Alien Neighbors 寻访外星人 13

"Well, the way we look for planets is actually very easy. We can't see the planets orbiting other stars because the glare of the star is just simply too great. It wipes out the planets' light. But what we can do is look for the response of the star due to the gravitational pull by the orbiting planet. And so we watch to see if the stars wobble in space, and if they do wobble, we can infer the presence of the planet. "

The work involved in discovering new planets is a real grind.

"I wanted to give up several times. In fact, I've thought carefully about suicide even occasionally when things were so dismal¹, but the success now makes up for all of it."

"This is one that we previously² discovered. It's the Star 47 Ursa Majoris, and these data show the wobble of the star just within the last year, and this last point, we just got last night. And you can see it fits right in line with all the other points. So this is a confirmed planet around 47 Ursa Majoris."

"And it's a good thing it is confirmed. Because we've already announced it, we would have to kill ourselves." "Yes. "

Without their unique working relationship, Marcy and Butler doubt whether they would have achieved their current success.
(Oh, that is beautiful.)

"Well, my working relationship with Paul Butler is really quite special. He brings attributes to this project that I certainly couldn't have brought, and vice³ versa, I believe. And we have a sort of symbiosis⁴ going in which we work together, we each make up for each other's failures, and because of that we have an excellent sort of dovetailed working relationship."

"We have very different styles, and we complement⁵ each other very nicely. Jeff is very methodical, and he wants to absolutely understand every step and he forces me to go back and, and really work hard, and I just like to just dive forward, you know. If there's some problem, I just like to attack it twenty different ways until something works. So it's, it's a good collaboration⁶."

Marcy and Butler's double act goes on. They're constantly on the lookout⁷ for wobbles in the heavens, new planets that might upon closer inspection⁸, cradle life.

Most of the planets discovered to date are similar distances from their stars as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are from the sun, but they are much more massive. They are at least the size of Jupiter, some, much bigger. Gas giants with powerful gravity. However, unlike Jupiter, we haven't a clue what they look like. Detecting new planets is one thing, getting snapshots of them is quite another. In fact, some astronomers¹⁰ think that the new planets can't truly be verified until they are imaged. On earth, scientists are building giant mirrors to construct the super ground-based telescopes of the future.

Telescopes will lead the search for snapshots of distant planets. Most astronomers believe the best images of new planets will come not from earth but from the skies, from a new generation of space telescopes.

Astronomer⁹, and Hubble expert, Chris Burrows¹¹, "All of the new planets that people have found have been inferred indirectly¹². There've no, been no pictures of the new planet, but I'm very hopeful that in the next ten years, we are gonna get pictures of planets around other stars, direct pictures. And of course, with a picture, you can tell so much more."

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words and expressions

wobble:to (cause something to) shake or move from side to side in a way that shows a lack of balance摇晃, 摇摆, 游移不定, 抖动

grind:a difficult or boring activity which needs a lot of effort:苦差事；枯燥乏味的工作
eg:Having to type up my handwritten work was a real grind.

dismal:sad and without hope:阴沉的, 凄凉的, 暗的

makes up for :补偿

Ursa: [天]大熊星座, [天]小熊星座

vice versa:used to state that what you have just said is also true in the opposite order:反之亦然

symbiosis :a relationship between people or organizations that depend on each other equally合作(或互利,互依)关系

attack: to deal with something quickly and in an efficient way:开始处理（某事）
eg:She attacked the difficulties at once.她立即开始处理难题。

be on the lookout for sth/sb: to search for something or someone
eg: I'm always on the lookout for interesting new recipes.

to date :up to the present time:到此为止

1 dismal   

adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的

参考例句：

• That is a rather dismal melody.那是一支相当忧郁的歌曲。
• My prospects of returning to a suitable job are dismal.我重新找到一个合适的工作岗位的希望很渺茫。

2 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 symbiosis   

n.共生（关系），共栖

参考例句：

• They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing.他们与他们服务的政府互利共存。
• The symbiosis between social values and political structure has produced extraordinary achievement.社会价值观念和政治结构的共生现象带来了非凡的成就。

5 complement   

n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足

参考例句：

• The two suggestions complement each other.这两条建议相互补充。
• They oppose each other also complement each other.它们相辅相成。

6 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

7 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

8 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

9 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。

10 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》

11 burrows   

n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻

参考例句：

• The intertidal beach unit contains some organism burrows. 潮间海滩单元含有一些生物潜穴。 来自辞典例句
• A mole burrows its way through the ground. 鼹鼠会在地下钻洞前进。 来自辞典例句

12 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。