TED演讲:行星猎者的冒险(3)

66 million years ago, a much larger object hit the Earth, causing a massive extinction¹.

六百六十万年前，一个更大的物体撞击地球，造成了物种大灭绝。

75 percent of plant and animal species were lost, including, sadly, the dinosaurs².

当时地球上百分之七十五的动植物消失，包括不幸的恐龙。

That object was about 10 kilometers across, and 10 kilometers is roughly the cruising altitude of a 747 jet.

那个物体有十千米宽，而十千米是波音747的巡航高度。

So the next time you're in an airplane, snag a window seat,

所以下次当你坐飞机时，抢一个靠窗的座位，

look out and imagine a rock so enormous that resting on the ground, it just grazes your wingtip.

看着窗外想象一个如此巨大的石块躺在地上，它恰好擦过机翼。

It's so wide that it takes your plane one full minute to fly past it.

它大到飞机需要整整一分钟才能飞过它。

That's the size of the asteroid³ that hit the Earth.

这是曾经撞击地球的小行星的大小。

It has only been within my lifetime that asteroids⁴ have been considered a credible⁵ threat to our planet.

这是小行星在我有生以来唯一一次被视作我们星球的威胁。

And since then, there's been a focused effort underway to discover and catalog these objects.

从那以后，人们集中努力发现并分类这些物体。

I am lucky enough to be part of this effort. I'm part of a team of scientists that use NASA's NEOWISE telescope.

我很幸运成为这项工作的一员。我是使用NASA的NEOWISE望远镜科学家小组的成员。

Now, NEOWISE was not designed to find asteroids.

现在，NEOWISE并不是为了寻找小行星而设计的。

It was designed to orbit the earth and look far beyond our solar system

而是环绕地球运动并观测太阳系外的情形，

to seek out the coldest stars and the most luminous⁶ galaxies⁷.

寻找最冷的星球以及最亮的星系。

And it did that very well for its designed lifetime of seven months.

而且它在其七个月的预期寿命中非常好的完成了工作。

But today, six years later, it's still going. We've repurposed it to discover and study asteroids.

但是现在，六年过去了，它仍然在工作。我们重新改造让它开始寻找并研究小行星。

And although it's a wonderful little space robot, these days it's kind of like a used car.

虽然它是一个完美的太空机器人，但是现在它更像一辆用过的汽车。

The cryogen that used to refrigerate its sensors⁸ is long gone, so we joke that its air-conditioning is broken.

对其传感器进行降温的制冷剂长时间供应不足，所以我们开玩笑说它的制冷系统已经损坏。

It's got 920 million miles on the odometer,

它的里程表上显示已经运行了九亿两千万英里，

but it still runs great and reliably takes a photograph of the sky every 11 seconds.

但它的状态依旧良好并且稳定的在每十一秒拍摄一张天空的照片。

It's taken 23 photos since I began speaking to you.

从我开始和大家讲话到现在，它已经拍了23张照片了。

1 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

4 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

5 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

6 luminous   

adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的

参考例句：

• There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
• Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。

7 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。

8 sensors   

n.传感器，灵敏元件( sensor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were more than 2000 sensors here. 这里装有两千多个灵敏元件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Significant changes have been noted where sensors were exposed to trichloride. 当传感器暴露在三氯化物中时，有很大变化。 来自辞典例句