33 Outside the Solar System-Low

Outside the Solar System Written by Patricia Walsh and Ron Fridell

《太阳系外》帕特里夏·沃尔什和罗恩·弗里德尔著

Introducing Deep Space Look up on a dark, clear night away from city lights. Do you see the points of light overhead? Most of the points of light are stars. Some points of light are huge groups of stars called galaxies. You are looking into deep space. Deep space is everything outside our Solar System. It is the space beyond our star—the Sun—and the planets that orbit the Sun. You're about to journey among the stars.

在一个远离城市灯光的黑暗晴朗的夜晚抬头仰望。 你看到头顶上的光点了吗? 大部分光点都是恒星。 一些光点是巨大的恒星群，叫做星系。 你看到的是外太空。 外太空是太阳系之外的一切。 它是我们的恒星——太阳和围绕太阳运行的行星之外的空间。 你即将踏上星际之旅。

Exploring Space Telescopes give us a closer look at the objects in the night sky. Huge telescopes sit on top of mountains. Space telescopes orbit Earth. Radio telescopes gather radio waves from deep space. They let us see things we can't see with visible light. Word Wise The word telescope comes from the Greek word teleskopos. The word part tele- means "far" and -skopos means "seeing" Our modern-day telescopes let us see far into space.

探索太空望远镜能让我们更近距离地观察夜空中的物体。 巨大的望远镜坐落在山顶上。 太空望远镜环绕地球运行。 射电望远镜收集来自太空深处的无线电波。 它们让我们看到可见光看不到的东西。 望远镜这个词来自希腊语teleskopos。 part telee -意为“远的”，-skopos意为“看到”。现代望远镜让我们能看到遥远的太空。

People have gone into space. We have landed on the Moon. But no one from Earth has ever left our Solar System. No human being has gone into deep space. Pack your imagination. Get ready to take off. You will get a close-up look at the billions of stars, planets, and galaxies in our universe.

人们已经进入了太空。 我们已经登上了月球。 但地球上还没有人离开过太阳系。 人类还没有进入过外太空。 发挥你的想象力。准备起飞。 你可以近距离观察宇宙中数十亿颗恒星、行星和星系。

Out of This World You already know your own space neighbors. They are the Moon, the other planets, and our Sun. These are in our Solar System. But it is only a tiny part of the universe. Outside the Solar System is a huge amount of space. The universe has billions and billions of other objects in it. It's time to leave Earth, and head toward deep space. You're leaving our Solar System. Did you feel a bump? The bump is caused by solar wind. It reaches to where the Solar System ends and deep space begins. The bump should not have surprised you. An unmanned spacecraft named Voyager 2 traveled this far. It let scientists know about the bumpy solar winds. You're traveling faster than Voyager 2. Wave to it as you cross into deep space.

你已经认识了自己的太空邻居。 它们是月球、其他行星和我们的太阳。 它们就在我们的太阳系里。 但它只是宇宙中很小的一部分。 太阳系外是巨大的空间。 宇宙中有数十亿的其他物体。 是时候离开地球，前往外太空了。 你要离开太阳系了。 你觉得有肿块吗?凸起是由太阳风引起的。 它到达太阳系的尽头和深空的起点。 这个肿块不应该让你感到惊讶。 一艘名为旅行者2号的无人飞船飞行了这么远。 它让科学家了解了颠簸的太阳风。 你比旅行者2号还快。 当你穿越到深空时向它挥手。

Among the Stars You've traveled a very long distance now. You have come 4.2 light-years from Earth. You're arriving at Earth's nearest star neighbor. It is Proxima Centauri, a dim, cool star. Do you see Proxima Centauri's partner, Alpha Centauri? Up close, you can see that Alpha Centauri has two stars that are just like our Sun. On Earth, you saw constellations. There were a lion, a swan, and a centaur. But now you're traveling among the stars. You'll see that these constellations aren't dots on a flat surface. They're stars that are very far from one another. Math Moment The distance between stars is huge. Scientists use a measurement called a light-year to measure it. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. One light-year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers (5.9 trillion mi.) About how many kilometers (or mi.) from Earth is our closest star neighbor?

在星星之间你已经旅行了很长一段距离。 你来到了距离地球4.2光年的地方。 你正在到达地球最近的恒星邻居。 它就是比邻星，一颗昏暗而凉爽的恒星。 你看到比邻星的搭档半人马座阿尔法星了吗? 近距离看，半人马座阿尔法星有两颗恒星，就像我们的太阳一样。 在地球上，你看到了星座。 有一只狮子，一只天鹅和一个马人。 但现在你在星际间旅行。 你会发现这些星座并不是平面上的点。 它们是彼此相距很远的恒星。 恒星之间的距离是巨大的。 科学家们使用一种叫做光年的测量方法来测量它。 一光年是光在一年内传播的距离。 一光年大约是9.5万亿公里(5.9万亿英里)距离地球最近的恒星邻居是多少公里(或英里)?