Stunning Pictures Show an Alien Moon Eerily Like Earth

来源：http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/saturn-moon-titan-nasa-huygens-cassini-space-science

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[1] Twelve years ago, a small spacecraft parachuted/‘pærə'ʃʊt/ through a thick, extraterrestrial /'ɛkstrətə'rɛstrɪəl/ haze and drifted/drɪft/ down toward an alien surface. [2] It punched/pʌntʃt/ a small hole in the icy/'aɪsi/ ground, bounced, slid/slɪd/, and wobbled/‘wɑbl/.

drifted/drɪft/

* vi. 漂流，漂移；漂泊

* extraterrestrial

* adj. 地球外的

* n. 天外来客

* punched/pʌntʃt/

* v. 戳；用拳猛击；用力推进（punch的过去分词）,钻孔

* icy/‘aɪsi/

* adj. 冰冷的；冷淡的；结满冰的

* slid/slɪd/

* v. 滑；滑落；不知不觉地陷入（slide的过去分词）

* wobbled/‘wɑbl/

* vi. 摇晃；摇摆；游移不定

[3] After a few seconds, it came to rest in a damp/dæmp/ floodplain/ˈflʌdˌplen/ on Titan, Saturn’s/'sætɝn/ largest moon.

damp adj. 潮湿的

floodplain. 泛滥平原 http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/flood-plain/

[4] On January 14, 2005, the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe became the first robot explorer to touch the surface of this smoggy/'smɔɡi/, orange moon and beam /bim/ back detailed pictures. [5]Huygens frantically/ˈfræntɪklɪ/ gathered data for about an hour before its batteries died and its mothership, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, disappeared over the horizon.

smoggy/'smɔɡi/

* adj. 烟雾弥漫的

* beam /bim/

* vt. 发送；

* frantically/ˈfræntɪklɪ/

* adv. 疯狂似地；狂暴地

* Cassini

* n. 卡西尼号（太空船）

[6] During its descent and those moments on the surface, the probe gathered enough data to give scientists a glimpse/ɡlɪmps/ of an alien world that looks deceptively/dɪˈsɛptɪvlɪ/ Earth-like. ||3

glimpse/ɡlɪmps/

* n. 一瞥，一看

* deceptively/dɪˈsɛptɪvlɪ/

* adv. 迷惑地，骗人地；虚伪地

[7] Nearly 900 million miles from the sun, temperatures on Titan are so low that ice is as hard as rock and organic compounds like ethane and methane—which are normally gases on Earth—are chilled into liquids that pool and flow into enormous lakes and seas.

[8] But with its mountains, rain, winds, and waves, 3,200-mile-wide Titan is really more like a planet than just another dead, cratered moon.

[9] It not only has those oily/'ɔɪli/ seas on its surface, but it also harbors/'hɑrbɚ/ a buried ocean of liquid water, making it among the best places to search for life beyond Earth.

oily/'ɔɪli/

* adj. 油的；油质的；油滑的；油腔滑调的

* harbors/'hɑrbɚ/

* vt. 庇护；怀有

* n. 海港；避难所

* vi. 居住，生存；入港停泊；躲藏

[10] “Titan is kind of a double ocean world,” said planetary/'plænətɛri/ scientist Sarah Hörst of the Johns Hopkins University. [11] “In principle, there’s the possibility that it has both life as we know it and life as we don’t know it.”

planetary/'plænətɛri/

* adj. 行星的

PIERCING/'pɪrsɪŋ/ THE HAZE

pierce /pɪrs/

* vt. 刺穿；洞察；响彻；深深地打动

* vi. 进入；透入

[12] The Huygens probe hitchhiked/'hɪtʃ,haɪk/ to the Saturn system on board NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which dropped off the lander not long after pulling into orbit around the ringed planet.

hitchhiked/'hɪtʃ,haɪk/vi. 搭便车

[13] Though Cassini had been assigned the task of exploring Saturn and its many moons, that little probe—named after the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens—had just one target in sight: Titan, which is shrouded /ʃraʊd/ in a puffy  /‘pʌfi/ atmosphere that mostly obscures /əb’skjʊr/ the moon’s surface.

shrouded /ʃraʊd/

* adj. 覆盖的

* v. 遮蔽（shroud的过去式）

* puffy /‘pʌfi/

* adj. 一阵阵吹的；胀大的；喘气的

* obscures/əb’skjʊr/

* adj. 昏暗的，朦胧的；晦涩的，不清楚的；隐蔽的；不著名的，无名的

[14] After a 20-day journey/'dʒɝni/ to Titan/‘taitən/, Huygens sank/sæŋk/ through the moon's atmosphere for more than two hours before landing on a frigid/'frɪdʒɪd/ plain, where temperatures are nearly 300 degrees below zero, and gathering data.

sank/sæŋk/

* vt. 沉陷（sink的过去式）

* vi. 沉陷（sink的过去式）

* frigid/'frɪdʒɪd/

* adj. 寒冷的，严寒的；冷淡的

[15] “Huygens revealed Titan’s environment directly, whereas most of what was 'known' before was rather indirectly determined,” says the University of Arizona’s Ralph Lorenz. [16] “It showed us the surface close up.”

close up 特写

[17] Data showed us highlands/'hailəndz/, ravines/rə'vin/, and channels carved/ka:vd/ by liquids, as well as winds whipping/'wɪpɪŋ/ through Titan’s nitrogen /‘naɪtrədʒən/ atmosphere. [18] Measurements from the surface showed the probe didn’t land in a dry desert, and that some kind of liquid was moistening the sand beneath it.

ravines/rə’vin/ n. 沟壑，山涧；峡谷

whipping through 猛烈刮过

nitrogen/‘naɪtrədʒən/ n. [化学] 氮

[19] Huygens’ atmospheric measurements have since helped scientists reconstruct the composition of Titan’s ancient atmosphere (probably a combination of ammonia /ə'monɪə/ and methane/'mɛθen/) and study how organic molecules/'mɑlə,kjʊl/ can behave in a predominantly/prɪ'dɑmɪnəntli/ nitrogen atmosphere, as Earth’s once was before life evolved/ɪ'vɑlv/ and oxygen became abundant/ə'bʌndənt/.

ammonia /ə'monɪə/

* n. [无化] 氨，阿摩尼亚

* methane/'mɛθen/

* n. [有化] 甲烷；[能源] 沼气

molecules/'mɑlə,kjʊl/

* n. [化学] 分子，微粒；[化学] 摩尔（molecule的复数）

* predominantly/prɪ'dɑmɪnəntli/

* adv. 主要地；显著地

* evolved/ɪ'vɑlv/

* adj. 进化了的

* vt. 使逐步形成（evolve的过去分词）

* abundant/ə'bʌndənt/.

* adj. 丰富的；充裕的；盛产

[20] “It’s the only other substantial/səb'stænʃl/ nitrogen atmosphere besides ours,” Hörst says. “Presumably / prɪˈzjuːməblɪ /, a lot of the chemistry /'kɛmɪstri/ in Titan’s atmosphere could have been happening on the early Earth, before oxygen /'ɑksɪdʒən/.”

substantial/səb'stænʃl/

* adj. 大量的；实质的；内容充实的

* Presumably / prɪˈzjuːməblɪ /

* adv. 大概；推测起来；可假定

MIRROR MOON

[21] The Huygens mission marks the first and—so far—last time humans set a spacecraft on a moon other than our own.

[22] A mission called the Titan Mare/mɛr/ Explorer was once among NASA’s top picks for a future interplanetary/ˌɪntɚ'plænətɛri/ adventure.

Mare/mɛr/

* n. 母马；母驴；月球表面阴暗部

interplanetary/ˌɪntɚ'plænətɛri/

* adj. 太阳系内的；行星间的

[23] Had it been selected, that mission would have sent a space boat to explore Ligeia Mare, one of Titan’s largest northern seas. [24] Made of runny/'rʌni/, liquid hydrocarbonsˌhaɪdrə'kɑrbən/, the moon’s surface seas could be home to life with a completely different chemistry than ours.

runny/‘rʌni/

水分过多的

hydrocarbonsˌhaɪdrə'kɑrbən/. [有化] 碳氢化合物

[25] “That’s a test for a diversity/daɪ'vɝsəti/ of life: Could you also find life that uses a different liquid than life on Earth?” Hörst says.

diversity/daɪ'vɝsəti/

* n. 多样性；差异

[26] In addition, humanity will soon lose its ambassador /æm'bæsədɚ/ to the whole Saturn system: Cassini’s mission ends later this year, with a dramatic plunge /plʌndʒ/ into the giant planet. [27] Still, even after they’re gone, data gathered by spacecraft like Huygens and Cassini can continue to offer new clues to our solar system and help scientists build the case for future missions.

ambassador /æm'bæsədɚ/

* n. 大使；代表；使节

* plunge /plʌndʒ/

* vi. 突然地下降；投入；陷入；跳进

* vt. 使陷入；使投入；使插入

[28] With Titan, we’ve found a world that is both totally alien and yet somewhat familiar. [29] Seasonal rains darken its plains, it’s rich in organic molecules, and a wintry/'wɪntri/ vortex decorates its poles (complete with hydrogen/'haɪdrədʒən/ cyanide'saɪə,naɪd/ clouds).

wintry/'wɪntri/

* adj. 寒冷的，冬天的；冷淡的

* vortex/‘vɔrtɛks/

* n. [航][流] 涡流；漩涡；（动乱，争论等的）中心；旋风

* hydrogen/‘haɪdrədʒən/

* n. [化学] 氢

* cyanide'saɪə,naɪd/

* n. [无化] 氰化物

[30] “Titan's appeal is its mix of the familiar and exotic/ɪɡ'zɑtɪk/,” Lorenz says. [31] “Ultra-low temperatures, ices, organics, liquid methane—but making familiar rain, rivers, dunes/djʊn/, seas.”

exotic/ɪɡ'zɑtɪk/

1. adj. 由外国引进的, 非本地的

2. 奇异的, 醒目的, 吸引人的

3. dunes/djʊn/

4. n. [地理] 沙丘（dune的复数）

[32] Simply put, it’s a world that scientists would dearly/'dɪrli/ love to get to know a little bit better, not only because of the excitement of exploring extraterrestrial/'ɛkstrətə'rɛstrɪəl/ terrains təˈreɪn /, but because it can teach us more about this planet we call home.

dearly/'dɪrli/

* adv. 深深地；昂贵地

* terrains təˈreɪn /

* n. [地理] 地形

[33] “Titan is so active and has so many Earth-like processes/'prɑsɛs/, it’s such a good test for our fundamental understanding of how planets work,” Hörst says.

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Words Memory:

drifted/drɪft/

vi. 漂流，漂移；漂泊

extraterrestrial

adj. 地球外的

n. 天外来客

punched/pʌntʃt/

v. 戳；用拳猛击；用力推进（punch的过去分词）,钻孔

icy/‘aɪsi/

adj. 冰冷的；冷淡的；结满冰的

slid/slɪd/

v. 滑；滑落；不知不觉地陷入（slide的过去分词）

wobbled/‘wɑbl/

vi. 摇晃；摇摆；游移不定

damp adj. 潮湿的

floodplain. 泛滥平原 http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/flood-plain/

Sentence Memory:

After a few seconds, it came to rest in a damp/dæmp/ floodplain/ˈflʌdˌplen/ on Titan, Saturn’s/'sætɝn/ largest moon.