2006年VOA标准英语-US Space Capsule Returns Comet Dust for St

By David McAlary
Washington
15 January 2006
 

Tom Duxbury, Stardust Project Manager for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, answers questions during a news conference after the landing of the Stardust capsule  
  
A U.S. space capsule containing precious grains of star dust has landed intact in Utah, giving scientists the chance to study matter dating from the formation of our solar system.

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The landing ended a seven-year, 4.5 billion kilometer round trip journey halfway¹ to Jupiter, where the Stardust spacecraft captured material spewing from Comet Wild-2 as it melted during its approach toward the Sun.

Stardust released its cargo² Sunday, 110,000 kilometers above Earth. The capsule raced through the atmosphere faster than any spacecraft before. It came in at 45,000 kilometers per hour, before parachuting to a soft landing at a U.S. Army testing base in the Utah desert.

Stardust project manager Tom Duxbury says the entry and landing were flawless.

"This thing went like clockwork. It hit the atmosphere exactly on time," he said. "When we saw that drogue chute open, we knew we were home safe. So, then, the next thing was, of course, a little later, for our main chute opening, and this thing just gently lowered us to the surface of the Utah Test and Training Range."

A helicopter recovery team retrieved³ the capsule, and brought it to a nearby sterile⁴ room for safekeeping, before it is flown Tuesday to the U.S. space agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Stardust's encounter with the comet took place in 2004, well within the solar system, but mission scientists say it was as if the spacecraft had journeyed to the solar system's edge and back, to the time 4.5-billion years ago, when the sun and planets formed. That is because comet orbits extend far beyond Pluto⁵ and are believed to contain matter originally forged in stars that went into solar system construction.

"We're using this comet as a library that picked up records of the formation of our solar system, and has been storing them far from the Sun at very low temperatures for 4.5 billion years," added mission's principal investigator⁶, Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington. He says the dust grains brought back to Earth can shed light on how our solar system came to be.

"We're learning about the origin of our solar system, the origin of the Sun, the origin of the planets, and something about the origin of life," he added. "Virtually all of the atoms in our bodies and in our Earth were in stardust grains, before the solar system formed."

The Stardust capsule contains hundreds of thousands of grains of matter captured in a wispy⁷ glass filter, called aerogel. After the samples reach Houston Tuesday, the space agency will distribute them to scientists all over the world, who will analyze⁸ their composition.

1 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

2 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。

3 retrieved   

v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Yesterday I retrieved the bag I left in the train. 昨天我取回了遗留在火车上的包。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He reached over and retrieved his jacket from the back seat. 他伸手从后座上取回了自己的夹克。 来自辞典例句

4 sterile   

adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• This top fits over the bottle and keeps the teat sterile.这个盖子严实地盖在奶瓶上，保持奶嘴无菌。
• The farmers turned the sterile land into high fields.农民们把不毛之地变成了高产田。

5 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。

6 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。

7 wispy   

adj.模糊的；纤细的

参考例句：

• Grey wispy hair straggled down to her shoulders.稀疏的灰白头发披散在她肩头。
• The half moon is hidden behind some wispy clouds.半轮月亮躲在淡淡的云彩之后。

8 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。