2017考研英语拓展阅读：“那美克星”行星三个太阳

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2017考研英语拓展阅读：“那美克星”行星三个太阳

　　An international team of astronomers have announced the discovery of a strange planet in a faraway solar system that contains not just one sun, but three.

　　一支由各国天文学家组成的研究团队宣布在另一个遥远的太阳系发现了一个有三个太阳的奇特行星。

　　The distant planet, named HD 131399Ab, appears even more unusual than the home planet of Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, Tatooine, which orbited around two suns, according to the findings published in the US journal Science.

　　这篇在《科学》期刊上发表的文章称，这颗名为HD 131399Ab的行星相比《星球大战》中卢克·天行者的母星塔图因，显得更加不同寻常。在《星球大战》中，塔图因围绕两个恒星进行公转。

　　Such binary solar systems may be relatively common in the universe, but experts said those involving three stars or more were rare.

　　专家表示，宇宙中有两颗恒星的行星相对来说并不罕见，然而一颗行星围绕三颗恒星公转的情况却鲜有听闻。

　　"Imagine this: a planet where you’d either experience constant daylight or enjoy triple sunrises and sunsets each day, depending on the seasons, which happen to last longer than human lifetimes," a statement from the University of Arizona, which led the astronomy team, read.

　　主导此次研究的亚利桑那大学发表声明称：“请设想如下场景：在这颗行星上，你可能一辈子都生活在白天，也可能每天都会目睹三次日出日落，后者的长短取决于具体的季节。”

　　The planet is located about 340 light years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

　　该行星位于距离地球340光年的人马座星云。

　　The cosmic body is believed to be relatively young, about 16 million years old, which makes it one of the youngest planets discovered outside our solar system to date.

　　这颗相对“年轻”的行星形成于约1600万年前，在人们于太阳系外所发现的行星中，形成时间最短。

　　Its mass is believed to be four times that of the gas giant Jupiter — our solar system’s largest planet.

　　木星属于气态巨行星，是太阳系最大的行星。而这颗行星的质量是木星的四倍。

　　It orbits the brightest of the three stars on a very long and wide path.

　　该行星在一条又长又宽的轨道上围绕最亮的太阳进行公转。

　　"For about half of the planet’s orbit, which lasts 550 Earth-years, three stars are visible in the sky — the fainter two always much closer together and changing in apparent separation from the brightest star throughout the year," first author Kevin Wagner, a first-year PhD student who discovered HD 131399Ab, said.

　　发现HD 131399Ab行星的博士新生凯文·瓦格纳是本文的第一作者，他在文章中称：“这颗行星一半的公转周期长达550地球年，天空上能同时看到三个太阳。在一个完整的公转周期内，两个暗一些的太阳总是距离较近，距最亮的太阳距离明显较远。”

　　"For much of the planet’s year, the stars appear close together, giving it a familiar night-side and day-side with a unique triple-sunset and sunrise each day," Mr Wagner added.

　　“大部分时间中，三个太阳的出现时间紧密相连，该行星每日昼夜参半，要经历三次日出日落。”

　　"As the planet orbits and the stars grow further apart each day, they reach a point where the setting of one coincides with the rising of the other."

　　“随着行星公转，距三个太阳越来越远，在某一时刻，该行星的天空会出现一日出，两日同落的情况。”

　　The result is "near-constant daytime for about one-quarter of its orbit, or roughly 140 Earth-years".

　　其结果是“该行星在其四分之一的公转周期内处于永昼状态，历时140地球年。”

　　The astronomy team spotted the planet using the SPHERE instrument on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

　　研究团队在智利使用欧洲南方天文台甚大望远镜中的SPHERE仪器发现了这颗行星。

　　SPHERE is one of the world’s most advanced instruments dedicated to finding planets around other stars.

　　SPHERE是世界上最先进的外部行星探测仪器之一。

　　SPHERE stands for Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research Instrument.

　　SPHERE是光谱偏振高对比度外部行星研究仪器( Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research Instrument)的简称。

　　It is sensitive to infrared light, making it capable of detecting the heat signatures of young planets.

　　该仪器对红外光及其敏感，能探测到形成时间较短星球的热信号。

来源：abc.net

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