返回首页

SaraSeager_2015-_寻找太阳系外的行星_
I'm here to tell you about the real search for alien life. 我想告诉你们一些针对外星生命所展开的真实的探索行动。
Not little green humanoids arriving in shiny UFOs, although that would be nice. 不过不是那些通过UFO抵达这里的绿色小人儿, 当然这样很不错。
humanoids:adj.像人的;n.类人动物(humanoid的复数) shiny:adj.闪亮的;光亮的;反光的;有光泽的;
But it's the search for planets orbiting stars far away. 不过是关于寻找外太空围绕恒星运行的行星。
orbiting:v.[航][天]轨道运行;轨道运动;转圈(orbit的ing形式);
Every star in our sky is a sun. 我们天空中的每一颗恒星都是太阳。
And if our sun has planets -- 如果说太阳有围绕它的行星——
Mercury , Venus , Earth, Mars , etc., surely those other stars should have planets also, and they do. 水星,金星,地球,火星,等等, 当然其他的恒星周围也应该有行星, 而且它们的确有。
Mercury:n.[化]汞,水银;[天]水星;温度表;精神,元气; Venus:n.[天]金星;维纳斯(爱与美的女神); Mars:n.火星
And in the last two decades, astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets . 在过去的20多年中, 天文学家已经找到了数千个系外行星。
astronomers:天文学家; exoplanets:外星行星;
Our night sky is literally teeming with exoplanets. 我们的夜空的确遍布着系外行星。
literally:adv.按字面:字面上:确实地: teeming:adj.多产的,丰富的;热闹的;v.充满(teem的现在分词);
We know, statistically speaking, that every star has at least one planet. 从统计学的角度来说,我们知道 每一个恒星都拥有至少一颗行星。
statistically:adv.统计地;统计学上;
And in the search for planets, and in the future, planets that might be like Earth, we're able to help address some of the most amazing and mysterious questions that have faced humankind for centuries. 在搜索行星的过程中, 在未来搜索像地球这样的行星, 可以帮助我们回答 一些最不可思议又充满神秘的问题, 这些问题已经困扰了全人类几个世纪。
mysterious:adj.神秘的;不可思议的;难解的; humankind:n.人类(总称);
Why are we here? 我们为什么会存在？
Why does our universe exist? 为什么我们的宇宙会存在？
How did Earth form and evolve ? 地球是如何形成和演化的？
evolve:v.(使)逐渐形成;进化;进化形成;
How and why did life originate and populate our planet? 生命如何以及为什么会诞生并在这个星球上繁衍？
originate:vt.引起;创作;vi.发源;发生;起航; populate:vt.居住于;构成人口;移民于;殖民于;
The second question that we often think about is: 我们经常思考的第二个问题是:
Are we alone? 我们是唯一存在的生命吗？
Is there life out there? 外太空中还有其他生命吗？
Who is out there? 其他生命是什么样子呢？
You know, this question has been around for thousands of years, since at least the time of the Greek philosophers . 这个问题已经存在了几千年, 至少在古希腊哲学家的时代就已经存在了。
philosophers:n.哲学家(philosopher的复数);
But I'm here to tell you just how close we're getting to finding out the answer to this question. 但是我今天想要告诉你们,我们已经 非常接近这个问题的答案了。
It's the first time in human history that this really is within reach for us. 这是人类历史上第一次对这个答案触手可及。
Now when I think about the possibilities for life out there, 当我想到外太空存在生命的可能性,
I think of the fact that our sun is but one of many stars. 我就想到了我们的太阳只是若干恒星中的一颗。
This is a photograph of a real galaxy , we think our Milky Way looks like this galaxy. 这是一个真实的星系的照片, 我们认为我们的银河系差不多就是这一个样子。
galaxy:n.银河;[天]星系;银河系;一群显赫的人; Milky Way:na.[天]银河;
It's a collection of bound stars. 其中聚集了很多彼此紧密联系的恒星。
bound:n.跳跃:v.跳跃着跑:形成…的边界(或界限)adj.一定会:很可能会:
But our [sun] is one of hundreds of billions of stars and our galaxy is one of upwards of hundreds of billions of galaxies . 但我们的（太阳）只是千亿颗恒星中的一颗, 我们的银河系也是千亿个星系中的一个。
upwards:adv.向上;在上部;向上游; galaxies:n.银河; (galaxy的复数)
Knowing that small planets are very common, you can just do the math . 小行星更是不计其数, 可以做一下粗略的计算。
do the math:盘算一下;
And there are just so many stars and so many planets out there, that surely, there must be life somewhere out there. 宇宙中的星球真的是太多太多了, 一定还会有其他生命存在。
Well, the biologists get furious with me for saying that, because we have absolutely no evidence for life beyond Earth yet. 不过生物学家们极其不赞同这种说法, 因为我们毕竟还没有任何相关的证据。
biologists:n.生物学家(biologist的复数); furious:adj.激烈的;狂怒的;热烈兴奋的;喧闹的; absolutely:adv.绝对地;完全地; evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明;
Well, if we were able to look at our galaxy from the outside and zoom in to where our sun is, we see a real map of the stars. 假设能够从外太空观测我们所在的星系, 并聚焦到太阳, 我们就会看到一幅恒星的分布图。
And the highlighted stars are those with known exoplanets. 那些被突出标注的恒星都有已知的系外行星。
highlighted:adj.突出的;v.使显著;照亮(highlight的过去分词);
This is really just the tip of the iceberg . 这张图展现的仅仅是冰山一角而已。
tip of the iceberg:冰山一角;事物的表面部分;
Here, this animation is zooming in onto our solar system . 这个动画突出展示了我们的太阳系。
animation:n.活泼,生气;激励;卡通片绘制; solar system:[天]太阳系;
And you'll see here the planets as well as some spacecraft that are also orbiting our sun. 你们可以看到一些行星和宇宙飞船, 它们都在围绕着我们的太阳运行。
as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且; spacecraft:n.[宇]宇宙飞船;航天器;
Now if we can imagine going to the West Coast of North America , and looking out at the night sky, here's what we'd see on a spring night. 假设我们在北美洲的西海岸 仰望夜空, 这就是我们在一个春季的夜晚能够看到的景象。
West Coast:n.美国西海岸(尤指加利福尼亚州); North America:n.北美洲;
And you can see the constellations overlaid and again, so many stars with planets. 你们可以看到星座的交替, 还有很多带有行星的恒星。
constellations:n.[天]星座(constellation的复数); overlaid:v.覆盖(overlay的过去分词);
There's a special patch of the sky where we have thousands of planets. 天空里有一个区域密布着数千颗行星。
patch:n.补丁;小片;眼罩;色斑;v.修补;打补丁;缝补;
This is where the Kepler Space Telescope focused for many years. 开普勒太空望远镜在这里聚焦了很多年。
Kepler:na.Kepler; Telescope:n.望远镜;v.(使)叠套缩短;精简;
Let's zoom in and look at one of the favorite exoplanets. 我们再继续放大,看一下其中一个比较有名的系外行星。
This star is called Kepler-186f. 这颗行星叫开普勒-186f。
It's a system of about five planets. 这个系统中有大约5个行星。
And by the way , most of these exoplanets, we don't know too much about. 这里要提一下,这其中大多数的系外行星我们都不太了解。
by the way:顺便说一下;
We know their size, and their orbit and things like that. 我们只知道它们的大小,轨道之类的信息。
But there's a very special planet here called Kepler-186f. 不过开普勒-186f非常特殊。
This planet is in a zone that is not too far from the star, so that the temperature may be just right for life. 它处在一个距离恒星并不太远的区域内, 这就意味着那里的温度可能非常适宜物种生存。
Here, the artist's conception is just zooming in and showing you what that planet might be like. 这里我们强化了艺术效果, 想要给大家展示一下这个行星可能的形貌。
conception:n.怀孕;概念;设想;开始;
So, many people have this romantic notion of astronomers going to the telescope on a lonely mountaintop and looking at the spectacular night sky through a big telescope. 或许很多人都会带着一种浪漫的想象, 觉得天文学家们都是在孤寂的山顶, 通过巨大的望远镜来观察绚丽多彩的夜空的。
romantic:adj.浪漫的;爱情的;n.浪漫的人;耽于幻想的人; notion:n.观念;信念;理解; mountaintop:n.山顶; spectacular:adj.壮观的;壮丽的;令人惊叹的;n.壮观的场面;精彩的表演;
But actually, we just work on our computers like everyone else, and we get our data by email or downloading from a database. 不过事实上,我们只是在计算机上操作,跟其他人没什么两样, 我们通过邮件或者数据库下载数据。
So instead of coming here to tell you about the somewhat tedious nature of the data and data analysis and the complex computer models we make, 所以,与其说我是来告诉大家 数据本身和数据分析有多么枯燥, 我们的计算机模型有多么复杂,
somewhat:n.几分;某物;adv.有点;多少;几分;稍微; tedious:adj.沉闷的;冗长乏味的; analysis:n.分析;分解;验定; complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施;
I have a different way to try to explain to you some of the things that we're thinking about exoplanets. 不如说我想以一种不同的方式给大家展示 我们对系外行星的一些看法和思考。
Here's a travel poster : "Kepler-186f: 这里有一张旅行海报: 开普勒-186f:
poster:n.海报;巨幅装饰画;发布消息的人;
Where the grass is always redder on the other side ." 一边的草总是比另一边更红。“
on the other side:另一面;在另一边;
That's because Kepler-186f orbits a red star, and we're just speculating that perhaps the plants there, if there is vegetation that does photosynthesis , it has different pigments and looks red. 这是因为开普勒-186f围绕着一颗红色的恒星运行, 我们只是猜测那上面的植物, 假设有可以进行光合作用的植物, 那些植物就会含有不同的色素,让它们看起来是红色。
orbits:n.[天][航]轨道(orbit的复数); v.环绕…的轨道运行; speculating:v.推测;猜测;推断;投机;(speculate的现在分词) vegetation:n.植被;植物,草木;呆板单调的生活; photosynthesis:n.光合作用; pigments:n.[颜料]颜料,染料;[物][生化]色素(pigment的复数形式);
'"Enjoy the gravity on HD 40307g, a Super-Earth." ”享受HD 40307g上面的重力吧, 这里是超级地球。“
This planet is more massive than Earth and has a higher surface gravity. 这颗行星比地球的质量要大, 拥有更大的表面重力。
massive:adj.大量的;巨大的,厚重的;魁伟的;
'" Relax on Kepler-16b, where your shadow always has company." ”来开普勒-16b上放松一下吧, 你的影子永远不会孤单。“
Relax:v.放松,休息;松懈,松弛;变从容;休养;
(Laughter) （笑声）
We know of a dozen planets that orbit two stars, and there's likely many more out there. 据我们所知,有数十个行星都是围绕着两颗恒星运行, 估计还会有更多。
If we could visit one of those planets, you literally would see two sunsets and have two shadows. 如果我们可以探访其中一颗行星, 你确实可以看到两次日落, 并同时形成两个影子。
sunsets:n.落日(sunset的复数);
So actually, science fiction got some things right. 事实上,科幻小说中的一些描述是正确的。
science fiction:科幻小说;
Tatooine from Star Wars. 比如《星球大战》中的塔图因。
Tatooine:n.塔图因(《星球大战》中天行者家族的故乡行星);
And I have a couple of other favorite exoplanets to tell you about. 还有一些其他的系外星球, 我也想给大家介绍一下。
This one is Kepler-10b, it's a hot, hot planet. 这个叫做开普勒-10b, 它的温度极高。
It orbits over 50 times closer to its star than our Earth does to our sun. 它的运行轨道距离其围绕的恒星 只有地球和太阳距离的五十分之一。
And actually, it's so hot, we can't visit any of these planets, but if we could, we would melt long before we got there. 正是因为它的温度太高, 我们无法探访任何这样的行星,即便我们试图接近它, 在到达那里之前也早就熔化了。
melt:v.融化;(使)软化;
We think the surface is hot enough to melt rock and has liquid lava lakes. 我们认为它的地表温度足够熔化岩石, 能够形成液态的岩浆湖。
lava:n.火山岩浆;火山所喷出的熔岩;
Gliese 1214b. 格利泽1214b。
This planet, we know the mass and the size and it has a fairly low density . 我们已经知道了这颗行星的质量和体积, 它的密度比较低。
fairly:adv.相当地;公平地;简直; density:n.密度;
It's somewhat warm. 温度也不算太高。
We actually don't know really anything about this planet, but one possibility is that it's a water world, like a scaled-up version of one of Jupiter's icy moons that might be 50 percent water by mass. 但我们对它的了解也仅限于此, 不过它上面可能有水存在, 有点像木星的一颗放大版的遍布冰雪的卫星, 其水含量可能占据了质量的50%。
scaled-up:adj.比例增大的;
And in this case, it would have a thick steam atmosphere overlaying an ocean, not of liquid water, but of an exotic form of water, a superfluid -- not quite a gas, not quite a liquid. 在这种情况下,它就有可能覆盖了一层很厚的蒸汽大气层, 就在海洋的上空, 不过海里不是液态水, 而是一种奇特状态的水,一种超流体—— 不算是气体,也不算是液体。
atmosphere:n.大气;气氛;气压;风格; overlaying:n.堆焊;重叠布雷;[计]重复占位;v.覆盖(overlay的现在分词);使有负担,压倒; exotic:adj.异国的;外来的;异国情调的; superfluid:n.超流体;adj.超流体性的;
And under that wouldn't be rock, but a form of high-pressure ice, like ice IX. 其下遍布的也不是岩石, 而是一种高压状态的冰, 类似于冰IX（冰九,拥有某种晶体结构的冰。——译注）。
high-pressure:adj.高压的;高气压的;强行的;v.对…施加压力;强制;
So out of all these planets out there, and the variety is just simply astonishing , we mostly want to find the planets that are Goldilocks planets, we call them. 除了这些多样性已经让我们感到 惊讶的行星以外, 我们最想找到的是我们称作”古迪洛克行星“的星球。
variety:n.多样;种类;杂耍;变化,多样化; astonishing:adj.令人十分惊讶的;v.使十分惊讶;使吃惊;(astonish的现在分词) Goldilocks:n.金发姑娘,金凤花;
Not too big, not too small, not too hot, not too cold -- but just right for life. 体积不大不小, 温度不高不低—— 刚刚好适宜物种生存。
But to do that, we'd have to be able to look at the planet's atmosphere, because the atmosphere acts like a blanket trapping heat -- the greenhouse effect . 不过要做到这一点,我们需要能够检测到 这个行星的大气层, 因为大气层就像一块保温毯—— 具有温室效应。
trapping:v.使陷入困境;卡住;夹住;收集;吸收;(trap的现在分词) greenhouse effect:n.温室效应;
We have to be able to assess the greenhouse gases on other planets. 我们需要监测到其他行星上的 温室气体。
assess:vt.评定;估价;对…征税;
Well, science fiction got some things wrong. 从这一点来说,科幻小说就显得不那么真实了。
The Star Trek Enterprise had to travel vast distances at incredible speeds to orbit other planets so that First Officer Spock could analyze the atmosphere to see if the planet was habitable or if there were lifeforms there. 《进取号》（剧情设定在《星际旅行》的宇宙中） 需要以极高速度旅行很长的距离 到达其它行星并环绕飞行, 这样史波克大副才能分析大气层的成分, 从而判断该行星是否适宜居住, 或者那上面是否有生命存活。
Trek:v.长途跋涉;远足,徒步旅行;n.长途跋涉(尤指在山区); incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; First Officer:na."firstmate"的变体; analyze:v.对…进行分析,分解(等于analyse); habitable:adj.可居住的;适于居住的;
Well, we don't need to travel at warp speeds to see other planet atmospheres , although I don't want to dissuade any budding engineers from figuring out how to do that. 不过我们并不需要以极限高速行驶 来获取其他行星上的大气数据, 当然我并不想打击那些跃跃欲试想要实现这项工作的 工程师们的积极性。
warp:v.弯曲;(使)扭曲,变形;使乖戾;n.(织布机上的)经线,经纱 atmospheres:n.[心理]气氛(atmosphere的复数形式); v.使有…的氛围(atmosphere的单三形式); dissuade:vt.劝阻,劝止; budding:adj.开始发展的;崭露头角的;n.发芽;v.发芽;(bud的现在分词)
We actually can and do study planet atmospheres from here, from Earth orbit. 我们其实可以直接在地球的轨道范围内 研究那些大气层。
This is a picture, a photograph of the Hubble Space Telescope taken by the shuttle Atlantis as it was departing after the last human space flight to Hubble. 这是一张由亚特兰蒂斯航天飞机拍摄的 哈勃太空望远镜的照片, 这架航天飞机出发时,最后一次前往哈勃的载人太空飞行已经完成。
shuttle:n.穿梭班机、公共汽车;梭;梭子;v.频繁往来;往返运送 departing:v.离开;离去;起程;出发;离职;(depart的现在分词)
They installed a new camera, actually, that we use for exoplanet atmospheres. 他们在飞机上安装了一个新的照相机, 可以采集系外行星的大气数据。
installed:v.安装;设置;使就职(install的过去分词和过去式)
And so far, we've been able to study dozens of exoplanet atmospheres, about six of them in great detail. 目前,我们已经能够研究数十个系外行星的大气层, 其中有6个我们可以得到非常详细的数据。
But those are not small planets like Earth. 不过那些都不是像地球这样的小行星。
They're big, hot planets that are easy to see. 它们非常庞大,温度很高,很容易观测到。
We're not ready, we don't have the right technology yet to study small exoplanets. 我们还没准备好, 还不具备研究小型系外星球的技术。
technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
But nevertheless , 不过尽管如此,
nevertheless:adv.然而,不过;虽然如此;conj.然而,不过;
I wanted to try to explain to you how we study exoplanet atmospheres. 我还是想跟大家解释一下我们是如何研究系外行星大气的。
I want you to imagine, for a moment, a rainbow . 大家可以想象一下彩虹。
rainbow:n.彩虹
And if we could look at this rainbow closely, we would see that some dark lines are missing. 如果我们可以近距离观察彩虹, 就能发现一些暗色的线缺失了。
And here's our sun, the white light of our sun split up, not by raindrops , but by a spectrograph . 这是我们的太阳, 白色的光被分解了, 不是被雨滴,而是被光谱仪分解了。
white light:n.白光; split:v.分离;使分离;劈开;离开;分解;n.劈开;裂缝;adj.劈开的; raindrops:n.[气象]雨滴;雨点(raindrop的复数); spectrograph:n.光谱仪;摄谱仪;
And you can see all these dark, vertical lines. 我们可以看到所有这些暗色的竖线。
vertical:n.垂直线;垂直位置;adj.竖的;垂直的;直立的;纵向的;
Some are very narrow , some are wide, some are shaded at the edges. 有的很窄,有的很宽, 有的边缘很模糊。
narrow:adj.狭窄的; v.使窄小; n.峡谷; (场所,物品等的)狭窄部分; shaded:adj.荫蔽的;色彩较暗的;v.遮蔽住;使阴暗(shade的过去分词);
And this is actually how astronomers have studied objects in the heavens, literally, for over a century. 这实际上就是过去的一个多世纪以来, 宇航员们研究太空物质的方式。
So here, each different atom and molecule has a special set of lines, a fingerprint , if you will. 在这张图中,每种原子和分子 都有一组特殊的谱线, 你们可以把它当做一种指纹信息。
atom:n.原子; molecule:n.[化学]分子;微小颗粒,微粒; fingerprint:n.指纹;手印;vt.采指纹;
And that's how we study exoplanet atmospheres. 我们就是利用这些信息研究系外行星的大气成分的。
And I'll just never forget when I started working on exoplanet atmospheres 20 years ago, how many people told me, "This will never happen. 我永远也忘不了在20年前 刚刚开始研究系外行星大气的时候, 多少人告诉我, ”这根本行不通。
We'll never be able to study them. Why are you bothering ?" 我们永远也不可能做到。干嘛白费功夫呢？“
bothering:v.使某人烦恼或担忧;打扰;(bother的现在分词)
And that's why I'm pleased to tell you about all the atmospheres studied now, and this is really a field of its own. 这也是为什么我很高兴的告诉你们目前所有的关于大气的研究, 已经完全自成体系了。
So when it comes to other planets, other Earths, in the future when we can observe them, what kind of gases would we be looking for? 那么对于那些在将来我们可以观测到的 其他行星,那些类地行星, 我们需要寻找哪些气体呢？
observe:v.观察;看到;庆祝;监视;
Well, you know, our own Earth has oxygen in the atmosphere to 20 percent by volume . 大家都知道,我们地球上的大气 含有20%体积的氧气。
volume:n.体积;容积;音量;响度;一册;合订本
That's a lot of oxygen. 这个含量是很高的。
But without plants and photosynthetic life, there would be no oxygen, virtually no oxygen in our atmosphere. 不过没有植物和其它光合生物, 大气中就不会有氧气, 事实上连一丁点儿都不会有。
photosynthetic:adj.[生化]光合的;光合作用的; virtually:adv.事实上,几乎;实质上;
So oxygen is here because of life. 所以氧气的出现是因为生命的存在。
And our goal then is to look for gases in other planet atmospheres, gases that don't belong, that we might be able to attribute to life. 所以我们的目标就是要找到其他行星的大气中 原本并不应该存在的气体, 或许可以归功于生命的存在。
attribute:n.属性;象征;v.把…归因于;认为…属于;认为某人(某物)具有某种特性;
But which molecules should we search for? 那么哪些分子是我们需要寻找的呢？
molecules:n.[化学]分子,微粒;[化学]摩尔(molecule的复数);
I actually told you how diverse exoplanets are. 我已经告诉过你们系外行星的种类有多么繁杂了。
diverse:adj.不同的;多种多样的;变化多的;
We expect that to continue in the future when we find other Earths. 在我们寻找类地行星的过程中, 一定还会有更多种类的外行星出现。
And that's one of the main things I'm working on now, 这就是我目前正在从事的主要工作之一,
I have a theory about this. 对此我有一番自己的理论。
It reminds me that nearly every day, 这倒是提醒我了,几乎每天
reminds:v.提醒;使想起;(remind的第三人称单数)
I receive an email or emails from someone with a crazy theory about physics of gravity or cosmology or some such. 我都会收到一封或者很多封电子邮件, 发件人都对重力或者宇宙物理学 提出了自己疯狂的理论。
cosmology:n.[天]宇宙论,[天]宇宙学;
So, please don't email me one of your crazy theories. 不过,在此还是想提醒大家,请不要再给我发这种邮件了。
(Laughter) （笑声）
Well, I had my own crazy theory. 我有一套自己的疯狂理论。
But, who does the MIT professor go to? 那么麻省理工的教授要跟谁探讨呢？
Well, I emailed a Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine and he said, "Sure, come and talk to me." 我曾经给一名诺贝尔生理学或医学的获奖者发过邮件, 他说,”听上去还不错,过来我们讨论一下吧。“
Laureate:adj.戴桂冠的;荣誉的;n.桂冠诗人;得奖者;vt.使戴桂冠; Physiology:n.生理学;生理机能;
So I brought my two biochemistry friends and we went to talk to him about our crazy theory. 于是我就带上了两个生物化学领域的朋友, 跟他介绍了一下我们的疯狂理论。
biochemistry:n.生物化学;生物化学过程;
And that theory was that life produces all small molecules, so many molecules. 那个理论就是,生命制造了所有的小分子, 不计其数的小分子。
Like, everything I could think of, but not being a chemist. 几乎是作为一个非化学领域专家,我能想到的所有分子。
Think about it: carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , molecular hydrogen , molecular nitrogen , methane , methyl chloride -- so many gases. 比方说: 二氧化碳,一氧化碳, 氢分子,氮分子, 甲烷,氯甲烷—— 太多太多了。
carbon dioxide:二氧化碳; carbon monoxide:n.一氧化碳; molecular:adj.[化学]分子的;由分子组成的; hydrogen:n.氢;氢气; nitrogen:n.氮;氮气; methane:n.[有化]甲烷;[能源]沼气; methyl:n.[有化]甲基;木精; chloride:n.氯化物;
They also exist for other reasons, but just life even produces ozone . 它们之所以存在也有很多其他的原因, 不过单单是生命,甚至就可以产生臭氧。
ozone:n.[化学]臭氧;新鲜的空气;
So we go to talk to him about this, and immediately, he shot down the theory. 于是我们去跟他讨论了这套观点, 结果很快就被他否决了。
He found an example that didn't exist. 他找到了一个并不存在的气体的例子。
So, we went back to the drawing board and we think we have found something very interesting in another field. 于是我们只好回去继续推导, 我们认为我们已经找到了一些在其他领域中很有意思的东西。
back to the drawing board:重新开始;失败后另起炉灶;重来一次;
But back to exoplanets, the point is that life produces so many different types of gases, literally thousands of gases. 回到系外行星这个话题, 重点是生命制造了这么多种气体, 差不多几千种。
And so what we're doing now is just trying to figure out on which types of exoplanets, which gases could be attributed to life. 我们现在的任务就是试图找出 哪些种类的系外行星上的哪些气体 可能是由生命制造出来的。
attributed:v.归于(attribute的过去式,过去分词);属性化;
And so when it comes time when we find gases in exoplanet atmospheres that we won't know if they're being produced by intelligent aliens or by trees, or a swamp , or even just by simple, single-celled microbial life. 所以当我们在系外行星的大气中 找到了那些气体, 我们很难确定这些气体是怎么来的, 是由外星人制造的,还是来自树木, 或者沼泽地, 或者仅仅是来源于简单的单细胞生物。
intelligent:adj.有才智的;悟性强的;聪明的;有智力的 swamp:v.淹没;使不堪承受;使疲于应对;使应接不暇;n.沼泽(地); microbial:adj.微生物的;由细菌引起的;
So working on the models and thinking about biochemistry, it's all well and good. 所以建立一些模型, 应用一些生物化学的知识, 我们就会得到我们想要的答案。
But a really big challenge ahead of us is: how? 那么在实际过程中面临的最大挑战就是:要怎么做？
How are we going to find these planets? 要怎么找到这些行星？
There are actually many ways to find planets, several different ways. 其实可以通过很多方式来寻找, 各种不同的方式。
But the one that I'm most focused on is how can we open a gateway so that in the future, we can find hundreds of Earths. 不过我重点在研究的是要如何实现这样一个途径, 在未来 可以让我们找到数百个类地行星。
We have a real shot at finding signs of life. 我们事实上已经开始行动了。
And actually, I just finished leading a two-year project in this very special phase of a concept we call the starshade. 我刚刚完成了一个由我负责的两年项目, 在这个特殊的项目中, 我们提出了”遮星板“的概念。
phase:n.阶段;时期;月相;(月亮的)盈亏;v.分阶段进行;逐步做;
And the starshade is a very specially shaped screen and the goal is to fly that starshade so it blocks out the light of a star so that the telescope can see the planets directly . 遮星板是一个形状非常特殊的屏障, 我们想要将它送入太空, 遮挡恒星的光线, 这样就可以通过望远镜直接观测那些行星了。
directly:adv.直接地;立即;马上;正好地;坦率地;conj.一…就;
Here, you can see myself and two team members holding up one small part of the starshade. 这张图上你们可以看到我和两名项目成员, 正在展示遮星板的一块很小的局部。
holding up:举起;阻挡;拦截(holdup的现在分词形式);
It's shaped like a giant flower, and this is one of the prototype petals . 它的形状就像一个巨大的花朵, 这是一片花瓣的雏形。
giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 prototype:n.原型;雏形;最初形态; petals:n.[植]花瓣;翼瓣(petal的复数形式);v.绽出花瓣(petal的第三人称单数形式);
The concept is that a starshade and telescope could launch together, with the petals unfurling from the stowed position. 这个过程就是把遮星板和望远镜一同送入太空, 遮星板的花瓣会从运载器上打开。
launch:v.发射(导弹,火箭等); n.发射; unfurling:vt.展开;使…临风招展;vi.展开;公开; stowed:v.装填,收藏起来;存放;
The central truss would expand , with the petals snapping into place. 中心的桁架会展开, 花瓣也会迅速延展到位。
truss:n.束;构架;捆;vt.捆绑;用构架支撑; expand:v.扩张;使膨胀;详述;发展;张开,展开; snapping:v.断裂,绷断;打开,关上,移到某位置;(snap的现在分词)
Now, this has to be made very precisely, literally, the petals to microns and they have to deploy to millimeters . 这个过程需要做到非常精准, 也就是说花瓣的精度要达到微米级, 定位的精准度要达到毫米级。
microns:n.微米(micron的复数); deploy:v.部署;利用;[军事]展开;(使)张开; millimeters:n.毫米;(millimeter的复数)
And this whole structure would have to fly tens of thousands of kilometers away from the telescope. 这一整个部件需要移动至 距离望远镜数万公里的距离。
structure:n.结构;构造;建筑物;vt.组织;构成;建造;
It's about tens of meters in diameter . 它的直径大概有几十米。
diameter:n.直径;对径;放大率;放大倍数;
And the goal is to block out the starlight to incredible precision so that we'd be able to see the planets directly. 它能够以难以置信的精度实现对恒星光线的遮挡, 这样我们就能直接观测行星了。
block out:封闭;概略画出; starlight:n.星光;adj.有星光的;星光照耀的; precision:n.精度,[数]精密度;精确;adj.精密的,精确的;
And it has to be a very special shape, because of the physics of defraction. 它的形状必须十分特殊, 这是由物理学中的衍射现象决定的。
Now this is a real project that we worked on, literally, you would not believe how hard. 这是我们从事的一项实际的项目, 说真的,你们想象不出这有多难。
Just so you believe it's not just in movie format, here's a real photograph of a second-generation starshade deployment test bed in the lab. 为了证明这并不只是一种假想, 给你们展示一个真实的照片, 这是实验室中的第二代遮星板调试试验台。
second-generation:n.第二代; deployment:n.调度,部署;
And in this case, I just wanted you to know that that central truss has heritage left over from large radio deployables in space. 在这个项目中,我只是想让你们知道 中心桁架装有 太空大范围无线电部署的一部分。
heritage:n.遗产;传统;继承物;继承权;
So after all of that hard work where we try to think of all the crazy gases that might be out there, and we build the very complicated space telescopes that might be out there, what are we going to find? 那么,在这一系列我们试图寻找 那些外行星中的神秘气体, 以及建造了极其复杂的太空望远镜 之类的艰难任务之后, 我们会有什么收获呢？
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式) telescopes:n.望远镜; v.套叠; (telescope的第三人称单数)
Well, in the best case, we will find an image of another exo-Earth. 最好的情况是, 我们会获得另一个类地行星的图像。
Here is Earth as a pale blue dot. 这张图上的地球是一个淡蓝色的小点。
And this is actually a real photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, four billion miles away. 这是一张地球的真实照片, 由旅行者1号航天飞机 从40亿英里外的距离拍摄的。
Voyager:n.航海者,航行者;
And that red light is just scattered light in the camera optics . 那条红色的光线只是相机的光学部件散射出的光。
scattered:adj.零散的; v.撒; (scatter的过去分词和过去式) optics:n.[光]光学;
But what's so awesome to consider is that if there are intelligent aliens orbiting on a planet around a star near to us and they build complicated space telescopes of the kind that we're trying to build, all they'll see is this pale blue dot, a pinprick of light. 想象一下,如果存在着高智慧的外星生物, 正绕着我们附近恒星的行星运转, 它们搭建出了我们正在建造的 复杂的太空望远镜, 它们能看到的也仅仅是一个淡蓝色的小点, 极其微小的光点, 这该有多酷啊！
awesome:adj.令人敬畏的;使人畏惧的;可怕的;极好的; pinprick:n.针刺;针孔;令人烦恼的小事;
And so sometimes, when I pause to think about my professional struggle and huge ambition , it's hard to think about that in contrast to the vastness of the universe. 有时候,当我停下来思考 我所面临的难题和我远大的理想, 这跟浩瀚的宇宙相比 真的不算什么。
professional:adj.专业的;职业的;职业性的;n.专业人员;职业运动员; ambition:n.追求的目标;野心;志向;抱负; contrast:n.对比;对照;反差;明显的差异;v.对比;对照;形成对比; vastness:n.巨大;广大;广漠;
But nonetheless , I am devoting the rest of my life to finding another Earth. 不过尽管如此,我还是打算奉献我的一生 来寻找另一个地球。
nonetheless:adv.尽管如此,但是; devoting:vt.致力于;奉献;
And I can guarantee that in the next generation of space telescopes, in the second generation, we will have the capability to find and identity other Earths. 而且我可以保证, 用下一代的太空望远镜, 也就是第二代, 我们将会有能力找到并识别出其他的类地行星。
guarantee:n.保证;担保;保证人;保证书;抵押品;v.保证;担保; capability:n.才能,能力;性能,容量; identity:n.身份;同一性,一致;特性;恒等式;
And the capability to split up the starlight so that we can look for gases and assess the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, estimate the surface temperature, and look for signs of life. 我们也将能够分解恒星发出的光线, 能够找到那些气体, 获得那些大气中的温室气体成分信息, 估算星球表面的温度, 并寻找生命的迹象。
estimate:v.估计;估算;估价;n.估价;(对大小、数量、成本等的)估计;估计的成本;
But there's more. 不过我们还有更长远的打算。
In this case of searching for other planets like Earth, we are making a new kind of map of the nearby stars and of the planets orbiting them, including [planets] that actually might be inhabitable by humans. 在寻找其他类地行星的同时, 我们还在制作一幅展示 附近恒星及其行星的新太空地图, 包括有可能适宜人类居住的（行星）。
nearby:adj.附近的,邻近的;adv.在附近;prep.在…附近; inhabitable:adj.适于居住的;可居住的,可栖居的;
And so I envision that our descendants , hundreds of years from now, will embark on an interstellar journey to other worlds. 我能够想像我们的后代, 在几百年之后, 能够通过星际旅行到达其他的星球。
envision:v.想象;预想; descendants:n.后裔;后代;子孙;派生物;(descendant的复数) embark:vi.从事,着手;上船或飞机;vt.使从事;使上船; interstellar:adj.[航][天]星际的; journey:n.旅行;行程;vi.旅行;
And they will look back at all of us as the generation who first found the Earth-like worlds. 他们能够回首我们这一代, 第一个发现类地新世界的一代。
Thank you. 谢谢大家。
(Applause) （掌声）
June Cohen: And I give you, for a question, June Cohen （JC）:你先来提问吧 ,
Rosetta Mission Manager Fred Jansen. 有请罗塞塔任务的负责人,Fred Jansen。
Mission:n.使命,任务;代表团;布道;v.派遣;向…传教;
Fred Jansen: You mentioned halfway through that the technology to actually look at the spectrum of an exoplanet like Earth is not there yet. Fred Jansen:你部分提到了 可以分析类地行星光谱的技术 还尚未实现。
spectrum:n.光谱;频谱;范围;余象;
When do you expect this will be there, and what's needed? 你认为什么时候可以实现, 要如何实现呢？
Actually, what we expect is what we call our next-generation Hubble telescope. 莎拉·西格尔（SS）:事实上我们打算依靠下一代的哈勃望远镜。
And this is called the James Webb Space Telescope, and that will launch in 2018, and that's what we're going to do, we're going to look at a special kind of planet called transient exoplanets, 我们叫它詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜, 会在2018年把它送上太空, 整个计划大概是这样的, 我们会观测一种特殊的行星, 叫做过渡系外行星,
transient:adj.短暂的;转瞬即逝的;倏忽的;暂住的;n.暂住某地的人;过往旅客;临时工;
and that will be our first shot at studying small planets for gases that might indicate the planet is habitable. 那将是我们研究小行星上可能预示着 生命迹象的气体的第一次尝试。
indicate:v.表明;显示;象征;暗示;
JC: I'm going to ask you one follow-up question, too, Sara, as the generalist . JC:莎拉,我还有个大众一点的 问题要问一下你。
follow-up:adj.后续的;增补的;n.随访;跟进;后续行动; generalist:n.(有多方面知识和经验的)通才;多面手;
So I am really struck by the notion in your career of the opposition you faced, that when you began thinking about exoplanets, there was extreme skepticism in the scientific community that they existed, and you proved them wrong. 我真的对你的职业生涯中所面临的 反对声音感到很震惊, 也就是当你开始思考系外行星, 科学领域对它们是否存在持有 极端怀疑的态度, 你证明了他们是错的。
career:n.职业;事业;生涯;经历; opposition:n.反对党;对立;在野党;对抗; extreme:adj.极端的;极度的;偏激的;尽头的;n.极端;末端;最大程度;极端的事物; skepticism:n.怀疑论;怀疑的态度; scientific:adj.科学的,系统的; community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体;
What did it take to take that on? 你是如何承受这些的呢？
SS: Well, the thing is that as scientists, we're supposed to be skeptical , because our job to make sure that what the other person is saying actually makes sense or not. SS: 作为科学家, 我们理应持怀疑态度, 因为我们的工作就是要确认其他人的观点 是否是合理的。
supposed:adj.误信的;所谓的;v.认为;假设;设想;(suppose的过去分词和过去式) skeptical:adj.怀疑的;怀疑论的,不可知论的;
But being a scientist, 但是作为一名科学家,
I think you've seen it from this session , it's like being an explorer . 我觉得你们可能已经在这段演讲中看到, 我的职责更像是探索者。
session:n.会议;(法庭的)开庭;(议会等的)开会;学期;讲习会; explorer:n.探险者;勘探者;考察者;
You have this immense curiosity , this stubbornness , this sort of resolute will that you will go forward no matter what other people say. 这需要极大的好奇心, 固执, 还需要坚定不移的意志, 无论其他人说什么,都不能动摇。
immense:adj.巨大的,广大的;无边无际的;非常好的; curiosity:n.好奇,好奇心;珍品,古董,古玩; stubbornness:n.倔强;顽强;棘手; resolute:adj.坚决的;果断的; no matter what:不管什么…;
JC: I love that. Thank you, Sara. JC:说的太好了。非常感谢你,莎拉。
(Applause) （掌声）