纪录片《全球怪象》 第24期：太阳黑子

Hidden away in the dusty archives

隐藏在尘土飞扬的档案室中

were tantalising clues that would help Mike understand

是诱人的线索 能帮助迈克理解

what was happening to our nearest star.

离我们最近的恒星上究竟发生了什么

Because 300 years ago, men of science

因为三百年前的科学家

were carefully observing the face of the Sun.

仔细地观察过太阳表面

The records show

记录表明

that they were mystified by something they hadn't seen before.

他们对一些从未见过的情况感到困惑

The Sun's spots, which they had known about for years,

当时 人们知道太阳黑子已有多年

seemed to have unexpectedly vanished.

但它们出人意料地消失了

Initially¹, it was thought this was

最初 人们以为

because people weren't looking properly at that time.

那是因为当时观测不当导致的

Then as more and more observers' records were found,

之后越来越多的观测记录被发现

it became quite clear that wasn't the case,

表明观测没有问题

there just weren't spots there.

根本就没有太阳黑子

There were people who carried on looking for sun spots for 50 years,

有人继续寻找太阳黑子 观测了五十年

despite the fact they hardly ever appeared.

尽管它们基本没有出现过

Those records are invaluable² because

这些记录是无价的

they tell us about the state of the Sun just 300 years ago.

因为这告诉了我们三百年前太阳的状态

1 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

2 invaluable   

adj.无价的，非常宝贵的，极为贵重的

参考例句：

• A computer would have been invaluable for this job.一台计算机对这个工作的作用会是无法估计的。
• This information was invaluable to him.这个消息对他来说是非常宝贵的。