在线英语听力室

科学美国人60秒 SSS 南极雪中隐藏的宇宙秘密

时间:2020-06-09 02:39:42

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Christopher Intagliata.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列,我是克里斯托弗·因塔格里塔。

In the summer of 2015, a strange delivery arrived in Munich, Germany: 25 boxes of still-frozen snow—sent all the way from Antarctica. The reason for shipping1 1,100 pounds of snow halfway2 around the world? Scientists were hunting for interstellar dust—which might hold clues about our place in the universe.

2015年夏天,一份奇怪的快递——25盒仍处于冰冻状态的雪——从南极洲运抵德国慕尼黑。为什么要从世界尽头运来1100磅雪呢?因为科学家正在寻找星际尘埃,这可能为我们在宇宙中所处的位置提供线索。

So first scientists melted the snow and then filtered it for fine particles. Analyzing3 the remaining dust with mass spectrometry, they found traces of the isotope4 iron-60, which is primarily produced in two ways: by exploding supernovas or by cosmic rays zapping interplanetary dust. But it's also produced in nuclear reactions here on Earth, by bombs or nuclear reactors5.

首先,科学家将雪融化,然后过滤出细颗粒。用质谱分析了剩余尘埃后,他们发现了同位素铁-60的痕迹,同位素铁-60主要由两种方法产生:超新星爆炸或是宇宙射线撞击行星间的尘埃。但地球上的炸弹或核反应堆产生的核反应也能产生同位素铁-60。

So to determine how much of the stuff was truly interstellar—from beyond our solar system—the researchers used other isotopic6 clues to screen out quantities of iron-60 produced by nuclear reactions and cosmic rays. And they still had some iron-60 left over to a?ccount for—the stuff produced by supernovas.

因此,为了确定其中有多少真正来自太阳系外的星际,研究人员用其他同位素线索筛选出核反应和宇宙射线产生的同位素铁-60。他们还剩下一些同位素铁-60来解释超新星产生的物质。

"Just by looking at something which is on our own planet to learn something which is so far away and happened so many millions of years ago—I mean, that's pretty amazing. And that's why I really like this work." Dominik Koll, an experimental nuclear physicist7 at the Australian National University. His team reported the results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“仅仅通过观察地球上的一些东西,我们就能了解到遥远的、发生在数百万年前的事情,这令人相当惊讶。这就是我喜欢这项工作的原因。”澳大利亚国立大学的实验核物理学家多米尼克·科尔说到。他的团队将研究结果发表在《物理评论快报》上。

Koll says this iron-60 might be showering down on us from the Local Interstellar Cloud, the patch of space the solar system is moving through right now. And if the cloud contains material produced by supernovas, Koll says, it could be the ancient remnants of exploding stars—a clue to the structure and formation of the universe. Luckily, we can investigate it all by hunting for dust, right here on spaceship Earth.

科尔表示,同位素铁-60可能正从太阳系正在穿越的本地星际云中向我们倾泻而下。科尔说,如果云团中含有超新星产生的物质,那么它可能是爆炸恒星的古老残留物,这是宇宙结构和形成的线索。幸运的是,我们可以通过在地球飞船上寻找尘埃来研究这一切。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是克里斯托弗·因塔利亚塔。


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 shipping WESyg     
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船)
参考例句:
  • We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
  • There's a shipping charge of £5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。
2 halfway Xrvzdq     
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
参考例句:
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
3 analyzing be408cc8d92ec310bb6260bc127c162b     
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
4 isotope isotope     
n.同位素
参考例句:
  • The isotope ratio is directly used for comparing oils or gases.同位素比率直接用于比较各种石油或天然气。
  • How to apply a radio isotope?如何运用放射性同位素?
5 reactors 774794d45796c1ac60b7fda5e55a878b     
起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 ); 反应装置; 原子炉; 核反应堆
参考例句:
  • The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆,必须使用普通铀作为燃料。
6 isotopic 7ad2ece915960e8c295e01a4d04cc192     
adj.同位素的,合痕的
参考例句:
  • The isotopic signatures of most ancient limestones indicated the same process. 大多数古代石灰岩的同位素特征说明了同样的过程。 来自辞典例句
  • Isotopic discrimination is not likely. 同位素甄别是不可能的。 来自辞典例句
7 physicist oNqx4     
n.物理学家,研究物理学的人
参考例句:
  • He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
  • The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。