双语读物：天文学家发现第一颗“类地球”行星（英汉对照）.doc

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Astronomers discover ‘Goldilocks' planet that could be just right for life
天文学家发现第一颗“类地球”行星

Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
离恒星不能太远，也不能太近。这样才能有液态的水。行星自身既不能太大，也不能太小，这样才有大小合适的地表，引力和大气层。
It's just right. Just like Earth.
这样就刚刚好。就像地球一样。
“This really is the first Goldilocks planet,” said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
发现人之一华尔街卡内基学会R·保罗·巴特勒（R. Paul Butler）称，“这是第一颗（地球以外）可居住的行星。”
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.
与天文学家已发现的太阳系外其它近500颗行星不同，这颗新发现的行星恰好位于天文学家可居住地带。它是我们银河系的近邻，很像地球，围绕着其它恒星公转。
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
找到一颗有可能支持生命的行星，是朝着一个永恒的问题迈出了一大步：我们是孤独存在的吗？
Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press, it seems to be the real thing.
之前就有许多科学家声称在太阳系外发现了适合居住的行星，但结果都证明那些行星并不是很适合生命存在。不过这一颗行星处在合适的地带是很明确的。有5名的天文学家告诉美联社，这次似乎是真的。
“This is the first one I'm truly excited about,” said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a “pretty prime candidate” for harboring life.
宾西法尼亚州立大学的吉姆·凯斯丁称，“这是发现的第一颗（适合人类居住的行星），我对此真的感到很兴奋。”他称这颗行星是庇护生命的“首选地”。
Life on other planets doesn't mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mould would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.
其它行星上有生命并不表示有外星人，哪怕有简单的单细胞或是和地球一样的阵雨，都足以对地球生命唯一性这一认知造成很大的震撼。
But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star – 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.
但是这颗陌生的行星仍有许多未解之谜。它的大小大约是地球的三倍，比地球略宽，而且更接近恒星——1400万英里，地球距离太阳为9300万英里。因为离自己的太阳太近的缘故，它每37天绕恒星一周。它不自转，所以它的一面总是光明的，而另一面总是黑暗的。
Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between – in the land of constant sunrise – it would be “shirt-sleeve weather,” said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
热的温度到160度，冷的温度到零下25度，但是在两者之间的时候（稳定的日出时），行星将是“穿衬衫的天气，”圣克鲁兹加州大学的发现人之一斯蒂文·福格特说。
It's unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Mr. Vogt believes “that chances for life on this planet are 100 per cent.”
目前还不知道这颗行星上是否真的有水，是否有类似大气层的东西。但是那里的环境对液态水来说很理想，因为有水的地球上总是显得生机勃勃，所以福格特先生坚信“这颗星球上百分之百有生命。”
The astronomers' findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.
天文物理期刊和美国国家科学基金会周三公布了天文学家们的这一发现。
The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It's about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is “like right in our face, right next door to us,” Mr. Vogt said in an interview.

这颗行星所绕行的一颗恒星叫格雷司581。距离地球大约120万亿英里，乘坐太空船去那里需要几代人的时间。这个距离似乎很远，但是与浩瀚的宇宙相比，这颗行星的距离“就像是在我们面前，在我们隔壁一样，”福格特先生在一次访谈中称。
That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers' search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.
天文学家们搜寻可居住行星的方法是极为相似的，而且是早就有的，这提示科学家们，像地球一样可以居住的行星可能并不少见。
Mr. Vogt and Mr. Butler ran some calculations, with giant fudge factors built in, and figured that as much as one out of five to 10 stars in the universe have planets that are Earth-sized and in the habitable zone.
福格特先生和巴特勒先生经过一些计算，再加上大量附加因素得出，宇宙中每5到10颗恒星中就有一颗恒星有地球大小一样的行星，而且处在可居住地带。
With an estimated 200 billion stars in the universe, that means maybe 40 billion planets that have the potential for life, Mr. Vogt said. However, Ohio State University's Scott Gaudi cautioned that is too speculative about how common these planets are.
福格特先生称，据估计，宇宙中有2千亿颗恒星，这意味着或许400颗行星可能适合生命存在。不过，俄亥俄州立大学的斯科特·高迪警告，可居住的行星这么普遍，这种推测太理论化了。
Mr. Vogt and Mr. Butler used ground-based telescopes to track the star's precise movements over 11 years and watch for wobbles that indicate planets are circling it. The newly discovered planet is actually the sixth found circling Gliese 581. Two looked promising for habitability for a while, another turned out to be too hot and the fifth is likely too cold. This sixth one bracketed right in the sweet spot in between, Mr. Vogt said.

福格特先生和巴特勒先生用地基式望远镜观察格雷司581恒星的精确移动超过11年了，并且留意到了它的摆动，这显示有行星正在围绕它在公转。新发现的这颗行星实际上是第六颗被发现围绕格雷司581公转的行星。暂时有两颗行星有居住的可能。另一颗太热了，而第五颗可能太冷了。福格特先生说，第六颗行星正好在这两颗之间最合适的位置。
With the star designated “a,” its sixth planet is called Gliese 581g.
恒星用“a”表示，那它的第六颗行星就叫做格雷司 581g。
“It's not a very interesting name and it's a beautiful planet,” Mr. Vogt said. Unofficially, he's named it after his wife: “I call it Zarmina's World.”
“这名字不是很好听，而这颗行星又这么漂亮，”福格特先生称。私底下，他用妻子的名字称呼它：“我叫它萨米娜的世界。”
The star Gliese 581 is a dwarf, about one-third the strength of our sun. Because of that, it can't be seen without a telescope from Earth, although it is in the Libra constellation, Mr. Vogt said.
恒星格雷司 581是个侏儒，大约有太阳的三分之一那么大。福格特先生说，因此虽然它在天平星座，但是在地球上不用望远镜是看不到的。
But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun, Mr. Butler said.
但是如果站在这颗新的行星上，你可以很容易看到我们的太阳，巴特勒先生说。
The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.
他说，低能量的矮星可以生存数十亿年，远比我们的太阳生存时间长。这增加了行星上生命发展的可能性。
“It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions,” Mr. Vogt said.
福格特先生说，“一旦有合适的环境，阻止生命存在是非常困难的。”

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