(单词翻译:单击)
Last week, the Cassini probe dove into Saturn, never to be heard from again,
上周，“卡西尼号”潜进土星之后就再没消息了，
and to be honest, I'm still recovering.
老实说，我还沉浸在这个消息中。
But thankfully, Cassini wasn't the only probe out there.
但幸亏“卡西尼号”不是那里唯一的探测器。
This month, two other spacecraft reminded us that they're still around, just in case we forgot.
这个月，另外两个航天器提醒我们它们的存在，以防我们忘了。
And farther from home, we've also found that an exoplanet we've studied before might be even darker and stranger than we thought.
我们从地球上已经发现之前研究的一颗系外行星可能比我们以为的要暗淡和奇怪一些。
On Monday last week, we heard from the New Horizons spacecraft for the first time in months.
上周一，我们从“新视野号”航天器上得到了数月以来的第一个消息。
You remember New Horizons. Good old spacecraft.
你还记得“新视野号”吧，一个优秀的老航天器。
It was launched in 2006 and arrived at Pluto in 2015,
它于2006年发射升空，2015年到达冥王星，
giving us the best view we will have of our favorite dwarf planet for decades.
让我们数十年来对最爱的矮行星有了最好的观察。
Sorry, Ceres. Stop looking at me like that!
抱歉，刻瑞斯。别这样看我！
The Pluto encounter could've been the end of its mission,
它在冥王星的遭遇可能是其使命的终结，
but the ship still had plenty of fuel, and its instruments were working pretty perfectly.
但飞船仍有很多燃料，它的设备运转得也相当完美。
So just like Cassini, Voyager, Opportunity, and lots of other missions, New Horizons was extended for a few years.
所以“新视野号”和“卡西尼号”、“ 旅行者号”、“机遇号”和许多其他航天器任务一样，也会继续工作几年。
Scientists aimed it at a rocky object called 2014 MU69 and then back in April, they put it to sleep until it got closer.
科学家们把它对准了一个叫做2014 MU69的岩体，然后在4月返回，它打算一直睡到接近岩体的时候。
We didn't discover MU69 until three years ago, when New Horizons was still focused on Pluto.
我们直到3年前才发现的MU69岩体，那时“新视野号”还在专注于冥王星。
And we don't know much about it other than that it's in the Kuiper Belt,
我们除了知道它在柯伊伯带之外什么都不了解，
a region where some debris ended up after the solar system formed.
柯伊伯带是太阳系形成后的一些碎片。
We do think MU69 isn't more than 50 kms across, but it's hard to know more because it's so far away.
我们认为MU69直径不超5万米，但因为距离遥远很难知道更多。
It might also be a binary system, with two objects instead of one.
它可能也是一个双子星，有两个天体。
We'll know a lot more after New Horizons gets there at the beginning of 2019 and studies what it's made of and its structure.
我们在2019年初“新视野号”到达那里之后就会知道更多消息了，前者会研究它的构成和结构。
But it's a long trip, so New Horizons will hibernate on the way, with a couple mid-course wake-up calls.
但这是一次漫长的旅程，所以“新视野号”将在路上“休眠”，要半路叫醒几次。
And the first automatic wake-up came last week.
第一次自动叫醒是在上周。
And it woke up which is great news.
它醒来是个好消息。
The spacecraft, which is almost six billion kilometers away,
在60亿公里远的“新视野号”
will spend the next three months checking out other Kuiper Belt objects from a distance,
将会在接下来的三个月里，从远处观察其他的柯伊伯带物体，
and will also measure radiation and other conditions in the area.
也会测量该地区的辐射和其他条件。
Then, after a quick course adjustment in December, the probe will go back to sleep again until next June.
然后，航天器在12月进行快速调整，随后恢复休眠直到来年6月。
But if you can't wait that long for your space probe fix, don't worry.
但如果你等不了航天器长时间的调整，不用担心，
NASA's got you covered with OSIRIS-REx, a deep space probe that just swung by Earth.
宇航局给你介绍了“OSIRIS-REx”，一个由地球发射的深空探测器。
It launched about a year ago, and its mission is to visit the asteroid Bennu in 2018, collect a sample, and return it to Earth.
它在大约一年前发射成功，目的是在2018年探测小行星“Bennu”，收集样本，然后返回地球。
Which is just incredible, that that's even a thing we can imagine doing.
这简直令人难以置信，这是我们可以想象的事情。
Bennu has been out there since the early solar system,
“Bennu”从太阳系早期就存在了，
and scientists will use the sample to understand the conditions from back when Bennu and the planets were both forming.
科学家们将根据样本来了解当时“Bennu”和行星形成的状况。
OSIRIS-REx has been orbiting the sun for the last year, but today,
“OSIRIS-REx”去年一直围绕太阳运行，但今天，
it flew by Earth and used the Earth's gravity as a slingshot to get it on the right path to Bennu.
它飞越地球，利用地球的重力作弹弓，走上去“Bennu”的正确之路。
It was so close that if you live in eastern Australia,
如果你住在澳大利亚东部，会离它很近，
you could have seen it with a good camera just after midnight local time on September 23rd.
你可以在当地时间9月23号半夜拿个好相机观察它。
And I know that that's sound like...
我知道这有点儿...
September 22nd when we uploaded this and it's September 23rd but timezones are a thing..
9月22日，我们上传了这个视频，现在是9月23日，你可能忘了时区问题，
Very weird.. Australia's confusing.
很奇怪...澳大利亚人困惑了。
So Cassini might be gone, but there's still plenty of solar system exploration to look forward to.
所以“卡西尼号”可能消失了，但仍有很多太阳系的爆炸值得看。
Unfortunately, we will not be sending anything to exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system, any time soon.
不幸的是，近期内我们不会发送任何东西到系外行星。
But even though we're limited to telescopes, we're still making sweet discoveries.
但即使我们受限于望远镜，仍有几个不错的发现。
Last week, astronomers published a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
上周，天文学家在“天体物理学杂志通讯”上发表了一篇论文，
where they show that one of the best-studied exoplanets might be even darker and reflect less light than fresh asphalt.
表明我们研究得最好的一颗系外行星可能比新柏油更暗，反射的光线更少。
The planet is a gas giant called WASP-12b, and it orbits a roughly sun-like star about 1400 light year away.
这颗行星是一个叫做WASP-12b的气体巨星，它在1400光年远的地方围绕类似太阳的恒星运转。
To measure how reflective it is,
为了测量它的反光能力，
the team used the Hubble Space Telescope to watch the planet's host star when 12b dipped behind it.
研究团队利用哈勃太空望远镜在12b运转到其背面时，观察了它的主恒星。
If a planet is reflective, it magnifies the star's light like a mirror, so the star looks brighter from Earth.
如果行星反光，它会像镜子一样放大恒星的光，所以恒星从地球上看会更亮一些。
But when the planet passes behind the star and is hidden from view, that effect goes away, and the star looks dimmer.
但行星到恒星背后、从视野中消失时，反光效果就会减弱，恒星看起来暗一些。
The dimmer the star looks, the more reflective we know the planet is.
恒星越暗，行星的反光能力越强。
Now, with 12b, there wasn't much of a change, and observations showed that it absorbs more than 90% of the light that hits it.
现在，有没有12b，恒星都没多大变化，观察结果表明它吸收了90%以上的光。
That's way darker than the stuff in our solar system, and darker than we think most similar planets are.
这比我们太阳系里的物质要暗得多，比我们认为的类似行星要黑得多。
And that isn't the first interesting thing we've learned about WASP-12b.
这不是我们了解到的WASP-12b知识中第一个有趣的事。
Previous studies found that, because it orbits so closely to its star, about 50 times closer than the Earth does to its sun,
早期的研究发现，因为它围绕主恒星的轨道非常近，比日地距离近50倍，
the star's gravity squishes it into an egg shape and strips off its atmosphere.
恒星的重力把它压成了鸡蛋状，并将其大气层剥离。
It's also tidally locked, so only one side ever faces the star.
它也会被潮汐锁定，所以只有一边对着恒星。
And all these effects give it some pretty extreme conditions.
这些影响使得它出现了一些极端情况。
The new study confirms that its day side is about 2600 degrees Celsius,
新研究确定它的阳面是2600摄氏度，
so hot that it glows, and molecules in the atmosphere break into individual atoms.
热得它发光，大气中的分子分解成了单个原子。
Those atoms are probably what absorb so much light.
这些原子可能就是吸收这么多光的物质。
Meanwhile, on the night side, which is a balmy 1200 degrees Celsius, previous studies have found what looks like evidence of water vapor or clouds in the atmosphere.
与此同时，阴面的温度适中，是1200摄氏度，早先的研究发现这是大气中水蒸气或云的可能证据。
So the line between day and night is pretty dramatic.
所以阳面和背面的差距非常戏剧化。
We've been studying 12b since 2008,
我们从2008年就研究12b,
but this new discovery proves that we still have a lot more to learn even just by looking at it from 1400 light years away.
但新发现证明，在1400光年远的地方观察，我们仍有许多东西待学习。
And it might be one of the strangest exoplanets out there, but this is definitely not one that you want to visit.
它可能是最奇怪的系外行星，但绝不是你想参观的一个。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News, brought to you by President of Space, S. R. Foxley.
感谢您收看本期的太空科学秀，本期节目是由太空大佬S.R.福斯雷赞助的。
If you'd like to help support this show or become President of Space,
如果你想继续支持本节目或想成为太空大佬，
you can check us out at patreon.com/scishow.
你可以登录patreon.com/scishow找到我们。
And if you want to support us just by watching and by sharing and by knowing that these things exist
如果你想通过收看、分享或了解之前的节目，
because they show up in your subscription box, go to youtube.com/scishowspace.
因为它们都在你的订阅箱中，就登录youtube.com/scishowspace吧。
