VOA常速英语2008年-Mercury Seen in New Light

By Paul Sisco
Washington, DC
15 February 2008
 

Scientists have started analyzing¹ data and images acquired when the Messenger space probe passed within 200 kilometers of the planet Mercury last month. It was the first flyby of the solar system's inner-most planet in more than three decades. Those same investigators³ are anxiously awaiting a second flyby in October. VOA's Paul Sisco has more.

Tiny Mercury is often called the mysterious planet, largely because it is the closest planet to the sun. The last space probe to study the planet was Mariner⁴ 10 -- more than 30 years ago. That changed when NASA'S Messenger probe passed within 200 kilometers of the planet January 14th.

Principal investigator² Sean Solomon was at the Johns Hopkins Applied⁵ Physics Laboratory for those first new pictures. He explains, "When those first images started coming on our screen and the whole science team could gather around those images and we were seeing a part of Mercury that nobody had ever seen close up, it was truly thrilling, and we were exploring a new world together, and it was just a tremendous high."

These were taken during the approach to Mercury.

"We got a lot of surprises in the data that we have acquired so far," Solomon said. Subsequent data and more than 1,200 images are revealing a dynamic planet with unique features.

"Even when we had a new look at the half of Mercury that Mariner 10 saw we could see things that we hadn't seen before," Solomon said." We were looking with a different viewing geometry, better resolution, color, and as one of my colleagues said, 'this is a whole new planet'."

That colleague is Robert Strom. He says, "I was like a kid at Christmas Eve, but unlike that kid on Christmas Eve, I'd waited 30 years for this, so I was extra excited."

Strom is the only member of the 1970s Mariner team still at it. An expert on impact craters⁷, he says they are finding features on this once-active planet never seen before.

Solonom said, "It seems to have been a wonderful focus of activity, probably volcanic⁸ activity, certainly deformational⁹ activity, faulting." He compares this odd crater⁶ in Mercury's gigantic Caloris Basin to a spider. "We'd never seen it on Mercury. It doesn't look like anything t on the moon. It doesn't look, in detail, like anything else in the solar system."

 

With as many as 100 deep troughs radiating from an uplifted center, the huge basin appears stretched to the breaking point.

"So there is a nice chapter in the history of the evolution of Mercury written right there in the Caloris Basin and the spider is the key to unraveling that text," Solomon said. 

Strom adds, "The best is yet to come. What you're seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg¹⁰ so to speak."

Messenger next flies by Mercury in October and will settle into permanent orbit around the planet in 2011.

1 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

2 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 mariner   

n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者

参考例句：

• A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.平静的大海决不能造就熟练的水手。
• A mariner must have his eye upon rocks and sands as well as upon the North Star.海员不仅要盯着北极星，还要注意暗礁和险滩。

5 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

6 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

7 craters   

n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• Small meteorites have left impact craters all over the planet's surface. 这个行星的表面布满了小块陨石留下的撞击坑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The battlefield was full of craters made by exploding shells. 战场上布满弹坑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

8 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

9 deformational   

参考例句：

• In the light of different deformation characteristics, 8 deformational types are divided. 依据不同的变形特点，可划分出8种不同的变形类型。
• Fault space textures include deformational texture and geometric texture. 断层空间结构包括变形结构和几何结构两部分。

10 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。