美国国家公共电台 NPR Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen

Out Of This World: How Artists Imagine Planets Yet Unseen

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It seems like almost every week scientists announce that they have detected a new planet orbiting some distant star. The news is usually released along with an artist's impression of what that planet might look like. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce wondered how much freedom those artists get to create their visions of alien worlds.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE²: When it comes to our own solar system, we've got tons of drop-dead-gorgeous photos - red canyons³ on Mars, the rings of Saturn⁴, the ice on Pluto⁵. The planets outside our solar system are a different story. Over the last two decades, scientists have discovered thousands of them, but not by actually seeing them. What they see is how a planet's gravity tugs⁶ on its star or how a planet blocks a star's light.

TIM PYLE: Did that star slightly move a little - kind of wobble left and right? Or did the brightness of the star dim just a little bit?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's Tim Pyle. He's a graphic⁷ artist who works at NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Cal Tech. He says, by looking at the star...

PYLE: We're actually able to extrapolate quite a bit of information about, say, the number of planets that might be around it, their distance from the star, their size.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Still, that leaves a lot of details that have to be filled in if you want to create a plausible⁸ picture of what the planet might look like. And that's Pyle's job. He's illustrated⁹ dozens of planet discoveries and tries to tell a visual story about each world.

PYLE: If, you know, we find a planet that potentially has liquid water on its surface - and let's say that's pretty rare - you're going to make sure that, whatever your artist's concept is, you're focusing on that water in some way.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But it gets complicated. Take a planet called Kepler-186f, a rocky planet that might have liquid water or maybe not.

PYLE: So we didn't want the general public to see this artist concept and walk away thinking, wow, they found another Earth. So a detail as small as what color is the water that I'm illustrating¹⁰ on the surface of the planet ended up becoming a really big thing.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: The water's color got tweaked again and again.

PYLE: Because we wanted it to be clear that it's water, but we certainly didn't want it to look, say, blue because that would look inviting¹¹, like, oh, wow, I want to go to Kepler-186 and dive into the water and swim around. It looks awesome¹².

GREENFIELDBOYCE: They settled on a kind of muddy brown. Then there was the time he illustrated Kepler-452b. Scientists couldn't agree on whether this planet could have water. It might have lost it all in what's called a runaway¹³ greenhouse effect. So Pyle created a planet that was just beginning to lose its water.

PYLE: So you can see lakes and rivers that have dried up and left behind salty residue¹⁴ along their shores. And it was kind of a green, ugly water, volcanoes all over the surface.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Images like this get a lot of press attention.

PYLE: Which impressed my mom. It was on the cover of USA Today, and my mom actually saved a copy and sent me a copy.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: And creating these pictures has become a bit of a cottage industry. Pyle used to do computer graphics¹⁵ work in Hollywood, but now he collaborates¹⁶ with scientists, as well as another visual artist named Robert Hurt, who was trained as an astronomer¹⁷. Hurt says, when illustrating a planet, there is one thing they never do.

ROBERT HURT: We have never put anything indicating the possibility of life or anything that you would look at and say, oh, yeah, that's definitely a living organism - trees, even algae¹⁸, right?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Even so, some people worry that these illustrations might give the public the wrong idea. Ray Villard is news director for the Space Telescope Science Institute.

RAY VILLARD: It's tricky¹⁹ with computer graphics. You can make stuff in such extraordinary detail. People might think it's real. People might think we've actually seen these features - canyons and all kinds of lakes and rivers.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's why he prefers illustrations that leave more to the imagination.

VILLARD: It can be evocative without showing every little rock and stone and cliff that's on the planet.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Still, he doesn't want to knock the more photorealistic ones. He understands the need to excite and inspire the public. And given the technical challenges, he thinks it will be well into the next century until we can take a real photograph of a planet beyond our solar system that comes anywhere close to what a space artist can imagine. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

4 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• 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。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

5 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

6 tugs   

n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The raucous sirens of the tugs came in from the river. 河上传来拖轮发出的沙哑的汽笛声。 来自辞典例句
• As I near the North Tower, the wind tugs at my role. 当我接近北塔的时候，风牵动着我的平衡杆。 来自辞典例句

7 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

8 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

9 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

10 illustrating   

给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• He upstaged the other speakers by illustrating his talk with slides. 他演讲中配上幻灯片，比其他演讲人更吸引听众。
• Material illustrating detailed structure of graptolites has been etched from limestone by means of hydrofluoric acid. 表明笔石详细构造的物质是利用氢氟酸从石灰岩中侵蚀出来。

11 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

12 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

13 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

14 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

15 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

16 collaborates   

合作( collaborate的第三人称单数 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Third, main economy Central Bank collaborates to cut the interest rate. 第三，主要经济体央行联手降低利率。
• Any one who collaborates should be shot. 与敌人勾结者一律枪决。

17 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• 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。

18 algae   

n.水藻，海藻

参考例句：

• Most algae live in water.多数藻类生长在水中。
• Algae grow and spread quickly in the lake.湖中水藻滋蔓。

19 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。