万物简史 第271期:砰!(6)

 　　What Shoemaker and his colleagues found was that there was more risk out there—a great deal more—than anyone had ever imagined. 苏梅克和他的同事们发现的是，外层空间存在着比想像的还要多——多得多——的危险。

　　Asteroids², as most people know, are rocky objects orbiting in loose formation in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. 许多人都知道，小行星是岩质物体，散落在火星和木星之间，在一片狭长空间里运行。

　　In illustrations they are always shown as existing in a jumble³, 在插图里，它们看上去总是挤作一团；

　　but in fact the solar system is quite a roomy place and the average asteroid¹ actually will be about a million miles from its nearest neighbor. 实际上，太阳系是个很宽敞的地方，普通的小行星离它最近的邻居大约有150万公里之远。

　　Nobody knows even approximately how many asteroids there are tumbling through space, 谁也说不清大概有多少颗小行星在太空里打滚，

　　but the number is thought to be probably not less than a billion. 但据认为这个数字很可能不少于10亿颗。

　　They are presumed to be planets that never quite made it, 人们推测，小行星本来可以成为行星，

　　owing to the unsettling gravitational pull of Jupiter, which kept—and keeps—them from coalescing⁴. 但由于木星的引力很不稳定，使得它们无法——现在依然无法——结合在一起，因此它们的目的从未实现过。

　　When asteroids were first detected in the 1800s, 第一次发现小行星是在19世纪初。

　　the very first was discovered on the first day of the century by a Sicilian named Giuseppi Piazzi, 第一颗小行星是一位名叫朱塞比皮亚齐的西西里岛人在该世纪的第一天发现的，

　　they were thought to be planets, and the first two were named Ceres and Pallas. 它们被看成行星。头两颗小行星被命名为谷神星和智神星。

　　It took some inspired deductions⁵ by the astronomer⁶ William Herschel to work out that they were nowhere near planet sized but much smaller. 经过天文学家威廉·赫歇耳凭着灵感的多次演绎，认定它们远没有行星大，而是要小得多。

　　He called them asteroids—Latin for "starlike"—which was slightly unfortunate as they are not like stars at all. 他把它们称为小行星——拉丁语的意思是“像星”——这有点儿不幸，因为小行星压根儿不是星。

　　Sometimes now they are more accurately⁷ called planetoids. 现在他们有时被比较准确地称作类星体。

　　Finding asteroids became a popular activity in the 1800s, and by the end of the century about a thousand were known. 19世纪初，寻找小行星成了一项很热门的活动。到该世纪末，已知的小行星多达1000颗左右。

　　The problem was that no one was systematically⁸ recording⁹ them.  问题是谁也没有对它们进行系统的记录。

1 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

2 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。

3 jumble   

vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆

参考例句：

• Even the furniture remained the same jumble that it had always been.甚至家具还是象过去一样杂乱无章。
• The things in the drawer were all in a jumble.抽屉里的东西很杂乱。

4 coalescing   

v.联合，合并( coalesce的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A mental model begins coalescing in their minds. 一个意识模型开始结合到他们的脑子里。 来自互联网
• On the basis of coalescing this kind of element can separate oil from compressed air. 采用凝聚原理，分离压缩空气中的油份。 来自互联网

5 deductions   

扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演

参考例句：

• Many of the older officers trusted agents sightings more than cryptanalysts'deductions. 许多年纪比较大的军官往往相信特务的发现，而不怎么相信密码分析员的推断。
• You know how you rush at things,jump to conclusions without proper deductions. 你知道你处理问题是多么仓促，毫无合适的演绎就仓促下结论。

6 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。

7 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

8 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

9 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。