【英语时差8,16】金星在黑暗中闪光

When the sun’s ultraviolet light hits Venus’ atmosphere, it breaks up large molecules¹ into fragments. As those atoms recombine later, some of their energy is released as light. If they recombine on Venus’ night side in large enough amounts, the glow can be detected. So far, scientists have found nitric oxide², oxygen, and hydroxyl radicals³ glowing at altitudes between 55 and 75 miles. So, if I had a big telescope and looked at Venus’ dark side, I’d be able to see it glowing? Well, no. The glow is in the infrared⁴, a part of the light spectrum⁵ human eyes can’t see. But we’re lucky that we have Venus Express, a European spacecraft with VIRTIS, out there watching. VIRTIS? That's a Visible and Infrared Thermal⁶ Imaging Spectrophotometer. It can see infrared. If we can't see it, what's the point? Scientists are using the data to learn about the temperature, the wind direction, and the composition of Venus’ atmosphere. But they don’t understand everything. Sometimes different molecules glow simultaneously⁷, other times separately. They haven’t figured out why the glows happen when they do.

1 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

2 oxide   

n.氧化物

参考例句：

• Oxide is usually seen in our daily life.在我们的日常生活中氧化物很常见。
• How can you get rid of this oxide coating?你们该怎样除去这些氧化皮？

3 radicals   

n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 )；根基；基本原理；[数学]根数

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals. 一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The worry is that the radicals will grow more intransigent. 现在人们担忧激进分子会变得更加不妥协。 来自辞典例句

4 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。

5 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

6 thermal   

adj.热的，由热造成的；保暖的

参考例句：

• They will build another thermal power station.他们要另外建一座热能发电站。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

7 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。