VOA慢速英语--美国宇航局支持在其他行星上寻找智慧生命的新项目

NASA is supporting a new project to search the universe for signs of technology that may provide evidence of intelligent life.

The U.S. space agency has approved a financial award for researchers to look for evidence of progressive technology on other planets in the universe. Scientists call such evidence "technosignatures."

NASA describes technosignatures as "signs or signals, which if observed, would allow us to infer the existence of technological¹ life elsewhere in the universe."

The best-known technosignatures are radio signals that scientists have identified coming from outer space. But NASA notes, "there are many others that have not been explored fully²."

Improvements in space technology have led to the discovery of many new planets that researchers want to study.

Since 1995, scientists have discovered more than 4,000 exoplanets. These are planets that orbit a star outside the solar system. Some exoplanets have already been identified as having similarities to Earth that could possibly support life forms.

Scientists have long centered their research of other planets on "biosignatures." These are chemical or physical markers suggesting the presence of simple life forms elsewhere in the universe.

But in recent years there has been increased interest in studying technosignatures, including among NASA scientists.

The new NASA-supported study is a joint³ project involving researchers from the University of Rochester in New York, Harvard University and America's Smithsonian Institution.

A statement from the University of Rochester said it is the first NASA-backed project to explore non-radio technosignatures. The NASA award "represents an exciting new direction for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence," the statement said.

The research will attempt to seek answers to two main questions. Could there be technosignatures created by a civilization on another planet that can be seen from Earth? And, could these technosignatures be even easier to identify than biosignatures?

The researchers plan to begin their work by examining two possible technosignatures that might provide evidence of technological activity on other planets.

One thing they will search for is signs of solar panels. One of the project's leaders, University of Rochester professor Adam Frank, says some planets might be getting energy from a star, just as Earth gets energy from the sun. "Using solar energy would be a pretty natural thing for other civilizations to do," Frank said.

He said evidence of solar energy usage could be discovered by the presence of light waves that could be reflecting off solar panels. The researchers will attempt to identify where these waves might appear to help in the search for technosignatures.

The other thing the scientists will start looking for is evidence of pollutants⁴ in the atmosphere of other planets.

There has already been a lot of research aimed at finding biosignatures from chemicals identified in planetary atmospheres. This research, however, has centered on chemicals produced naturally by life, such as methane⁵ gas.

The new search for technosignatures will be aimed at finding evidence of artificial chemicals and gases that could be produced by widespread industrial activity by another civilization.

The researchers said their search for signs of possible intelligent life will also include evidence of city lights, very large structures and big collections of satellites.

Another project leader is Avi Loeb, an astronomy professor at Harvard. He said in a statement he hopes the new research will lead to new discoveries about "alien technological civilizations that are similar to or much more advanced than our own."

Loeb added that the general question the scientific team will seek to answer is: "Are we alone?" But he added, "Even if we are alone right now, were we alone in the past?"

I'm Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

infer – v. form an opinion or guess that something is true because of the information you have

civilization – n. a society with well-developed social organizations

panel – n. a piece of equipment that attaches to the surface of something

reflect – v. to send back or bounce off

artificial – adj. made by people, often as a copy of something natural

alien – n. relating to creature from another planet

advanced – adj. modern and well developed

1 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

4 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。