VOA慢速英语2020 科学家观察1000万颗恒星未发现生命迹象

Scientists have completed the largest search to date for signs of life outside of our solar system.

科学家完成了迄今为止在太阳系外搜寻生命迹象的最大规模的研究。

Using a radio telescope in Australia, scientists studied around 10.3 million stars. They did not find life - not yet, at least.

利用澳大利亚的电波望远镜，科学家们研究了大约1030万颗恒星。他们没有发现生命迹象，至少目前没有。

Researchers were looking for so-called "technosignatures" - communications signals that may come from alien beings.

研究人员正在寻找所谓的“技术签名”——可能来自外星人的通信信号。

Using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope in Western Australia, scientists searched for sound waves in the star system of Vela. The findings were published recently in Publications of the Astronomical¹ Society of Australia.

利用澳大利亚西部的默奇森宽场阵列（MWA）望远镜，科学家们在Vela星座周围搜寻声波。这一发现最近发表在《澳大利亚天文学会出版物》上。

Chenoa Tremblay is an astrophysicist with Australia's national science agency. Tremblay noted² that the findings were "not surprising."

希诺阿·特伦布雷（Chenoa Tremblay）是澳大利亚国家科学机构的天体物理学家。特伦布雷指出，研究结果“并不意外。

"The search for life outside of our solar system is a big challenge," Tremblay added. "We don't know when, how, where or what type of signal we may receive to get an indication that we are not alone in the galaxy³."

特伦布雷补充说，“在太阳系外寻找生命是一项巨大的挑战”。“我们不知道何时、何地、以何种方式或者接收到什么样的信号，来证明我们在银河系中并不是孤单的。”

The search was 100 times deeper and broader than ever before, noted astrophysicist Steven Tingay of Curtin University in Australia. Still, it involved few stars in the universe.

澳大利亚科廷大学的天体物理学家史蒂夫·廷加（Steven Tingay）指出，这次搜寻的深度和广度是以往的100倍。即便如此，研究涉及到宇宙中的恒星还是很少。

"Ten million stars does seem like a lot. However, our best evaluation⁴ is that there are around 100 billion stars (in the Milky⁵ Way galaxy). So we have only looked at about 0.001% of our galaxy," Tremblay said. "Pretend the oceans contained only 30 fish and we tried to look for them by testing an area the size of a backyard swimming pool. The chances of finding one of those fish would have been small."

特伦布雷说，“1000万颗恒星看起来确实很多。然而，我们最保险的评估是（在银河系）大约有1000亿颗恒星。所以说，我们只观察到银河系的0.001%。”“假设汪洋大海里只有30条鱼，我们搜寻的范围大概是后院游泳池大小的区域。所以找到这样一条鱼的概率很小。”

Another kind of telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), promises to help search for technosignatures soon.

另一种望远镜，平方公里阵列(SKA)有望很快帮助寻找“技术签名”。

"What is important is ... always going deeper and further," Tingay said. "There is always that chance that the next observation will be the one that turns up something, even if you expect nothing. Science can be surprising, so the important thing is to keep looking."

“重要的是……研究会越来越深入、广泛。”“即使你无所期待，但是下一个观察结果总是有可能出现一些结果的。科学是会令人惊讶的，所以重要的是继续寻找。”

Words in This Story

alien -- n. from somewhere other than the planet Earth

indication – n. something (such as a sign or signal) that points out or shows something

galaxy – n. astronomy any one of the very large groups of stars that make up the universe

evaluation – n. to judge the value or condition of (someone or something) in a careful and thoughtful way

1 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

2 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

3 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。

4 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

5 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。