7月3日
WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE
New horizons probe begins journey to Pluto
With a flash and a roar, the fastest spacecraft ever launched climbed above Cape Canaveral, Florida, and began a 3 billion-mile trip to Pluto and beyond.
Hours earlier in Houston, NASA scientists involved with another space mission announced they’d taken a first look at what lies in those outer reaches, thanks to the Stardust probe that returned tiny grains of sooty comet dust to Earth last winter.
And later this year, particles shed by the sun and collected by a third mission are expected to surrender still more clues to the mysteries of the solar system, particularly its earliest components.
Search for knowledge
With much of Earth’s immediate neighborhood investigated, NASA now aims to explore the solar system’s frigid margins. Scientists hope to look into the formation of the solar system, how the majority of it operates and perhaps if the water and organic molecules ubiquitous on Earth might have originated in its vast, gloomy reaches.
“The fundamental product of this [mission] is knowledge,” says Don Brownlee, principal investigator on the Stardust mission, which just returned after dashing through the tail of Comet Wild-2. An icy hunk that’s probably older than the sun, Wild-2-like Pluto-resides in the other reaches of our solar system.
Outer reaches
Pluto and its orbiting moons make up the last unexplored planetary group in the solar system. Astronomers expect the probe to provide answers to questions about Pluto that have perplexed them since its discovery in 1930.
In just 13 months after liftoff, New Horizons will slingshot around Jupiter, accelerating to a gravity-boosted 47,000 mph, and then sail away as the sun fades behind it to just another dot in the firmament. After passing Pluto, it may find yet-unseen icy objects.
The piano-sized New Horizons probe should reach Pluto sometime in mid-2015 and snap pictures for a few months before zipping past and into the comet-strewn Kuiper Belt beyond.
Specialized Terms
Slingshot (v) 弹弓效应（利用行星运动改变太空船的轨道与速度）to use the motion of a planet to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft
Firmament (n) 苍穹；天空 the expanse of the heavens; the sky
Kuiper belt (n) 柯伊伯带（太阳系里环绕海王星轨道外的区域，可能存在一个小行星带）an area of the solar system outside of Neptune’s orbit, which is believed to contain asteroids, comets and icy bodies
Vocabulary Focus
Roar (v) long loud deep sound (like that) made by a lion
Launch (v) to send something out, such as a rocket into space
Grain (n) very small amount
Sooty (adj) Covered or smeared with soot, full of soot
Comet (n) 彗星
Shed (v) spread or send sth out
Frigid (adj) very cold
Molecule (n) 分子
Ubiquitous (adj) (seeming to be) present everywhere or in several places at the same time
Originate (v) have sth/sb as a cause or beginning
Astronomer (n) 天文学家
Perplex (v) make (sb) feel puzzled or confused; bewilder
Jupiter (n) 木星
Boosted (adj) improved or increased
Zip (v) to move or go somewhere very quickly
Discussion Question
Do you think this research in out space is a waste of money? Why or why not?
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘and later this year, particles shed by the sun and collected by a third mission are expected to surrender still more clues to the mysteries of the solar system, particularly its earliest components.’
2. According the recording, what’s the expression to describe ‘to transport me instantly to another place’?
说明：
1.文本摘自《Advanced 彭蒙惠英语》，由chandler30亲自录入。
2.回帖内容为大家讨论类话题，如非个人隐私，请不要选中“只有楼主可见”，以便大家交流。
3.参考答案在二楼，回复可见。
4.参与讨论问题奖励50沪元，回答问题奖励50沪元，本栏目谢绝灌水!