英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行：土星 Saturn—6

 Everyone is familiar with the rings of Saturn¹. But what would you highlight if it were you sending back the postcards?

 

Every tour itinerary² has one main attraction. With Saturn, you just can't miss the rings. As imaging team leader for Cassini, Carolyn Porco has had a ringside seat. 

 

A ring / consists of just countless³ particles. And they range from big boulders⁴, size of small apartment buildings, all the way down to the finest, finest dust particle and everything in between. And they are all orbiting like crazy around Saturn at 20,000 to 40,000 miles per hour but, it's like traffic along highway. Everybody can be going 90 miles an hour but relative to each other, they are going very slowly. If you could put a spacecraft there, you could manage to move at the same speed then the speed wouldn't be that dangerous at all. 

 

You can think of rush hour on a Friday night, you know, on the freeway that the B Ring has a lot of traffic and a lot of particles. Whereas you go to the E Ring, it's a little bit better. The C Ring is more like being out in the country. You are going to see ring particles too often. 

 

Possibly the remnants of a failed moon, the ring particles have been flattened⁵ by gravitational forces into a super thin disk, nearly 200,000 miles across. Edge to edge, that's almost the distance from the earth to the moon. 

 

I have effects imagining myself orbiting Saturn, hovering⁶ over the rings. It's hard not to. 

 

I could just imagine what it might be like to like hold a ring particle in my hand and see what it looks like. This is like a fluffy⁷ snow ball / if I start to pull it apart, what's it like on the inside? So, you can think of each of the rings, A, B, C, D, like different features. And so you want to collect samples from each of those rings.

1 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。

2 itinerary   

n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划

参考例句：

• The two sides have agreed on the itinerary of the visit.双方商定了访问日程。
• The next place on our itinerary was Silistra.我们行程的下一站是锡利斯特拉。

3 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

4 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

6 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

7 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。