SSS 2011-03-31
时间：2018-12-24 作者：英语课 分类：Scientific American(三)月
This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.
It’s been nearly 20 years since astronomers 2 first identified a planet outside our solar system. More than 500 exoplanets have been discovered since then, yet it’s not clear if even one of them might be habitable. Now, astronomer 1 Eric Agol at the University of Washington says we’ve been looking in the wrong places. If we want to find planets that could support life, he says we should look at stars that are dying. He floats that suggestion in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
White dwarves 3 are the remnants of stars like our sun that start to cool.
But they’re still warm enough to keep a planet at a nice cozy 4 temperature…if that planet is close enough. Say, 10 to 100 times closer than Mercury gets to the sun. That proximity 5 is what makes white dwarves so attractive--to astronomers, anyhow, because a planet that close to its star would dim the dwarf’s light as it passes. The dimming could be detected by even a puny 6 one-meter telescope.
Agol suggests we survey the 20,000 white dwarves closest to Earth. Finding a planet would give us a good place to look for life. Or maybe someday live.
Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.
- A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
- He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。
- Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Everyone will try to claim it: Men, Dwarves, wizards. 每个种族都会争取它的拥有权：人类，矮人，巫师。 来自电影对白
- Have you learned nothing of the stubbornness of Dwarves? 难道你还不了解那个矮人的倔强吗？ 来自电影对白
- I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
- We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。