Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

第一章

THE (MOSTLY) HORRIBLY DEADLY PLANETS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM WITH PROFESSOR NOVA NEFARIOUS

（大多数）可怕的致命行星在我们的太阳系与教授诺娃邪恶

WELCOME TO YOUR FIRST CLASS, MY BUDDING EVIL-DOERS! The first item on our dastardly tour of the Universe is a stroll around our cosmic neighborhood: THE SOLAR SYSTEM. There's plenty of havoc to be wreaked with this little collection of planets (if you know where to look. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS! (This is a saying in rocket science ever since the first experimental "DOWNWARDS LAUNCH" mission ended very badly.)

欢迎来到你们的第一堂课，我的小坏蛋们！我们卑鄙的宇宙之旅的第一项是在我们的宇宙邻居——太阳系周围漫步。 这一小群行星（如果你知道去哪里看的话）会造成很大的破坏。 向前，向上！（自从第一次实验性“向下发射”任务以非常糟糕的结局结束以来，这是火箭科学领域的一个说法。）

MERCURY The first stop on our tour of the mostly horribly deadly planets in our Solar System is Tiny little Mercury-the closest planet to the Sun. QUICK QUIZ: WHAT'S THE WEATHER LIKE ON MERCURY? If you said "PRETTY HOT"... you're only half right. PLEASE TRY HARDER NEXT TIME. The side of Mercury facing the Sun gets roasted to more than 750°F—about as hot as a pizza oven... mmm, space pizza-but the side facing away from the Sun is colder than winter at the North Pole (around -275°F). There are even some deep craters at Mercury's north pole that have ice in them.

我们在太阳系中最可怕的致命行星之旅的第一站是离太阳最近的行星——小小的水星。 快速测试：水星上的天气怎么样？ 如果你说“很性感”… 你只对了一半。请下次再努力一点。 水星面向太阳的一面被烤到750华氏度以上——和披萨烤箱一样热…… 嗯，太空披萨——但是背向太阳的那一面比北极的冬天还要冷（大约零下275华氏度）。 在水星的北极甚至有一些深坑里面有冰。

WHY DOES THIS EXTREME TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE EXIST? It's because Mercury is too puny to hang on to an atmosphere. Here on Earth, it never gets too cold at night because the blanket of air around us traps some of the Sun's heat. But Mercury is NAKED, atmosphere-wise. So at night, there's nothing between it and the freezing darkness of space.

为什么存在这种极端的温差？ 这是因为水星太小了，无法附着在大气层上。 在地球上，晚上不会太冷，因为我们周围的空气会吸收一些太阳的热量。 但水星在大气方面是赤裸的。 所以在晚上，它和冰冷黑暗的太空之间没有任何东西。

MERCURY IS LUCKY TO EXIST AT ALL. We think the ball of iron we call Mercury might be the leftover core of a MUCH BIGGER PLANET that got its outer layers smashed off by a cosmic collision billions of years ago. Although it's fun to wonder if an alien supervillain was doing some homework for their "explode a planet" course, it was probably a MASSIVE asteroid that did it. HOW LONG COULD YOU SURVIVE ON MERCURY? It depends where you are. On the daytime hot-as-a-pizza- oven side, you'd be chargrilled in less than a minute. On the night-time colder-than-the-North- Pole side, you'd be an icicle in about the same time. But the exact middle point would be just about safe... though you'd have to keep running to stay in the safe zone!

水星的存在是幸运的。 我们认为，我们称之为水星的铁球可能是数十亿年前一颗更大的行星的残余核心，这颗行星的外层被宇宙碰撞砸碎了。 虽然好奇外星超级恶棍是否在为他们的“爆炸星球”课程做功课很有趣，但很可能是一颗巨大的小行星做了这件事。 你靠水银能活多久？ 这取决于你在哪里。在白天像披萨烤箱一样热的情况下，不到一分钟你就会被烤焦。 在夜晚比北极更冷的一面，你会在大约相同的时间内变成冰柱。 但确切的中间点是安全的…… 不过你得不停地跑才能待在安全地带！