英语听力：自然百科 穿越银河系的旅行 Through Milky Way—30

 We've transported the earth 3 billion years into the future. The sky is dominated by a massive galaxy¹ called Andromeda. The view looks peaceful enough. But what’s about to happen is one of the greatest calamities² in the universe. The clues lie in these mysterious Hubble images. They show a type of galaxy unlike any other. They appear distorted, deformed³. To understand what these mysterious objects represent, astronomers⁴ have turned to computers. 

 

What we do is we make / galaxies⁵ that look just like the Milky⁶ Way and similar galaxies. And we let them evolve in the computer, they develop this spiral structure, they look quite realistic. We then put them on a collision path. 

 

Freeze-frame these simulations and match them with real images and suddenly the picture becomes clear. We are looking at the greatest clashes in the cosmos⁷, galaxies in collision. 

 

 

Like cities, galaxies tend to cluster. Our Milky Way belongs to one called the local group, made of at least 50 galaxies. The largest in the pack is Andromeda, a spiral galaxy even bigger than ours. Today Andromeda lies 2.5 billion light years away, but astronomers like Abraham Loeb know that distance is closing. 

 

 

When I started working in astrophysics, I noticed that most of my colleagues are thinking about other galaxies interacting with each other, colliding with each other, and I was wondering why aren't they examining the future of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy as they will come together. 

 

1 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。

2 calamities   

n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事

参考例句：

• They will only triumph by persevering in their struggle against natural calamities. 他们只有坚持与自然灾害搏斗，才能取得胜利。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• One moment's false security can bring a century of calamities. 图一时之苟安，贻百年之大患。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 deformed   

adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的

参考例句：

• He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
• His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。

4 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》

5 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

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。

7 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？