时差N小时 航天飞机为什么发光?

During the space shuttle's third flight, back in nineteen eighty two, astronauts Jack¹ Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton saw something remarkable². Above the tail of the shuttle, where there should have been empty space, they saw a faint orange glow instead, flickering³ with ghostly light. Was the space shuttle haunted? What was going on?

时光倒转回1982年，在宇航员杰克·洛思马和查尔斯·戈尔登·福勒顿进行第三次航天飞行时，他们看到了惊奇的一幕。在飞机尾部原应是空白的地方，出现了微弱的橙色辉光，诡异地扑闪着。难道航天飞机上也闹鬼？这到底是怎么回事？

To understand this phenomenon, known as "shuttle glow," you should know something about the region of space where the shuttle orbits. NASA shuttles stay in low Earth orbit, which is generally about a hundred and seventy miles above the Earth's surface. At that height, the atmosphere has tapered⁴ away to almost nothing--less than a billionth of the pressure it is at ground level--but there are still gasses there. Indeed, low Earth orbit is well within the ionosphere, a major part of our atmosphere.

为了弄清楚“航天飞机辉光”这一现象，有一点你应该注意到，那就是航天飞机飞行轨道所在的区域。美航局的飞机飞行时，一般保持在近地轨道上，即距离地表一百七十英里的地方。在这样的高度，大气程锥形逐渐减少——大气压力比地表的十亿分之一还小——但这里仍然有空气存在。实际上，近地轨道基本被电离层覆盖。而电离层是大气的重要组成部分。

The thin gasses of the ionosphere rush past the space shuttle at about five miles per second, forming a very fast, very thin wind. This wind is so thin you'd never be able to feel it, even if you stuck your head out the space shuttle window the way a dog sticks it's head out a moving car. The wind causes two things to happen.

飞机以每秒5英里的速度驶过之后，电离层稀薄的空气就会形成一股快速流动的细风。人类无法感觉到这种细风，即使你将头伸到飞机窗外（像狗一样将头伸出飞速行驶的汽车）也感觉不到。这种细风会引起两件事情。

First, it erodes⁵ the surfaces of some materials.The erosion is slight, but it can be significant for camera lenses or other sensitive equipment. Second, the shuttle's surface can scoop⁶ up atoms from this wind, and these atoms can undergo chemical reactions. One reaction, involving nitrogen and oxygen, can produce a luminous⁷ orange glow. And that's what the astronauts saw. It wasn't a ghost--it was shuttle glow.

第一，它会侵蚀一些材料的表面。这种轻微的侵蚀用照相机或者其它敏感的设备看很明显。第二，航天飞机的表面会从细风中捕获原子，并且这些原子能发生化学反应。有一种氮和氧的反应就能产生明亮的橙色辉光。这就是宇航员所看到的光。它不是鬼火，而是辉光。

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

3 flickering   

adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的

参考例句：

• The crisp autumn wind is flickering away. 清爽的秋风正在吹拂。
• The lights keep flickering. 灯光忽明忽暗。

4 tapered   

adj. 锥形的，尖削的，楔形的，渐缩的，斜的 动词taper的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The tail tapered to a rounded tip. 尾部越来越细，最后成了个圆尖。
• The organization tapered off in about half a year. 那个组织大约半年内就逐渐消失了。

5 erodes   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的第三人称单数 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The sea erodes the rock. 海水侵蚀岩石。
• The sea erodes the land. 海洋侵蚀陆地。

6 scoop   

n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出

参考例句：

• In the morning he must get his boy to scoop it out.早上一定得叫佣人把它剜出来。
• Uh,one scoop of coffee and one scoop of chocolate for me.我要一勺咖啡的和一勺巧克力的。

7 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。