新奇事件簿 人类联系上外星人或要等1500年

Scientists say it could take at least 1,500 years before humans make contact with species of aliens, or for them to communicate with or find us. Astronomers¹ from Cornell University in the USA combined two existing theories about the possibility of life existing on other planets to form a new equation. One of these theories is the Fermi Paradox² described by physicist³ Enrico Fermi in 1950. This states that while billions of Earth-like planets exist in our galaxy⁴, not one has made contact with Earth yet. The other is the mediocrity principle, which suggests that because there is life on Earth, it will typically exist on Earth-like planets throughout the universe.

据科学家表示，若想和外星人取得联系，或要让他们发现我们至少要等1500年。来自康内尔大学的天文学家将两个“外太空生命”原理结合在一起，形成了一个新的等式。原理之一是1950年物理学家恩里克·费米提出的费米悖论。费米悖论指出，银河系内存在着数十亿个类似地球的行星，但尚未有行星与人类取得联系。另一个是平庸原理，它指出因地球上存在生命，宇宙中其它类似行星也存在相关的自然过程。

Study author Evan Solomonides will soon present a research paper on his theory. He said: "We haven't heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place, but that doesn't mean no one is out there." According to Solomonides, extraterrestrials could have received signals from Earth. However, he proposes that ET would not have been able to decipher them. He said they would need to decode⁵ the light waves into sounds and analyse 3,000 human languages to understand any messages. He said that signals from Earth have only reached about 8,500 stars and that the Milky⁶ Way galaxy alone contains 200 billion stars. He added: "If we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals, so we should keep looking."

研究作家埃文·索洛莫尼德斯不久将发表研究报告。他认为：“我们尚未与外星人取得联系，宇宙之大无奇不有。”据索洛莫尼德斯表示，外星人很有可能收到过地球信号。但他认为目前外星人还无法破译。称外星人需要将光波破译成声音，通过分析3000种人类语言来了解信息。他认为地球信号所能遍及的范围约8500个恒星，但光银河系就有2000亿个行星。他补充道：“如果我们停止观测，我们就会错过外太空信号，我们要做的是继续观测。”

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 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

3 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。

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 decode   

vt.译（码），解（码）

参考例句：

• All he had to do was decode it and pass it over.他需要做的就是将它破译然后转给他人。
• The secret documents were intercepted and decoded.机密文件遭截获并被破译。

6 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。