Alien Neighbors 寻访外星人 10

…cold conditions that earth has to offer. Professor Freeman believes these rugged¹ microorganisms are probably capable of surviving on Mars. Mars is certainly our best bet for finding life in the inner solar system. But the chances of life existing in the outer solar system have never been more promising² than at present. Jupiter, Saturn³, Uranus⁴ and Neptune⁵ are the gas planets of the outer solar system.

In Massachusetts at MIT, Heidi Hammel has investigated the unforgiving environments of the gas giants. She is not optimistic about finding life on the planets themselves.

"Even though those planets do get somewhat warm deep inside them, at the pressures and temperatures of the outermost⁶ clouds, they are just too cold ,they are too cold and it's too dark .There is just not enough sunlight there , there is no liquid water, and that's what we need to sustain life. So it's not likely."

Artists and science fiction writers may image that there are weird⁷ jellyfish floating around Jupiter, but it's most unlikely.

Freezing Pluto⁸ on the other hand is a world of rock and ice, not a ball of gas like the 4 giant planets. The outermost planet Pluto is certainly too cold and dark to be a serious candidate for finding life. There are nearly 60 moons in the outer solar system. Research so far shows that most of them are inhospitable to life as we know it, but there are 2 exceptions. One is Titan, Saturn's largest moon. In November 2004, the Hoygan's probe will parachute though the clouds of Titan. It could splash down in a bitterly cold ocean or a lake of liquid hydrocarbons or even on a solid surface. Titan is like a frozen early earth.It has many substances that were around on earth before life began. The Hoygans probe will explore whether Titan has the potential to spring to life.

"Well, the organic chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan is particularly interesting and may provide us some real interesting insights into the nature of prebiotic chemistry. It may have also produced life ,we just don't know.In the future, Titan could look like this. When our sun expands to 50 times its present size,5 billion years from now, Titan will receive as much energy as earth does today. For a short time it might well become a blue ocean world, where life thrives. In the meantime, Jupiter's rocky moon Europa is the most exciting candidate for finding life in the outer solar system. In 1996 the Galileo Space Craft returned the most exciting evidence yet, that Europa has oceans, oceans that could teem¹⁰ with life. Galileo's images revealed areas where ice fragments have broken and moved apart like pieces of a jigsaw¹¹ puzzle. The cracks suggest that the ice is shifting on a dynamic surface.

~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。~。

words in this passage

best bet:Your best bet is the action which is most likely to be successful.最好的办法
例句：If you want to get to the station before 10 o'clock, your best bet would be to take a taxi.

Uranus：the planet seventh in order of distance from the Sun, after Saturn and before Neptune天王星

hydrocarbon：a chemical combination of hydrogen and carbon, such as in oil or petrol烃, 碳氢化合物

jigsaw puzzle：a picture stuck onto wood or cardboard and cut into irregular pieces which must be joined together correctly to form the picture again七巧板, 智力拼图玩具

1 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

2 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

3 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。

4 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。

5 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。

6 outermost   

adj.最外面的，远离中心的

参考例句：

• He fired and hit the outermost ring of the target.他开枪射中了靶子的最外一环。
• The outermost electron is shielded from the nucleus.原子核对最外层电子的作用受到屏蔽。

7 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

8 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。

9 hydrocarbons   

n.碳氢化合物，烃( hydrocarbon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hydrocarbons (HC), like carbon monoxide, represent unburned and wasted fuel. 碳氢化合物(HC)像一氧化碳一样，为未燃尽的和被浪费掉的燃料。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• With this restricted frequency range it is not applicable to hydrocarbons. 这个较紧缩的频率范围不适用于烃类。 来自辞典例句

10 teem   

vi.(with)充满，多产

参考例句：

• Good ideas teem in her head.她的头脑里好主意极多。
• Fish teem in the Chinese waters.中国近海鱼产丰富。

11 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。