詼諧的語(yǔ)言，生動(dòng)的內(nèi)容一分鐘快速掌握科技最新動(dòng)態(tài)?、

?

?本期節(jié)目音頻下載

Mission to Mars Will Search for Lost Atmosphere

探索火星的任務(wù)將是尋找消失的大氣

The clues are adding up to give a picture of a distant Martian past, when the planet had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough for water to stream on the surface. But now the water’s gone, and the atmosphere is so thin that any water would boil away.

諸多線索綜合起來(lái)為我們描繪出一幅畫面：那是火星遙遠(yuǎn)的過(guò)去，那時(shí)的火星還有著一層厚厚的大氣層，令這顆星球溫?zé)崤?，從而使水能夠在火星表面流淌。但如今，地表的水消失不?jiàn)，而大氣層變得如此之薄，任何水分都會(huì)蒸發(fā)掉。

In fact, the vestigial atmosphere is still slowly dissipating into space. Why? Well, researchers believe that solar wind and radiation is behind the theft, and they’re planning a mission to find out, called MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission

事實(shí)上，殘余的大氣層仍在緩慢地消散于太空中。為什么呢？唔，研究人員認(rèn)為太陽(yáng)風(fēng)和輻射是“幕后黑手”，他們打算開(kāi)展一項(xiàng)任務(wù)來(lái)找出原因何在。這項(xiàng)任務(wù)名為MAVEN——火星大氣與揮發(fā)物演化任務(wù)（Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission）。

The solar wind is a stream of electrically-charged particles. It continuously flows from the sun out into space. We on Earth have protection in the form of a magnetic shield. But that shield is dead on Mars, gone for billions of years.

太陽(yáng)風(fēng)是一股帶點(diǎn)粒子流。它由太陽(yáng)不斷發(fā)出，流入太空中。我們?cè)诘厍蛏鲜艿酱艌?chǎng)屏蔽的保護(hù)，而火星的電磁場(chǎng)早在億萬(wàn)年前就已經(jīng)消失了。

Instead, the solar wind and the sun’s UV radiation give an electric charge to atoms and particles in Mars outer atmosphere. Then electric fields generated by the solar wind sweep away the charged particles. So the atmosphere becomes even thinner.

這樣，太陽(yáng)風(fēng)和太陽(yáng)的紫外輻射賦予火星外層大氣中的原子和粒子一個(gè)電荷，然后由太陽(yáng)風(fēng)產(chǎn)生的電場(chǎng)將帶電粒子一掃而空。因此，火星的大氣層變得越來(lái)越薄。

Maven is scheduled to reach the red planet in 2014. Which will allow researchers to measure how much water and atmosphere are gone with the solar wind.

預(yù)計(jì)Maven將于2014年抵達(dá)這顆紅色星球。屆時(shí)，研究人員將能測(cè)出究竟有多少水和大氣隨太陽(yáng)風(fēng)而逝。

—Cynthia Graber

點(diǎn)擊進(jìn)入?yún)⑴c科學(xué)60秒查看背景資料和單詞總結(jié)>>>?

聲明：音視頻均來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)鏈接，僅供學(xué)習(xí)使用。本網(wǎng)站自身不存儲(chǔ)、控制、修改被鏈接的內(nèi)容。"滬江英語(yǔ)"高度重視知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)保護(hù)。當(dāng)如發(fā)現(xiàn)本網(wǎng)站發(fā)布的信息包含有侵犯其著作權(quán)的鏈接內(nèi)容時(shí)，請(qǐng)聯(lián)系我們，我們將依法采取措施移除相關(guān)內(nèi)容或屏蔽相關(guān)鏈接。