美国国家公共电台 NPR The Largest Digital Camera In The World Takes Shape

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Astronomers¹ are building the world's largest digital camera to capture images of the night sky. This thing is two stories tall, a scientific marvel². So of course NPR's science correspondent Joe Palca traveled to California to check it out.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE³: A two-story-tall camera - I couldn't wait to see that. But when I got to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where the camera is being put together, I got some bad news.

AARON ROODMAN: Right now every piece of the camera is under construction in various places.

PALCA: Aaron Roodman is the physicist⁴ at SLAC in charge of putting the camera together. He says the final assembly is still about two years away. But Roodman says even the small parts of the camera are astounding⁵ and worth a look. He offers to take me into the two-story-tall clean room they built at SLAC just for this project.

ROODMAN: Clean room procedures are pretty common for working with CCD cameras.

PALCA: You can't just walk into a clean room. You have to put on gloves, hats, booties and extremely clean white coveralls. Fully⁶ garbed⁷, you look a bit like an Easter Bunny. This super-clean getup is necessary.

ROODMAN: A piece of dust on any of those surfaces we'll really notice. It will actually have a significant negative effect on the camera.

PALCA: Roodman points to a small box with cables coming out of it sitting on a lab bench.

ROODMAN: All by itself, this little unit is 144-megapixel camera.

PALCA: That's six times more megapixels than a high-end digital camera.

ROODMAN: So by itself, it's kind of a remarkable⁸ device.

PALCA: And there will be 21 of these boxes in the camera. Astronomers have big ambitions for this giant camera. It's going on a giant telescope being built in Chile called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. That telescope will be unlike any other. Instead of staring at a tiny patch of the sky and taking essentially⁹ one snapshot in time, the new telescope will take a panorama¹⁰ of every part of the sky. And it will do so over and over and over and over. The idea is to see what's moving or changing in the heavens.

ROODMAN: That could be everything from asteroids¹¹ to variable stars to Supernova to maybe new phenomenon that we don't know about yet.

PALCA: Roodman is right to expect the unexpected. But don't ask him what that might be because he has no idea. That's the whole point. Now, for the camera to work properly and make sure all the stars it sees are in focus, everything in the camera has to be in exactly the right place. Roodman takes me to another lab on campus where they're working on that.

ROODMAN: This is a metrology lab. This is a place to measure...

PALCA: A what lab?

ROODMAN: Metrology.

PALCA: Metrology.

ROODMAN: Metrology.

PALCA: It's a new word on me.

ROODMAN: Metrology is the science of measuring things.

PALCA: Roodman says they have to measure where things are to within a twentieth of the thickness of a human hair, depending of course on how thick your hair is. Not all the preparation and testing of the camera is super high-tech¹².

At another test bench, some graduate students are trying to make sure that the interior of a dark box is completely dark. And they're having a problem blocking out the glare from some LED lights mounted near the box. Roodman suggests putting some black tape over the lights. Then he laughs.

ROODMAN: This is the beauty of experimental physics. On the one hand, (laughter) we want - I'm interested in studying the makeup¹³ of the universe. But for today, we got to make sure that the tape is blocking out all the light from some LEDs.

PALCA: Roodman expects by 2020, astronomers should be able to start using his camera to study the makeup of the universe, presumably without the need for black tape. Joe Palca, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOSES BOYD'S "SQUARE UP")

1 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》

2 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

5 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》

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 garbed   

v.（尤指某类人穿的特定）服装，衣服，制服( garb的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The widow was garbed in black. 那寡妇穿着黑衣服。 来自辞典例句
• He garbed himself as a sailor. 他装扮成水手。 来自辞典例句

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 panorama   

n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置]

参考例句：

• A vast panorama of the valley lay before us.山谷的广阔全景展现在我们面前。
• A flourishing and prosperous panorama spread out before our eyes.一派欣欣向荣的景象展现在我们的眼前。

11 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

12 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

13 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？