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InSight火星探测器将登陆火星

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From binary systems to solar systems, things in space tend to exist together, like little families.

无论是联星系统还是太阳系,宇宙里的事物倾向于共生共存,就像一个个小家庭一样。
Stars will form out of the same parent cloud, many asteroids can come from a single parent body, and even Earth has siblings in Mars and Venus.
恒星会从同一个母云中形成,很多小行星都会从某个单个的母体中孕育而生,就连地球也有火星和进行这样的同胞兄弟。
And this week, we're on the brink of learning a lot more about one of our own planet's siblings, and a new photo of a companion star is solving a mystery.
而就在本周,我们可能就要对地球的某个同胞兄弟有巨大的了解进展,因为一张伴星的照片逐渐拨开迷雾。
But let's start closer to home: at the time we're filming this,
我们先从离地球近的发现说起吧:我们还在执着于地球同胞兄弟之际,
the InSight lander is set to launch this Saturday from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, weather permitting.
洞察号火星着陆器将于本周六在加州的范登堡空军基地发射升空,前提是天气条件允许。
InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,
洞察号的全称是使用地震调查、大地测量学和热传输进行内部探测,
and the mission's main goal is to learn more about the geology of Mars.
此次任务的主要目标是了解火星的地质情况。
We've been visiting the planet for almost fifty years, and we still know next to nothing about what's happening inside it.
近50年来,我们一直去火星做客,但我们对于火星内部的情况几乎还是一无所知。
We don't even know how thick Mars' crust is, for example. Or the size of its core. Or how much of its core is liquid.
比如,我们甚至都不知道火星的地壳有多厚,不知道火星的内核有多大,也不知道内核中液体的含量是多少。
So this mission is going to help us figure some of that out, which should give us more clues about the planet's formation and history.
所以,这次任务将帮助我们弄清这样一些问题,为我们了解火星的现在和过去提供线索。
InSight is a lander, not a rover, so it's going to be staying in one place.
洞察号是一种着陆器,不是探测它,所以他只能在某个地方待着不动。
But it'll be able to do all kinds of science from that one place, using three main instruments: HP3, RISE, and SEIS.
所以,洞察号的所有科学研究都要在着陆点进行,需要用到3种主要工具:HP3、RISE和SEIS。
To figure out Mars' rate of cooling, HP3, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe,
要得知火星的冷却速率HP3,也就是地温辐射计,
is going to drill 5 meters into the crust, leaving behind heat sensors every so often along the way.
要在地壳上钻5米深,将热感受器远远抛在后面。
RISE, or the Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment, is going to get really precise measurements of Mars's rotation and wobble.
RISE,也就是内部结构探测地震仪,它将十分精确地测量火星的转动情况和偏心情况。
Those tiny fluctuations in the planet's movements are affected by the stuff inside it, like if there's liquid sloshing around.
偏心情况会受到火星内部组成的影响,比如,是否其中的液体会四处咣当。
So these measurements should tell us how big and solid Mars's core is.
所以,这样的测量可以让我们知道火星内核有多大,液体成分有多少。
Meanwhile, SEIS, the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, is going to monitor Mars's seismic vibrations, telling us how active it is right now.
与此同时,火星内部结构地震实验仪可以监测火星的地震震动情况,让我们知道此时此刻的火星有多么活跃。
We know that Mars used to be geologically active, because it has all kinds of leftovers from that time: volcanoes,
我们知道,火星以前的地质是非常活跃的,因为现在的火星有那时候各种各样的残留物,比如火山,
remnants of hot springs, and lava flows all over the place.
温泉的残留物、随处可见的岩浆流。
And while Earth's geological activity is driven by our internal heat and plate tectonics, for Mars, it's a different story.
而虽然地球的地质活动是由内部的热量和板块构造论所驱动的,但火星可不是这样。
Mars is still cooling down from its formation.
火星从形成开始就在不断的降温。
But it's a lot smaller than Earth, so it's been able to cool down faster, and these days its tectonic activity is much more subtle.
火星比地球体积小很多,这就使得火星降温速度更快。而且近来,火星的构造活动性愈发微妙了。
A few times a year, the planet experiences “marsquakes,” which are caused by things like cracks in its crust or meteorite impacts.
每年总会有那么几次,火星会经历“火震”。火震是由地壳中的破裂或者陨石撞击造成的。
This will be the first time we're able to directly measure these quakes, and we should be able to use the data to model Mars's interior,
这将是我们第一次得以直接测量火震,我们应该有能力通过这些数据来为火星的内部建模,

insight.jpg

just like we use earthquakes to model Earth's interior. We're about to learn so much about our space sibling, and why it's cold and dead!

就像我们通过地震来为地球内部建模一样,我们将会对地球的同胞兄弟火星有诸多了解,比如火星为什么温度那么低,火星为何没有生命!
So stay tuned for lots of exciting Mars updates once InSight lands in November. But for now, let's move farther away, and talk about dead stars!
所以,让我们持续关注11月洞察号着陆火星后令人激动的新闻吧,在那之前,我们现在先讨论一下死亡恒星吧。
Last week, the Hubble Space Telescope's website released a picture of the star that's solving one of the major mysteries of supernovas.
上周,哈勃太空望远镜的官网公布了死亡恒星的照片,解答了超新星主要的谜题之一。
When stars are about to die, they often become red giants: they puff out their outermost layers, creating a fluffy, red envelope full of hydrogen and helium.
恒星死亡后,会变成红巨星:他们会膨胀,使最外层爆破,形成蓬松的红色包层,满是氢和氦。
Then, if they're big enough, they go supernova.
然后呢,如果红巨星足够大的话,就会变成超新星。
But there's a certain kind of supernova called a stripped-envelope supernova, where a lot of that fluffy blanket seems to be missing.
但有一种超新星名为壳层剥离型超新星,在这种超新星上,却没有这种蓬松的包层。
And when we look at the leftover cloud of dead star stuff, there's way less hydrogen than there should be.
但当我们研究死亡恒星上遗留的包层时,却发现氢的含量不合情理地少了很多。
For about half of these supernovas, we think wind from the star blew away that material because the star was so big and unstable.
对于近半数超新星来说,我们都会认为,来自恒星的风吹走了包层的物质,毕竟恒星太大了,又不稳定。
But for the rest, the stars aren't quite massive enough to generate those kinds of winds, so there must be some other explanation.
但对其他恒星来说,由于体积不够大,所以无法产生这样的风,所以这种说法是不对的。
One possibility is that each of those stars was in a binary system.
有一种可能是:这些恒星都是联星系统。
The gravitational pull from the companion star could have spun off a lot of that main star's outer envelope, taking all of that hydrogen and helium for itself.
伴星产生的万有引力让主星外包层的很多部分脱落,为自己所用。
And in the process, it could have destabilized that main star, triggering its explosion.
在这个过程中,主星会变得不稳定,引发爆炸。
If this is really what happens, then for a lot of these stripped-envelope supernovas, we should see a companion star after the main star bites it.
如果事实就是如此,那么对于许多壳层剥离型超新星来说,我们会在主星吃掉伴星后看到伴星。
We've taken some measurements of the light coming from stripped-envelope supernovas that seemed to indicate a companion,
我们已经对来自壳层剥离型超新星的光做了一些测量工作,结果表明可能有伴星的存在,
but those kinds of indirect detections aren't always the clearest evidence.
但这些都是间接的探测证据,不够明确。
For example, there could be something between you and your target interfering with the observations.
比如,你和目标之间可能有什么东西阻碍了观测。
But in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal in March, astronomers announced that they'd made a direct detection!
但在3月《天体物理学杂志》的一篇论文中,天文学家宣布,他们有了直接的观测证据!
They were able to take an actual picture of a supernova's companion star, and the photo released on the Hubble site last week.
他们拍到了某颗超新星的伴星,并将图片于上周发布在了哈勃的官网上。
Supernova 2001ig used to live in galaxy NGC 7424, about 36 million light years away. Then it exploded spectacularly in, you guessed it, 2001.
超新星2001ig以前在NGC 7424星系里运转,距离我们有3600光年的距离,大家用脚指头也能想到,它会发生爆炸。是的,就在2001年。
And in 2016, the researchers used Hubble to look at the remnants, and they found another star there.
2016年,研究人员通过哈勃望远镜观测残留物的时候,发现了另一颗恒星。
The companion star is pretty bright and massive, especially since it stole a whole bunch of matter off of its main star.
伴星非常明亮,体积庞大,尤其是在它从主星上获取了大量物质之后。
It probably survived the supernova because all the matter around it kind of cushioned the impact of the explosion.
伴星之所以比超新星存在的时间更长,大概是因为伴星周围的所有物质都有点为它缓冲了爆炸带来的影响。
Before this, the idea that stripped-envelope supernovas might have had thieving companions was a good hypothesis.
在此之前,也有观点认为壳层剥离型超新星可能化伴星为己用,这是一个很好的假设。
But now that we've directly detected a companion, we know for sure that these kind of star systems do exist!
但鉴于我们已经直接探测到了伴星的存在,所以我们可以肯定地知道这种恒星系统是不存在的!
That helps explain the abundance of supernovas, and especially the abundance of this type of supernova.
这也能助力解释超新星的冗余,尤其是这种超新星的冗余。
So this stellar sibling helped us solve a big mystery.
所以火星确实帮助我们解决了一个很大的谜题。
Although it also probably contributed to the supernova itself, so it's both causing problems and solving them.
虽然这很可能也给我们对超新星的了解贡献了力量,所以火星是个自带解决方案的小妖精。
Which seems about on track for a sibling. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News.
毕竟和地球是同胞嘛,感谢收看本期的《太空科学秀》。
To stay up to date on all the latest discoveries happening in space exploration and research, just go to youtube.com/scishowspace and subscribe!
要了解太空探索与研究中的最新发现,登录并订阅youtube.com/scishowspace就好啦!

重点单词   查看全部解释    
evidence ['evidəns]

想一想再看

n. 根据,证据
v. 证实,证明

联想记忆
companion [kəm'pænjən]

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n. 同伴,同事,成对物品之一,(船的)甲板间扶梯(或扶

联想记忆
solve [sɔlv]

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v. 解决,解答

 
mystery ['mistəri]

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n. 神秘,秘密,奥秘,神秘的人或事物

 
tend [tend]

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v. 趋向,易于,照料,护理

 
massive ['mæsiv]

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adj. 巨大的,大规模的,大量的,大范围的

 
affected [ə'fektid]

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adj. 受影响的,受感动的,受疾病侵袭的 adj. 做

联想记忆
exploration [.eksplɔ:'reiʃən]

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n. 探险,踏勘,探测

联想记忆
gravitational ['grævə'teiʃənəl]

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adj. 重力的,引力作用的

联想记忆
sibling ['sibliŋ]

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n. 兄弟姐妹

联想记忆

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