经济学人: 开普勒 R.I.P (1)-英语课

时间：2018-12-31 作者：英语课 分类：经济学人科技系列

英语课

　　It used to be that finding even one new planet was enough to make an astronomer's career. 曾经即便是找到一颗新卫星都足以成就一名天文学家的事业。

　　Uranus 1 was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, who these days has, among other things, space telescopes, asteroids 2, schools and a street in Paris named in his honour. 威廉·赫舍尔于1781年发现天王星。如今，还有那些为了纪念他而以他的名字命名的太空望远镜、小行星、学校和巴黎街道。
　　Urbain le Verrier, who predicted the existence of Neptune 3 in 1846, based on its gravitational influence on Uranus, 1946年，基于海王星对天王星的重力影响，奥本·勒维耶预言了海王星的存在。
　　has likewise given his name to craters 4, asteroids and bits of the French capital. It is one of 72 engraved 5 into the sides of the Eiffel tower. 同样也有以他名字为名的火山口和小行星。他的名字和其他71人的名字一同被刻在了法国埃菲尔铁塔的一侧。
　　These days, though, astronomers 6 can do better. William Borucki has thousands to his name. 虽然，如今的天文学家可以做得更好。威廉·博鲁茨基有上千个属于他的荣誉。
　　He is the researcher who conceived of and ran Kepler, a planet-hunting space telescope that was launched in 2009. 他是一名研究人员，是开普勒的构想和运行者。行星探测太空望远镜开普勒于2009年发射。
　　On October 30th NASA announced that, after nearly a decade in space, Kepler had run out of fuel and would be retired 7. 10月30日，开普勒在太空服役近十年之计，美国国家宇航局（NASA）宣布它的燃料已耗尽，并将退役。
　　Kepler has discovered around 2,600 exoplanets— those that orbit stars other than the sun. 开普勒发现了约2600颗外星行星—那些围绕恒星而非太阳运行的行星。
　　Another 3,000 candidates await confirmation 8 from ground-based telescopes. The result has been a revolution in astronomy. 另外3000名候选者在等待着陆基望远镜的确认。这是天文学史上的一个革命性成果。
　　Its practitioners 9 had long assumed that other stars were likely to have planets of their own. These days, they know that to be true. 其实践者一直都认为其他恒星可能拥有自己的行星。如今他们知道事实确实如此。
　　The first exoplanets were detected in 1992, thanks to the gravitational effect they had on the pulsar around which they orbited. 首批外星行星于1992年被探测出来，这多亏了它们对围绕在它们运转轨道周围的脉冲星的重力影响。
　　(A pulsar is the dead, ultra-dense remnant left over after a supernova.) A trickle 10 of subsequent discoveries followed. （脉冲星是在超新星阶段后超高密度的死亡残余。）随后小发现接踵而来。
　　Kepler transformed that trickle into a flood. Yet it almost did not happen. Dr Borucki proposed the mission four times to NASA before it was accepted in 2001. 开普勒将细流转变成一次涌现。但它差一点就没能发生。博鲁茨基博士四次向NASA提议该望远镜，直到2001年NASA才同意。
　　Rather than look for stellar wobbles caused by a planet's gravity, he suggested monitoring a star's light itself— 他并没有建议寻找由一颗行星重力引起的恒星摇晃，而是提议监视恒星光线的本身—
　　looking for tiny dips in brightness as planets, if any, crossed in front of the stellar disc. 寻找当行星从星盘前边穿过时（如果有的话）亮度中的微小倾角。
　　It is a simple idea. But it required the construction of a light detector 11 1,000 times more sensitive than anything that had been built before. 这是个简单的想法，但它对光探测器的要求非常高，其灵敏度需要是之前那些望远镜的1000倍之多。