EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest

EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
By Paul Thompson

Broadcast: Wednesday, January 12, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

 
The Deep Impact mission will crash a probe into Comet Temple 1. (NASA)
And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we report about the discovery of a number of very young galaxies¹ in space. We tell about the American space agency's plan to launch a space vehicle designed to crash into a comet. And we have news from the planet Saturn². But we begin with a report about some important gifts brought to the crew of the International Space Station.

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VOICE ONE:

On December twenty-fifth, a Russian cargo³ rocket linked with the International Space Station. The cargo vehicle carried two and one-half tons of food, fuel, oxygen, water and other supplies. It also carried Christmas presents for the Space Station's American Commander Leroy Chiao and Russian Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov.

The Progress M-fifty-one cargo vehicle was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December twenty-third.

VOICE TWO:

 
The Progress Module⁴. (NASA)
The M-fifty-one cargo vehicle arrived just in time. American space agency officials had said the two crewmen on the Space Station had only enough food for two more weeks. They said the two would have had to return to Earth if the supply flight had not been a success.

Russian Soyuz crew vehicles and the Progress cargo ships have been the only links to the Space Station since the Space Shuttle Columbia's accident in February, two-thousand-three.

VOICE ONE:

American Space Agency officials hope to launch the Space Shuttle Discovery in May. NASA finished placing the three main engines in Discovery on December eighth. Discovery and its seven-person crew are to fly to the International Space Station. Discovery will carry cargo and science experiments to the station. It will also test new safety equipment and plans. The tests will include Space Shuttle inspection⁵ and repair methods.

NASA says the flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery is the first step in plans to finish the International Space Station. It will also be the first step in future exploration goals. These include returning to the Moon and human flights to the planet Mars.

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VOICE TWO:

 
An artist created this picture of the Huygens probe separation. (NASA)
On December twenty-fourth, the European Space Agency's Huygens exploration vehicle successfully separated from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Huygens began a three-week trip to the planet Saturn's moon, Titan.

The Huygens vehicle had been linked to the Cassini spacecraft during the almost seven-year trip to Saturn. Huygens will be the first human-made object to explore Titan. Titan has an unusual environment. Many scientists believe it may be very similar to that of the Earth before life formed. The Huygens exploration vehicle will provide information that will tell scientists if this is true.

VOICE ONE:

David Southwood is the director of science for the European Space Agency. Mister Southwood said the release of Huygens is the start of an exciting period of exploration. He thanked NASA for the Huygens's ride to Saturn. He said each spacecraft will now continue on its own. He added that Huygens will now attempt to provide the first information from a new world that scientists have dreamed of exploring for many years.

The Huygens exploration vehicle is to enter Titan's upper atmosphere on January fourteenth. Then it will begin to move down toward the surface.

Huygens will test and report about the atmosphere of Titan as it moves lower. It will send information to the Cassini spacecraft, which will then send it back to Earth. After Huygens reaches the surface of Titan, it will deploy⁶ radio equipment and communicate with Earth.

VOICE TWO:

Gathering⁷ information about Titan is one of the most important goals of the Cassini-Huygens flight. Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons and is larger than the planets Mercury or Pluto⁸. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with an important atmosphere.

Titan's thick atmosphere hides the surface. However, scientists have guessed that Titan's surface could have solid, liquid and muddy material. There could be lakes, seas, or rivers. But the extremely cold temperature of Titan would prevent the seas or rivers from having liquid water. Scientists say these rivers might be ice or made of some other chemicals. The Huygens exploration vehicle may soon answer some of these questions.

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VOICE ONE:

Plans call for NASA to launch its Deep Impact spacecraft January twelfth from the Cape⁹ Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The Deep Impact spacecraft will take six months to fly four hundred thirty-one million kilometers into space. It will then fly into the path of the comet Tempel-One. A comet is a relatively¹⁰ small frozen mass that travels around the Sun. Deep Impact will release a special science experiment that will crash into the comet. The experiment weighs three hundred seventy-two kilograms.

The great speed of the crash will create a huge hole in the comet. Huge amounts of material will be forced into space. Deep Impact will observe the event and collect information about the material from the comet. It will send information and pictures back to Earth.

VOICE TWO:

Deep Impact will not be the only instrument to observe this event. NASA's Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will be observing from near-Earth space. On Earth, people will also be able to see the event with the aid of a telescope. NASA officials say even a small telescope will permit a person to see material from the comet fly into space.

VOICE ONE:

Scientists believe the material inside the comet is very similar to material formed at the beginning of the solar system. Andy Dantzler is the director of the Solar System division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Mister Dantzler says understanding conditions that led to the formation of planets is one of NASA's exploration goals. He says Deep Impact will attempt to answer questions about the beginning of our solar system.

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VOICE TWO:

A galaxy¹¹ is a system of about one hundred thousand million stars. Our Sun is a member of the Milky¹² Way Galaxy. There are thousands of millions of galaxies in the observable universe. Exactly when and how galaxies formed in the Universe is a subject of current research.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescope has discovered what appear to be a number of very young galaxies.

Chris Martin is a scientist with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He is also the leading investigator¹³ for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer at the university. Mister Martin says scientists knew that huge young galaxies existed thousands of millions of years ago. But scientists thought they had all grown much older, like our own Milky Way galaxy. He says the universe may still be giving birth to new galaxies if these newly discovered galaxies are very young.

Mister Martin and other scientists in the project have discovered about thirty-six new galaxies using NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Scientists say the discovery means we can study young galaxies to see how they develop.

Tim Heckman is a scientist with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He says the discovery is like finding a living animal that scientists believed had been dead for thousands of years. Mister Heckman said now we can study the ancestors to galaxies much like ours. He says the newly discovered galaxies are between one hundred million and one thousand million years old. Our Milky Way Galaxy is about ten thousand million years old.

VOICE ONE:

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer is an orbiting space telescope. It observes galaxies in ultraviolet light. It has been used to see light that first started moving toward earth more than ten thousand million years ago.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer was launched in April of two thousand-three. Its main goal is to produce a map of galaxies. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer will also identify objects in far space for further study. It will also create huge amounts of information and photographs that will be given to scientists and the public. Scientists hope this will lead to new information about how our own Milky Way Galaxy was formed.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.

1 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。

2 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。

3 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

4 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

5 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

6 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

7 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

8 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

9 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

10 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

11 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。

12 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。

13 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。