国家地理:送给外星人的地图(2)

It was December 1971, and NASA was getting ready to launch Pioneer 10, a spacecraft that would sweep by Jupiter and make the first reconnaissance of the solar system's biggest planet. More stunningly¹, though, Pioneer 10's brush by Jupiter would sling² it onto an interstellar trajectory³, making it the first ever human-made object destined⁴ to leave the solar system.

那是在1971年12月，美国国家航空航天局正准备发射“先驱者10号”，这艘宇宙飞船将探索木星，对太阳系最大的行星进行首次侦察。但更让人吃惊的是，“先驱者10号”越过了木星，飞掠到了星际轨道上，这使它成为了第一个飞离太阳系的人造物体。

With a little help from his friends, the astronomer⁵ Carl Sagan decided⁶ that the craft ought to carry a greeting from humanity -- a message identifying and commemorating⁷ Pioneer's makers⁸ that would be interpretable by anyone who found it. NASA agreed and gave Carl less than a month to design the message.

在朋友们的帮助下，天文学家卡尔·萨根决定，该飞船应该携带一份来自人类的问候，即一份标识和纪念先驱号制造者的信息，让发现它的人都能翻译出来。NASA同意了，并给了卡尔不到一个月的时间来设计该信息。

This is when Carl's friend, the astronomer Frank Drake, enters the story. Frank is also my dad, and among other notable accomplishments⁹, he is credited with conducting the first scientific search for noisy aliens and with formalizing a framework for estimating the number of detectable¹⁰ alien civilizations in the Milky¹¹ Way galaxy¹².

这时，卡尔的朋友、天文学家弗兰克·德雷克参与了其中。弗兰克也是我的父亲，在他的诸多成就中，他被承认是对吵闹的外星人进行第一次科学研究，并形成了一个框架，来估算在银河系中可探测到的外星文明的数量。

1 stunningly   

ad.令人目瞪口呆地；惊人地

参考例句：

• The cooks, seamstresses and other small investors are stunningly vulnerable to reversals. 那些厨师、裁缝及其他的小投资者非常容易受到股市逆转的影响。
• The production cost of this huge passenger liner is stunningly high. 这艘船城造价之高令人惊叹。

2 sling   

vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓

参考例句：

• The boy discharged a stone from a sling.这个男孩用弹弓射石头。
• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。

3 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

4 destined   

adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的

参考例句：

• It was destined that they would marry.他们结婚是缘分。
• The shipment is destined for America.这批货物将运往美国。

5 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 commemorating   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements. 他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The post office issued a series commemorating famous American entertainers. 邮局发行了一个纪念美国著名演艺人员的系列邮票。 来自互联网

8 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 detectable   

adj.可发觉的；可查明的

参考例句：

• The noise is barely detectable by the human ear.人的耳朵几乎是察觉不到这种噪音的。
• The inflection point at this PH is barely detectable.在此PH值下，拐点不易发现。

11 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。

12 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。