美国有线新闻 CNN NASA公布18亿像素火星图片

It all starts now with a picture. They say pictures are worth a thousand words. These are said to have 1.8 billion pixels. And while it looks like a high resolution image of a desert landscape, maybe in Utah, it's actually the desert landscape of Mars, taken from Mars.

今天的节目从一张照片开始。有人说这些照片“一图值千言”。据称，这些照片的像素达到18亿。虽然其看上去像是犹他州沙漠景观的高分辨率图像，但它其实是在火星上拍摄的火星沙漠景观。

NASA has several active missions there. This panorama¹ was captured by a rover named Curiosity. It's the key part of a $2.5 billion project to investigate the planet's environment. What looks like one picture according to NASA is actually made up of 1,200 individual images that were taken over several days. Scientists can zoom² in to see distant details, for instance, the rim³ of the crater⁴ that Curiosity is in. Pan left and you can see another crater estimated to be three miles wide. An area that's rich in clay, unique features of the land, a cliff — it's all visible here. And from the details we can see of the Curiosity rover itself, a sundial is there to indicate what time of the sol it is.

美国国家航空航天局（简称NASA）有多个正在火星上进行的任务。这张全景照片由“好奇”号火星探测器拍摄。这是斥资25亿美元的火星环境调查项目的关键组成部分。NASA表示，虽然看起来像一张照片，但这张照片实际上由1200张图像组合而成，拍摄时间历经数天。科学家可以放大照片，看到远处的细节，比如，“好奇”号所在的陨石坑边缘。往左移动，你可以看到另一个约3英里宽的陨石坑。一个富含粘土的地区、土地的独特之处、悬崖——这些都可以在照片中看到。从细节上，我们还可以看到“好奇”号，其载有一个日晷，用来指示索尔时间。

Scientists call days on Mars "sols". Each ones about 39 and 1/2 minutes longer than each Earth day. You can also see the tracks the rover made through the Martian dirt as it ambled⁵ across the planet's surface. The photos were taken around the time of last Thanksgiving. While NASA's employees were off enjoying turkey, the organization made Curiosity work. That is to say it gave the rover the command to take lots of pictures that could be stitched together to complete the panorama.

科学家将火星上的一天称为“索尔”。索尔日大约比地球日长39.5分钟。当火星探测器在火星表面漫步时，你还可以看到探测器穿过火星土壤所留下的轨迹。这些照片在去年感恩节前后拍摄。当时NASA工作人员正在休假并享用火鸡，所以NASA让“好奇”号工作。也就是说，他们向“好奇”号发出指令，让其拍摄大量照片，这些照片可以拼接在一起完成全景图。

1 panorama   

n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置]

参考例句：

• A vast panorama of the valley lay before us.山谷的广阔全景展现在我们面前。
• A flourishing and prosperous panorama spread out before our eyes.一派欣欣向荣的景象展现在我们的眼前。

2 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

3 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

4 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。

5 ambled   

v.（马）缓行( amble的过去式和过去分词 )；从容地走，漫步

参考例句：

• We ambled down to the beach. 我们漫步向海滩走去。
• The old man ambled home through the garden every evening. 那位老人每天晚上经过花园漫步回家。 来自《简明英汉词典》