評論
打印
What would happen if a gigantic asteroid started hurtling towards earth? [qh]
如果一顆巨大的小行星開始沖向地球會發生什么?[qh]
Would we all be headed for impending doom, like the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago?[qh]
我們會像6600萬年前的恐龍一樣瀕臨末日嗎?[qh]
Well, we might not go the way of the dinosaurs after all. [qh]
嗯，我們可能不會重蹈恐龍的覆轍。[qh]
Last September NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART—a spacecraft the size of a golf cart—smashed into a small asteroid called Dimorphos, actually altering its trajectory around another asteroid called Didymos in our first-ever test of planetary defense.[qh]
去年9月，在首次開展的行星防御測試中，美國宇航局的“雙小行星重定向測試”(簡稱DART)——一艘高爾夫球車大小的航天器——撞向了一顆名為“迪莫弗斯”的小行星，居然改變了其圍繞另一顆名為“迪迪莫斯”的小行星的軌道。[qh]
Oh my gosh. Oh wow. Awaiting individual confirmation. And we have impact! A triumph for humanity in the name of planetary defense![qh]
哦，我的天。等待個人確認。我們產生了沖擊力! 以行星防御之名，人類取得了勝利![qh]
Hailed as a smashing success, no less than five studies in the scientific journal Nature get into the nitty-gritty of how exactly our celestial gut punch worked.[qh]
科學雜志《自然》上發表了至少五項被譽為轟動性成功的研究，這些研究深入揭示了天體沉重撞擊到底是如何工作的。[qh]
What a moment. Very few words could capture this moment. Beautiful to watch.[qh]
多么美妙的一刻。幾乎沒有詞語能描述這一刻?？雌饋碚婷?span style="display:none">5@Gv+0z4SSww@VuW]
。[qh]I’m Tulika Bose, our senior multimedia editor at Scientific American.[qh]
我是圖利卡·博斯，是《科學美國人》的高級多媒體編輯。[qh]
I’m here with Lee Billings, our senior editor for space and physics, who’ll try to answer some questions I’m sure we all have.[qh]
我和李·比林斯在一起，他是我們空間與物理學的資深編輯，他將試著回答一些我相信我們都有的問題。[qh]
Hey Lee.[qh]
嘿，李。[qh]
Hey Tulika.[qh]
嘿，圖利卡。[qh]
Okay, so there’s a lot of stuff to sift through. [qh]
好，有很多東西要篩選。[qh]
One of the new studies details how this collision altered the path of Dimorphos through space—shortening the time it takes to orbit Didymos by 33 minutes. So, Lee, how did this work?[qh]
其中一項新研究詳細描述了這次撞擊如何改變了“迪莫弗斯”在太空中的路徑——縮短了其進入“迪迪莫斯”軌道所需的時間，縮短了33分鐘。那么，李，這是如何工作的呢?[qh]
Right. Ideally—and we’ll get into actuality in a moment—this is as simple as playing pool: shoot one billiard ball into another, and the target ball goes flying. [qh]
對。理想情況下——我們立刻舉個現實例子——這就像打臺球一樣簡單: 把一個臺球射向另一個臺球，目標臺球就會飛起來。[qh]
The more momentum you can transfer, the more motion you get.[qh]
傳遞的沖擊力越大，就能移動越多。[qh]
So you want to hit near dead center.[qh]
因此，你要擊中死點附近。[qh]
And in DART’s case, it was targeted for the “leading” sunward side of Dimorphos, which it struck at a speed of more than 14,000 mph. [qh]
在“雙小行星重定向測試”中， DART航天器的目標是“迪莫弗斯”的“主”向陽面，它以超過14000英里的時速撞向這顆小行星。[qh]
That’s about three quarters the speed of General Zod’s spaceship in Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel movie.[qh]
大約是扎克·斯奈德電影《超人：鋼鐵之軀》中查德將軍的飛船速度的四分之三。[qh]
Now. Kneel before Zod.[qh]
現在到查德面前跪下。[qh]
Uh, okay. So now tell us about the two asteroids.[qh]
呃, 好吧?，F在給我們講講這兩顆小行星的情況。[qh]
Ah, yes, the two asteroids. Dimorphos is a moonlet of the bigger asteroid Didymos—sometimes I call Dimorphos “Didymoon” just because of that, right? [qh]
好，這兩顆小行星?！暗夏ニ埂笔求w積更大的小行星“迪迪莫斯”的一個小衛星，有時因為這個，我會稱“迪莫弗斯”為“迪迪衛星”。[qh]
That helps with gauging DART’s effects: think of Dimorphos a bit like the second hand on a clock where Didymos is the hour hand or the clock itself. [qh]
這有助于評估DART的效果: 將 “迪莫弗斯”想象成鐘表上的秒針，“迪迪莫斯”想象成時針或鐘表本身。[qh]
It’s easier to see small changes by watching how the smaller object moves.[qh]
通過觀察較小物體的運動，更容易注意到微小變化。[qh]
