VOA常速英语2013--科学家们着手应对真实撞击地球小行星

Scientists Debate, Prepare for Killer 1 Asteroid 2 科学家们着手应对真实撞击地球小行星

NEW YORK — Earthquakes,  Tsunamis,  Volcanoes.  Now, add asteroids 3 to the list of natural disasters that can threaten humanity and all life on our planet. 

For decades, Hollywood films like Deep Impact and Armageddon have let moviegoers enjoy the terror of fictional 4 earthbound asteroids from the safety of their seats.

几十年来,像是《天地大冲撞》和《绝世天劫》这样的经典好莱坞电影让影迷们在安全的座椅中就享受到小说中世界末日小行星撞击地球的恐怖感。

But on February 15th of this year, residents of Chelyabinsk in central Russia discovered that the threat is as real as it gets.

然而今年的2月15日,罗斯中部雅宾斯克的居民发现这种威胁变成了现实。

That meteorite 5 wounded more than 1,000 people-a pinprick compared to the one that probably wiped out the dinosaurs 6 65 million years ago,

造成超过1000人受伤的这一陨石和6500万年前可能造成恐龙灭绝的那颗相比真是小巫见大巫,

and far more benign 7 than the meteor that exploded over Siberia in 1908, leveling more than 2,000 square kilometers of forest.

而且比1908年在西伯利亚上空爆炸，面积超过2000平方公里森林的更为温和,

Or the meteorite that hit present day Arizona, 50,000 years ago, and made a crater 8 large enough to swallow up the entire city of San Francisco.

要是撞击现今亚利桑那州的是50000年前的陨石,火山口足以吞下整个旧金山。

But those strikes were no flukes.

但这些撞击侥幸没有成功。

There are an estimated 10,000 known asteroids orbiting our region of the inner solar system.

据估计我们的太阳系内部区域有10000颗已知的小行星。

That's just one percent of the million or more asteroids scientists believe to be our near neighbors in the inner Solar System.

这只是科学家认为在我们的太阳系内部近邻小行星的百万分之一。

Recently, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson warned about....

最近,在美国自然历史博物馆在纽约,天体物理学家尼尔·格拉西·泰森就发出了这样的警告。

" ...asteroids crashing to earth as meteorites 9 or exploding in the atmosphere. That would be bad," he said.

“…小行星作为陨石撞击地球或在大气中爆炸。这对人类而言将是灭顶之灾,”他说道。

He invited a group of concerned astronaut-scientists from the Association of Space Explorers, which included Thomas Jones.

他邀请了一些关心的宇航员及来自太空探险者协会的科学家们,其中包括托马斯·琼斯在内。

“So one of these big explosions is capable of causing a global shutdown in agriculture and starving billions of people to death, as well as those who are killed by the actual explosion itself.

“所以其中的一次大爆炸能引起全球农业瘫痪并且数十亿人因此饿死,而且实际的爆炸本身也能造成人员伤亡。

Now small asteroids might level a city, but we could still lose hundreds of thousands of people," said Jones.

现在的小行星虽然可能只有一个城市般大小,但我们仍然会有成千上万人丧命,”琼斯说道。

Asteroids are chunks 10 of dark mineral rich rock that reflect almost no sunlight, so they are hard to spot from Earth.

小行星是几乎不反射光的大块黑色富含矿物质的岩石块,所以很难从地球观测。

But infrared 11 sensors 12 on a space-based telescope could detect the heat they have absorbed from the sun.

但太空望远镜的红外传感器能够探测它们从太阳吸收的热能。

That will be the job of the Sentinel Deep Space Telescope, bristling 13 with infrared sensors, along with mapping and communications gear.

这将是密布着红外传感器,以及映射和通讯设备的哨兵深外太空望远镜的首要任务。

The Sentinel mission is the brainchild of former astronaut Edward Lu and his B612 Foundation, which is committed to reducing the asteroid threat.

哨兵任务是由前宇航员爱德华·卢和致力于减少小行星威胁的他的B612基金会发起。

Sentinel is scheduled to launch in 2018.

哨兵预期将在2018年发射。

“Our telescope is sensitive enough that you actually can see a charcoal 14 briquette against a black sky from ten times the distance from New York to Los Angeles," said Lu.

“我们的望远镜足够敏锐,你真的可以从黑夜里纽约到洛杉矶十倍的距离外观测到这些木炭煤球,” 卢说道。

Once the asteroids are spotted 15 and their orbits determined 16, an earthbound asteroid can be nudged slightly off course with a satellite deflector or a high velocity 17 projectile 18, or blown up with nuclear weapons, causing it to miss its deadly rendezvous 19.

一旦小行星被观测到并且确定其轨道, 卫星偏转器或高速射弹,或动用核武器可以使目标地球的小行星稍微偏离原有路线,让这次致命的约会永远泡汤。

Much like Hollywood imagined it would in the 1957 science fiction film The Day the Sky Exploded.

很像1957年好莱坞科幻电影《天空大爆炸》的桥段吧。

But this time it's the real world that would be saved.

但这一次拯救的可是真正的世界。