英语听力：自然百科 已知的宇宙：外星生命 Alien_Contact-2

 Are we alone ?And it ties into all the big questions: how do we get here ? where are we going ?Are we a part of a bigger picture?

 

But for the longest time ,the question was  taboo to science .

 

Before the Mid-1990s ,it was considered somewhat embarassing to even address the question, because looking for alien life seems a little frighteningly close to science fiction .

 

For decades ,the farthest we got in looking for aliens was imagining them on the silver screen .(What is your name?) After all , alien life needs a hull¹, and we havn't even find a planet outside our own solar system .

 

Scientists in fact never talked about planets around other stars. There is no way to detect them. And so it was one of those domains² of science that you couldn't answer and therefore you didn't talk about it.

 

Then in 1995, astronomers³ discovered a planet orbiting a star 50 light-years from earth. And since then they found hundreds more .

 

For the first time, in human history ,we realized that our sun with its 8 major planets that go around it, is just one type of a planetary system ,one example of billlions.

 

These discoveries are exciting ,but don't expect to dial up ET on these planets anytime soon .

 

Well ,it's been a spectacular ride in the last decade to find these planets ,most of them are giant planets.

 

Most of the worlds we found are gas giants which probably couldn't support life .

 

You can't stand on pneumas ,no hard surface,they are large balls of hydrogen and helium gas like Jupiter and Saturn⁴ .

 

We have found a few rocky planets with hard surfaces ,but they are many times more massive than earth ,and contain the most hostile environments you could ever imagine. One such planet, CoRoT-7b,orbits so close to its star that / surface temperatures reach as high as 3000 degrees .Sunlights here does not bring the sound of birds' song ,instead it's an Armageddon of volcanic⁵ explosions .

1 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

2 domains   

n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产

参考例句：

• The theory of thermodynamics links the macroscopic and submicroscopic domains. 热力学把宏观世界同亚微观世界联系起来。 来自辞典例句
• All three flow domains are indicated by shading. 所有三个流动区域都是用阴影部分表示的。 来自辞典例句

3 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》

4 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。

5 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。