待解的13件神祕事件 (4)-中英對照

2015年待解的13件神祕事件 (4)

7)  ALIEN MOON-外來的月亮

Did scientists really discover an exomoon for the first time?

科學家們真正首次發現外來的月亮?

 

在月球上的太空船

Researchers have detected the first "exomoon" candidate — a moon orbiting a planet that lies outside our solar system.

研究員已偵查到首顆『外來月亮』的首選- 一顆繞行於我們太陽系之外行星的月亮。

Scientists think they found the moon of an alien planet, which would be the first time we've ever seen an "exomoon." The problem is that we'll never really knowif that's what astronomers saw.

科學家們以為他們發現了外星球的月亮，它將是我們首次看到的『外來月亮』。問題是，我們將永遠不會真正知道，那是否是天文學家過去所看到的。

Researchers discovered the possible exomoon using gravitational microlensing— a technique that detects distant objects regardless of the light they emit — to take advantage of chance alignments between stars. When a foreground star passes between Earth and a more distant star, the closer star can act like a magnifying glass on the more distant one. If that star has a planet whizzing about it, the planet will brighten or dim the light of the distant star. But in some cases, the distant object could be a free-floating planet instead of a star, giving scientists the ability to measure the mass of the planet relative to its companion.

研究員利用萬有引力的微鏡片(註) 來發現可能的外來月亮 。這種技術能觀察遙遠的星球，不論它們發出的光有多強，以便利用星球之間的機率調整。當一顆排在前面顯著地位的星球，從地球與更遙遠之星球之間通過時，較靠近的星球能像一面放大鏡，照射在較遙遠的星球上面。如果那個星球另有行星颼颼作響地繞行它的話，這顆行星就會使遠處的行星變亮或變暗。但在某些情形中，在遠處的這個星球可能是一個不會漂浮的行星而非是一個星星，而給科學家們有能力，來測量這個行星的與其夥伴的相對體積。

【註】：Gravitational microlensing is an astronomical phenomenon due to the gravitational lens effect. It can be used to detect objects that range from the mass of a planet to the mass of a star, regardless of the light they emit.

萬有引力的微鏡片是一種天文學的現象，起因於萬有引力的鏡片的效應。它能被用來偵察舉凡一個行星到一個星星的體積，不論它發射出的光量有多少。

In this case, scientists could have spied a small star circled by a planet 18 times Earth's mass — or they could have spotted, for the first time, a planet bigger than Jupiter teamed up with a moon weighing less than Earth.

在此情形下，科學家們可能早已偵察出，一顆小星星被一個比大地球大18倍體積的行星所環繞著- 或他們己首次看到，比天王星大的行星與比地球小的月球組成一塊。

But because this encounter was completely random, it's impossible to know if we finally laid eyes on an exomoon. So, the search continues.

可是因為這樣發現完全是偶然碰到，所以我們無法知道的是，是否將來終於會看到一個外來月亮。還得不斷再研究。

7)   BENEATH STONEHENGE-埋在巨石陣之下

What is the sprawling structure hidden under the world's most famous standing stones?

隱藏在世界最著名的聳立石塊下的不規則建造物是究竟何物?

 

Researchers uncovered 17 previously unknown ancient monuments under Stonehenge.

研究員揭露17件前所未知埋在巨石陣下的古石碑

Unprecedented underground mapping technology revealed that Stonehenge did not always stand alone. Beneath the 5,000-year-old stone structure is an archeological treasure trove made up of thousands of monuments that include shrines, burial mounds, deep pits and other unexplained features. Stonehenge was previously thought to be a standalone, isolated structure, so this discovery has thrown researchers for a loop.

空前未有的地下地理圖形繪製科技顯露，巨石陣並非單獨存在。在有5仟前的石頭建築下，是一種考古的財寶，它由數千種石碑構成，包括神牌 、土墩、深洞與其他無法解釋的特點。巨石陣從前被認為是獨立、被隔離的建築，所以本次的發現已經讓研究員昏頭昏腦了。

"Stonehenge may never be the same again," said Vince Gaffney, the project's lead researcher.

本發掘計劃的領導人-Vince Gaffney說，『巨石陣以後也許永遠不會有再類似』。

And this is just the beginning — the vast majority of information from the site has yet to be analyzed.

而且這僅是開始而已- 來自這地方絕大多數的資訊仍有待分析。

"What you’re hearing about is simply a mere little finger of the amount of data that we have now," Gaffney told Mashable. "We think we’ve got at least another year’s work on this."

Gaffney告訴權威的資訊公司-Mashable說，『你們正在聽到的不過是我們現有資訊的一小部分，我們認為至少還需一年的研究』。

【編按】：stonehenge- 乃指英國Salisbury平原上的史前巨石群。

Justin Lai 編譯

01/09/2014