科学家澄清对天王星的误解
📖 逐句对照翻译
In 1781, German-born British astronomer William Herschel made Uranus the first planet discovered with a telescope.
1781年，出生于德国的英国天文学家威廉·赫歇尔使天王星成为第一颗通过望远镜发现的行星。
But, 243 years later, we still do not know much about this cold planet, the third largest in our solar system.
但是，243年过去了，我们对这颗寒冷的星球——太阳系中第三大行星——仍然知之甚少。
And some of what we thought we knew about it turns out to be untrue.
而我们对它自以为知道的一些事情，结果却并非如此。
Much of the knowledge about Uranus was collected when NASA's robotic spacecraft Voyager 2 flew past it in 1986.
关于天王星的许多知识是在1986年美国宇航局的机器人探测器“旅行者2号”飞掠它时收集的。
But scientists have since learned that the craft visited at a time of unusual conditions.
但科学家后来了解到，该飞船造访时正值异常条件时期。
An intense solar wind event at the time led to misleading observations about Uranus, and especially its magnetic field.
当时一次强烈的太阳风事件导致了对天王星，尤其是其磁场的误导性观测。
Observations in a solar wind event
太阳风事件中的观测
The solar wind is a high-speed flow of charged particles coming from the sun.
太阳风是来自太阳的高速带电粒子流。
The researchers took a second look at eight months of data from around the time of Voyager 2's visit and found that it flew near Uranus just a few days after the solar wind had reduced the planet's magnetosphere to about 20 percent of its usual size.
研究人员重新审视了旅行者2号造访前后约八个月的数据，发现它在太阳风将天王星磁层压缩至通常大小约20%之后仅几天，就从天王星附近飞过。
A magnetosphere is an area of space surrounding a planet that is controlled by the planet's magnetic field.
磁层是行星周围由行星磁场控制的空间区域。
The magnetosphere protects the planet from solar and cosmic particle radiation.
磁层保护地球免受太阳和宇宙粒子辐射的影响。
The Voyager 2 observations led scientists to think Uranus’ magnetosphere lacked in plasma and had very intense belts of highly energetic electrons.
旅行者2号的观测使科学家们认为，天王星的磁层缺乏等离子体，并且拥有非常强烈的高能电子带。
Plasma is often called the fourth state of matter after solids, liquids and gases.
等离子体常被称为继固体、液体和气体之后的第四种物质状态。
In the night sky, plasma gives out light in the form of stars, nebulas, and even the auroras above the north and south poles.
在夜空中，等离子体以恒星、星云乃至南北极上空的极光等形式发出光芒。
Plasma is a common feature in the magnetosphere of other planets, so scientists did not understand why there would not be much of it observed around Uranus.
等离子体在其他行星的磁层中是一种常见特征，因此科学家们不理解为什么在天王星周围观测不到多少等离子体。
Jamie Jasinski studies space plasma at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
杰米·亚辛斯基在美国宇航局喷气推进实验室研究空间等离子体。
He is the lead writer of the study published recently in the publication Nature Astronomy.
他是最近发表在《自然天文学》上的这项研究的主要作者。
"We found that the solar wind conditions present during the flyby only occur 4 percent of the time. The flyby occurred during the maximum peak solar wind intensity in that entire eight-month period," Jasinski said.
贾辛斯基说：“我们发现，在飞掠期间出现的太阳风条件仅占全部时间的4%。这次飞掠发生在整个八个月期间太阳风强度最大的时候。”
"We would have observed a much bigger magnetosphere if Voyager 2 had arrived a week earlier.
如果旅行者2号早一周到达，我们本会观测到一个大得多的磁层。
”
“
Such a visit would likely have shown that the Uranus magnetosphere is like those of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, the solar system's other large planets, the researchers said.
研究人员表示，这样的造访很可能会表明，天王星的磁层与太阳系其他大型行星——木星、土星和海王星——的磁层相似。
Future exploration
未来探索
Uranus looks blue green because of the methane contained in its atmosphere.
天王星看起来呈蓝绿色，是因为其大气中含有甲烷。
The planet is big enough to fit 63 Earths inside it.
这颗行星足够大，可以容纳63个地球。
Among the solar system's eight planets, only Jupiter and Saturn are larger.
在太阳系的八大行星中，只有木星和土星比它大。
Uranus orbits almost 20 times further from the sun than Earth does.
天王星绕太阳运行的轨道距离几乎是地球的20倍。
And it has 28 known moons and two sets of rings.
它有28颗已知的卫星和两组光环。
Data collected by Voyager 2 had suggested that its two largest moons - Titania and Oberon - often orbit outside the magnetosphere.
旅行者2号收集的数据表明，它的两颗最大的卫星——天卫三和天卫四——经常在磁层外运行。
But the new study shows that they usually stay inside the protective space, making it easier for scientists to magnetically detect possible subsurface oceans.
但这项新研究表明，它们通常会留在保护空间内，这使得科学家更容易通过磁性探测到可能存在的地下海洋。
"Both are thought to be prime candidates for hosting liquid water oceans in the Uranian system…," Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist and study co-writer Corey Cochrane said.
“这两颗卫星都被认为是天王星系统中拥有液态水海洋的主要候选者……，”喷气推进实验室行星科学家、该研究合著者科里·科克伦说。
Scientists want to learn whether subsurface oceans on moons in the outer solar system have conditions that could support life.
科学家们想了解外太阳系卫星的地下海洋是否具备支持生命的条件。
So, on October 14, NASA launched a spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa to try to answer that question.
因此，10月14日，美国宇航局发射了一艘航天器，前往木星的卫星木卫二执行任务，试图解答这个问题。
"A future mission to Uranus is crucial to understanding not only the planet and magnetosphere, but also its atmosphere, rings and moons," Jasinski said.
贾辛斯基说：“未来对天王星的探测任务不仅对了解这颗行星和磁层至关重要，对了解其大气层、行星环和卫星也同样重要。”
I’m Caty Weaver.
我是凯蒂·韦弗。
Will Dunham reported this story for Reuters.
威尔·邓纳姆为路透社报道了这则新闻。
Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English.
吉尔·罗宾斯为《学习英语》改编了它。
