时差N小时 灶神星

You can see the planet Jupiter on a clear night, but Jupiter ishumongous.

在晴朗的夜空下我们能够看到木星，那是因为木星够大；

Mars and Mercury are smaller than that, and youcan see them, too.

尽管火星和水星比木星要小，但我们依然能看到。

Wait a minute, our moon is even smaller,and you can see that.

等等，月球更要小一些，我们还是能看到。

Could anything smaller than the moon be visible without a telescope?

那么，在不使用望远镜的情况下，我们还能看到比月亮更小的天体吗？

Actually, yes.

事实上，答案是肯定的。

Though it takes a lot of patience and excellent sky conditions, it is possible to see atiny object called Vesta.

只要我们足够有耐心，天公也作美，我们还有机会看到一个小天体—它就是被命名为灶神星的小天体。

Although it had a molten interior and volcanoes, Vesta isn't a planet or amoon: it's an asteroid¹.

尽管它以溶化的金属为核心且地表遍布火山，灶神星却既不是行星也不是月球：它仅仅是一颗小行星。

Asteroids² are straychunks of rocky or metallic³ materials that orbit thesun but were never drawn⁴ into any of the planets.

小行星是由岩石或是金属块构成的小天体，他们绕太阳运动但绝不会卷入其他行星的运行轨道中。

Vesta is quite far away.

灶神星距地球的距离很远。

Like many asteroids, it has an orbit out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

像其它许多小行星一样，它在火星与木星之间有自己的运行轨道。

Astronomers⁵ first spotted⁶ it when looking for a new planet they thought should existbetween these two.

天文学家们首次发现它时是在寻找介于这两大行星间的另一个行星。

As I said, Vesta is quite small-about three hundred and twenty-five miles across.

正如我所说，灶神星是很小的—它的直径也就只有325英里而已。

So if it's small and far away, how come we can see it from here?

那问题就是，它又小，距离我们又远，我们怎么能从地球上靠肉眼就看到它呢？

Vesta's surface has a coating of pyroxine and olivine,two minerals that are actually also spewed up by volcanoes here on earth.

在灶神星的表面覆盖了厚厚的一层玄武岩和橄榄石，这两种矿物质都是由此处的火上喷发而出的。

They give it a whitishexterior that reflects well,

这两种矿物质使得灶神星的表面呈白色，且发光的效果相当好。

making it just possible to see Vesta with your eyes, even when the onlytwo larger asteroids, Ceres and Pallas, are completely invisible.

如此一来，我们便仅凭肉眼就可以看到灶神星了。甚至在比它还大的另外两个小行星—谷神星和智神星都无法看到的情况下，我们还是能看到它。

1 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

2 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。

3 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。

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 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》

6 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。