2015-01-09 科学新发现：重新发现冥王星-24

New horizon's chief scientist is H.

And where we are right now is a mission control for the new horizon's mission to Pluto¹, this is where we watch all the activities that are currently on the new horizon's mission, we have over here to the left the picture software prediction of exactly where the spacecraft is, where it's pointed², and we're following it on its path to Pluto.

In early 2007 new horizon passes Jupitor, using the planet's intense gravity to boost it toward Pluto, it took the opportunity to test its camera on Jupitor's largest satellite Io, the result was spectacular, this footage captured by new horizon's long range reconnaissance imager shows the actual eruption³ of a volcano on Io's surface.

We were just lucky and happen to catch it when one of the major volcanoes was active, has spectacular plumes⁴, debris⁵, volcanic⁶ debris was flying up for couple of hundred miles above the surface.

It's a stunning⁷ but short lived encounter, new horizon soon leaves Jupitor behind, travelling at over 8.5 miles a second, it's the fastest spacecraft ever launched, it's going so fast that after its nine-year journey, new horizon will only have a day and a half to see Pluto close up before disappearing deeper into the Kuiper belt.

And that's great for getting there early, but on the other hands, you know of course that means everything is really sped up as we fly by because unfortunately we can't just go to Pluto, put on the brakes and stop and hang around for a while, roughly three months out we are going to have resolution that's better than Hubble and it's just getting better and better and better as we get closer and closer, but for those last 24 hours when we have this really high space resolution where we can see football field sized features on the surface of Pluto, that'll happen very quickly, we'll just fly by and then * Pluto and on deeper into the Kuiper belt.

1 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

4 plumes   

羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物

参考例句：

• The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
• The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头，那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。

5 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

6 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• 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 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。