35 Outside the Solar System-High

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 On a dark, clear night away from city lights, look up. Look way up. Do you see points of light dotting the black canopy of sky overhead? Most of the points of light you see are stars. Some of the points of light you see are double stars that orbit each other. And some of the points of light are really massive collections of stars called galaxies. What you can see, and even what you cannot see, is all part of deep space. Deep space is the area of space that is beyond our own Solar System. It is space beyond our star— the Sun— and the planets, asteroids, and comets that orbit our Sun.

在一个黑暗、晴朗的夜晚，远离城市的灯光，抬头仰望。 向上看。你是否看到头顶黑色的天空中点缀着光点? 你看到的大部分光点都是恒星。 你看到的一些光点是相互环绕的双星。 一些光点实际上是巨大的恒星集合，叫做星系。 你能看到的，甚至你看不见的，都是深空的一部分。 深空是太阳系之外的空间区域。 它是我们的恒星——太阳——以及围绕太阳运行的行星、小行星和彗星之外的空间。

Exploring Space For thousands of years, people looked up and used the stars to navigate their way across Earth's land and seas. Then, about 500 years ago, people developed the first telescopes to get a closer look at the objects in the heavens overhead. People immediately began improving the telescopes. They made them bigger and more powerful. The images of the stars they could see got clearer and brighter. Today, huge telescopes sit on top of mountains and even orbit in space above Earth. Scientists also developed another kind of telescope. The radio telescope, which detects radio waves given off by objects in space, allows us to detect things that cannot be seen with optical telescopes.

探索太空几千年来，人们仰望星空，利用星星在地球的陆地和海洋中导航。 然后，大约在500年前，人们发明了第一批望远镜来近距离观察头顶上的天体。 人们立即开始改进望远镜。 他们把它们做得更大更强大。 他们所能看到的恒星的图像变得越来越清晰和明亮。 今天，巨大的望远镜坐落在山顶上，甚至在地球上空的太空轨道上运行。 科学家们还发明了另一种望远镜。 射电望远镜可以探测到太空物体发出的无线电波，使我们能够探测到光学望远镜看不到的东西。

In 1961, the Soviet Union put the first man into space. Now people have even landed on the Moon. But no one has ever traveled into deep space. So how do we know what exists way, way out in space? How do we know what makes up the universe? The answer lies in the information we gather from telescopes and spacecraft. Like so many space explorers before you, plant your feet firmly on Earth. Then sharpen your science skills and pack your imagination. You are about to journey among the billions of stars, planets, and galaxies in the universe. 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.

1961年，苏联将第一个人送入太空。 现在人们甚至登上了月球。 但是还没有人去过外太空。 那么我们怎么知道宇宙中存在什么呢? 我们怎么知道宇宙是由什么组成的呢? 答案就在我们从望远镜和宇宙飞船收集的信息中。 像你之前的许多太空探险家一样，把你的脚牢牢地踩在地球上。 然后磨砺你的科学技能和丰富你的想象力。 你即将在宇宙中数十亿颗恒星、行星和星系之间旅行。 望远镜这个词来自希腊语teleskopos。 tele-的意思是“远”，skopos的意思是“看到”。 现代望远镜让我们能看到遥远的太空。

Out of This World You are already familiar with your own space neighborhood— Planet Earth, our Moon, the other planets, and our Sun. These are all in our Solar System. But it is only a very tiny part of a gigantic, bustling universe filled with vast space and billions and billions of other objects. It's time to leave Earth and head toward the outer edge of our Solar System. Take a moment to look back over your shoulder as you zip past the outer planets of Uranus and Neptune. Earth looked like a blue dot for a while, but now it has disappeared. You'll feel a bump as you leave the Solar System. The bump is caused by the solar wind at the boundary between our Solar System and deep space. You knew the bump was coming because Voyager 2, an unmanned spacecraft launched in 1977, gave us advance warning. You're traveling much faster than Voyager 2, so you'll be overtaking it as you cross into interstellar space.

你已经熟悉了你自己的太空邻居——地球、我们的月球、其他行星和我们的太阳。 这些都在太阳系里。 但它只是一个巨大的、熙熙攘攘的宇宙中非常小的一部分，这个宇宙充满了广阔的空间和数以十亿计的其他物体。 是时候离开地球，前往太阳系的外边缘了。 当你快速飞过天王星和海王星这两个外行星时，花点时间回头看看。 地球有一段时间看起来像一个蓝点，但现在它已经消失了。 当你离开太阳系时，你会感觉到一个凸起。 这个凸起是由太阳系和深空边界处的太阳风引起的。 你知道撞击即将到来，因为1977年发射的无人宇宙飞船旅行者2号提前向我们发出了警告。 你的速度比旅行者2号快得多，所以当你进入星际空间时，你会超过它。

Among the Stars You've traveled a very long distance now. You have come 4.2 light-years from Earth. You've reached our nearest neighboring star, dim and cool Proxima Centauri. Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri are part of a multiple-star system. Alpha Centauri's two stars are 4.3 light-years away and are almost identical to our Sun. Standing on Earth, you saw constellations made of stars arranged in interesting patterns— a lion, a swan, a centaur. But as you travel among the stars, you'll notice that these constellations are not dots on a flat surface— they're actually stars that are very far from each other. Math Moment The distance between stars is so great that scientists use a measurement called a light-year to measure it. One light-year is the distance that light travels in one Earth 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。 你已经到达了离我们最近的恒星，昏暗而凉爽的比邻星。 比邻星和半人马座阿尔法星是一个多恒星系统的一部分。 半人马座阿尔法星的两颗恒星距离我们4.3光年，与我们的太阳几乎一模一样。 站在地球上，你会看到由星星组成的星座，它们以有趣的模式排列——狮子、天鹅、半人马。 但当你在星星之间旅行时，你会注意到这些星座并不是平面上的点——它们实际上是彼此相距很远的恒星。 恒星之间的距离是如此之大，以至于科学家们使用一种称为光年的测量方法来测量它。 一光年是光在一个地球年里传播的距离。 一光年大约是9.5万亿公里(5.9万亿英里)。 离地球最近的恒星邻居大约有多少公里(或英里)?