听力文本

Before 1988, astronomers knew of only eight planets in the entire universe. Those around the Sun. Today we know of nearly 4,000. These are called exoplanets and they orbit stars outside of our solar system. The majority are so distant when they're not moving that little can be learned about these exoplanets we do not know if any support life. But over the years, advances in telescope technology have made it easier to detect them. Launched in 2009, a space telescope called Kepler has been responsible for finding the majority of the exoplanets we know today. By staring at a single patch of the sky, it found them as they passed in front of the stars.

But Kepler could only focus on planets around lots of distant stars. Kepler is now retired. it's been replaced with a new telescope. "Liftoff! The he SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying TESS, a planet-hunting spacecraft that will search for new worlds beyond our solar system". TESS which can scan the entire sky is equipped with four special cameras. It will look at around 200 thousand pre-selected stars that are closer and among the brightest is seen from Earth. Over its two-year mission, Tess is expected to discover hundreds of thousands of new planets. Like Kepler, it will be able to detect the proximity of planets to their stars providing astronomers with some information about their possible climates. Because TESS will find planets that are comparatively near to Earth. Other bigger telescopes will be able to take a more detailed look including looking for the presence of liquid water. If there is alien life out, there Tess could play an important role in finding it. Coming up next Thursday: Could space be the next frontier for war.

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重点词汇解析

orbit n.轨道 v.围绕

The Falcon rocket is the same vehicle the company uses to loft cargo to the International Space Station and to put satellites in orbit.

猎鹰火箭是这家公司将货物放入国际空间站并将卫星送入轨道的同一交通工具。

patch n.补丁；v. 修补

Judge Carter's ruling was a severe setback for California prosecutors who spent more than a decade going after the Mongols patch.

卡特法官的裁决对加州检察官来说是一个严重的挫折，他们花了十多年的时间追踪蒙古人这个群体。

proximity n.亲近; 接近，邻近;



“These actions were simply too attenuated to be the proximate cause.”

“这些行动太过于削弱，无法成为最直接的原因。”

参考翻译

在1988年之前，天文学家知道整个宇宙中只有八颗行星。他们围绕在太阳周围。如今我们知道了近4000个。这些被称为系外行星，它们在我们的太阳系外围绕恒星运行。当他们不动的时候，大多数都是如此遥远，以至于我们很少了解这些外行星，不知道他们是否有任何生命。但多年来，望远镜技术的进步使得它更容易被发现。在2009年发射的一种叫做开普勒的太空望远镜一直负责寻找我们今天所知的大多数系外行星。通过盯着天空中的一片，它在恒星前面经过时发现了它们。但开普勒只能注意到许多遥远恒星周围的行星。如今，开普勒已经退休。它已经被新的望远镜所取代。“升空！SpaceX猎鹰9携带测试行星狩猎太空船，探索太阳系之外的新世界。”可以扫描整个天空的TESS配备了四个特殊摄像头。它将会看到大约20万个预先选定的恒星，它们距离地球更近，从地球上看最亮。在为期两年的任务中，TESS有望发现数十万颗新行星。像开普勒一样，它将能够探测到行星与恒星的接近程度，为天文学家提供有关其可能气候的一些信息。因为TESS会发现比较接近地球的行星。其他更大的望远镜将能够采取更详细的外观，包括寻找液态水的存在。如果有外星人的生命，TESS可以在找到它时发挥重要作用。下期预告：太空战可能成为战争的下一个前沿。