国家地理:送给外星人的地图(3)

Carl asked Dad for help crafting the message while the two of them were in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a meeting of the American Astronomical¹ Society. Dad recalls that, in the lobby of the San Gerónimo Hilton, he and Carl quickly came up with ideas about what to include: line drawings depicting² humans, a rendering³ of the spacecraft -- and then, "in the next moment, we hit on the idea of a galactic map that would pinpoint⁴ the location of the Earth in space."

在参加于波多黎各的圣胡安举办的美国天文学会的一次会议时，卡尔请父亲帮忙设计该信息。父亲回忆说，在圣杰洛尼摩希尔顿酒店的大厅里，他和卡尔很快提出了该信息应包含的内容的想法：描绘人类的线图、宇宙飞船的渲染图，“但就在接下来的一瞬间，我们突然想到了一张能确定地球在宇宙中位置的银河地图的这个主意。”

Dad designed that map, and in 1972 it flew into space aboard Pioneer 10. The next year Pioneer 11 launched, ultimately carrying the map past Saturn⁵ and now on to the stars. Then in 1977 both Voyager spacecraft left Earth carrying Dad's guide to finding our planet, which is etched onto the cover of the "golden record." The way Dad designed the map means that it points back to Earth both in space and in time, making it a galactic positioning system (a different kind of GPS) in four dimensions.

随后父亲就开始设计这张地图，并在1972年先将其放入“先驱者10号”，使其进入了太空。第二年，“先驱者11号”发射升空，又带着这张地图掠过土星，现在正飞往其他星球。随后，在1977年，两艘“旅行者号”飞船搭载着父亲指引我们星球方位的地图飞离了地球，该地图被刻在了“金唱片”的封面上。父亲设计这张地图的方式，是使其在空间和时间上都指向地球，成为一个四维的银河定位系统（一种不同的GPS）。

At the time, Dad and Carl didn't really worry that the aliens who found their message in a bottle might be of the more malevolent⁶ variety.

在那时，父亲和卡尔并不担心，那些在瓶子里发现了他们的信息的外星人，可能是非常邪恶的外星人。

1 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

2 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

3 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

4 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

5 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。

6 malevolent   

adj.有恶意的，恶毒的

参考例句：

• Why are they so malevolent to me?他们为什么对我如此恶毒？
• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。