Planetary Society, a space-advocacy group based in California says that's because Pluto has made the turn at one pointy end of its almond-shaped orbit and is now heading away from the sun.

 

Bruce Betts: At some point -- and it's not exactly clear when -- Pluto's atmosphere is likely to freeze out on the surface. So, if you want to see the planet while it actually has an atmosphere -- and also see whatever surface there is below what would freeze out -- you need to get a next couple of decades.

 

Like rings drawn⁴ on a table, our sun's planets orbit on the same, mostly flat plane. But Pluto's orbit tilts⁵ a bit. It even intersects Neptune⁶'s orbit for 20 years, briefly⁷ making Neptune our farthest planet.

 

Russ Poch is a physics professor at Howard Community College in Maryland, who often writes about planets on the college's website.

 

Russ Poch: they're pretty much on opposite sides of the sun. So it's more likely you're going to have a comet hitting a planet before that.

 

Pluto was first spotted⁸ 75 years ago by a young American astronomer¹⁰, Clyde Tombaugh, who named the distant dark planet for the Roman god of the underworld. Pluto remained mysterious until 1990, when the Hubble telescope was launched into orbit 600 kilometers above the Earth. Hubble provided clear photos and a spectral¹¹ analysis of Pluto and its lone¹², curious moon, Charon -- curious because Charon is half as big as Pluto itself. Charon wasn't found until 1978, hiding among the so-called Kuiper Belt of objects, including Pluto, which traverse the edges of our solar system beyond Neptune.

 

The Planetary Society's Bruce Betts says the region is still yielding astonishing new information about our solar system.

 

Bruce Betts: There have been a couple of other discoveries. The most notable, in the past year or so, is a body called Sedna, which is still much smaller than Pluto but is a good-sized body. Sedna has a really strange orbit. It's very, very elliptical. It goes much, much farther out than Pluto.

 

Scientists are itching¹⁴ to get a close look at Pluto because, like the four inner planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars -- it's some form of rock, though ice-covered most of the time. It's not a giant gaseous¹⁵ sphere like the other four outer planets -- Jupiter, Saturn¹⁶, Uranus¹⁷, and Neptune. Pluto also has some unexplained bright markings that fascinate scientists.

 

So what? Who cares? What? Howard Community College's Russ Poch says even far-off Pluto may help us understand our world.

 

Russ Poch: It was found to have some gases that were very similar to what our early Earth's atmosphere had. People always want to hypothesize, 'Well, if this is there, could life exist?' We're based on carbon-based life, but are there other kinds of life that might be based on other types of materials? So it would be interesting to see if there were chemicals out there that primitive¹⁸ life could evolve from.

 

A more familiar Pluto -- Mickey Mouse's pet dog in Walt Disney cartoons -- made his first appearance in 1930, the same year Clyde Tombaugh named the new and distant planet. But the dog did not get its name until the following year. Whether or not Mr. Disney named the floppy-eared canine¹⁹ after the planet, he never said.

 

I am Ted⁹ Landphair.

 

注释：

hunk [hQNk] n. 大块

meander² [mi5AndE] n. 漫步

almond-shaped 杏仁形状的

astronomer [E5strRnEmEr] n. 天文学家

Neptune [5neptju:n] n. 海王星

elliptical [i5liptikEl] adj. 椭圆的

itch¹³ [itF] vi. 渴望

gaseous [5^AsiEs] adj. 气体的，气态的

hypothesize [hai5pCWisaiz] v. 假设，假定，猜测

canine [5keinain] n. 犬齿动物

1 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

2 meander   

n.河流的曲折，漫步，迂回旅行；v.缓慢而弯曲地流动，漫谈

参考例句：

• Visitors and locals alike meander along the sidewalks of the Seine River.游客与当地人沿着塞纳河岸漫步聊天。
• They tumble down mountainsides and meander through flat farmlands.它们滚滚冲下山脊，蜿蜒穿过平坦的农田。

3 meanders   

曲径( meander的名词复数 )； 迂回曲折的旅程

参考例句：

• The stream meanders slowly down to the sea. 这条小河弯弯曲曲缓慢地流向大海。
• A brook meanders through the meadow. 一条小溪从草地中蜿蜒流过。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 tilts   

（意欲赢得某物或战胜某人的）企图，尝试( tilt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• As the kitten touches it, it tilts at the floor. 它随着击碰倾侧，头不动，眼不动，还呆呆地注视着地上。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The two writers had a number of tilts in print. 这两位作家写过一些文章互相攻击。

6 Neptune   

n.海王星

参考例句：

• Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun.海王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Neptune turned out to be a dynamic,stormy world.海王星原来是个有生气、多风暴的世界。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

9 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

10 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

11 spectral   

adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的

参考例句：

• At times he seems rather ordinary.At other times ethereal,perhaps even spectral.有时他好像很正常，有时又难以捉摸，甚至像个幽灵。
• She is compelling,spectral fascinating,an unforgettably unique performer.她极具吸引力，清幽如鬼魅，令人着迷，令人难忘，是个独具特色的演员。

12 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

13 itch   

n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望

参考例句：

• Shylock has an itch for money.夏洛克渴望发财。
• He had an itch on his back.他背部发痒。

14 itching   

adj.贪得的，痒的，渴望的v.发痒( itch的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The itching was almost more than he could stand. 他痒得几乎忍不住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My nose is itching. 我的鼻子发痒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 gaseous   

adj.气体的，气态的

参考例句：

• Air whether in the gaseous or liquid state is a fluid.空气，无论是气态的或是液态的，都是一种流体。
• Freon exists both in liquid and gaseous states.氟利昂有液态和气态两种形态。

16 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。

17 Uranus   

n.天王星

参考例句：

• Uranus is unusual because it is tilted.天王星非常特殊，因为它是倾斜的。
• Uranus represents sudden change and rebellion.天王星代表突然性的改变和反叛。

18 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

19 canine   

adj.犬的，犬科的

参考例句：

• The fox is a canine animal.狐狸是犬科动物。
• Herbivorous animals have very small canine teeth,or none.食草动物的犬牙很小或者没有。