太阳系的“奇怪”现象引起了科学家的兴趣,太阳系形成时到底发生了什么?木星又为什么被称作太阳系的“破碎机”呢?快来随着托福小编一起开始今天的托福阅读学习吧!
在阅读之前,看一下文章中有哪些疑难词:
Wreck n. 破坏;失事v 破坏;失事;拆毁
swung v. 摇摆(swing的过去式和过去分词)
pulverizevt. 粉碎;使成粉末;研磨
Proceedingsn. 诉讼;行动(proceeding的复数形式);会议记录
long-standing adj. 长期存在的;存在已久的
Striking v. 打(strike的ing形式)adj. 显著的,突出的
oddball n. 古怪;古怪的人adj. 古怪的;奇怪的
nascent adj. 初期的;开始存在的
Leftover n. 残留物;剩余物adj. 残余的
smashup n. 猛撞;惨败
lethal adj. 致命的,致死的
gravitational adj.重力的,引力的
tug n.拖曳;苦干v. 用力拉
overlap n. 重叠;重复vt. 与…重叠
fragment n. 碎片vt. 使成碎片
cascade n. 层叠;小瀑布;喷流v. 使瀑布似地落下
debris n. 碎片,残骸
sweep up打扫
chaotic adj. 混沌的;混乱的
wreckage n.残骸
开始阅读吧!
Jupiter, Wrecking Ball of Early Solar System
木星,早期太阳系的“破碎机”
Like a cosmic wrecking ball, Jupiter may have swung through the inner solar system billions of years ago, pulverizing newborn Earth-like planets.
木星像宇宙中的“破碎机”,在几十亿年前就摇摇摆摆穿过了太阳系中心,碰撞地球,把它弄成了现在的样子。
The surprising new finding, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help solve a long-standing puzzle: why our solar system is so different from others.
美国国家科学院院刊周一发表的这一新发现可能会帮助我们解答长久以来的大谜团:为什么太阳系和其他星系不同?
In our galaxy, at least, the standard-issue set of planets appears to include worlds larger than Earth that orbit close to their star. But our solar system has a striking lack of planets near the sun.
在银河系,标准行星至少应该是那种比地球要大型,而且围绕着临近行星转动的。但是在太阳系,太阳周围明显没有多少星球。
"Our solar system is looking increasingly like an oddball," said study co-author Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, in a statement.
来自加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的研究合著者劳克林在一次声明中表示:“太阳系看上去越来越奇怪。”
According to Laughlin and his team, a set of nascent super-Earths may have originally populated the inner solar system—closely hugging the sun, just as exoplanet hunters are now finding to be common around stars throughout the Milky Way galaxy.
根据劳克林和他的团队成员表示,一组新生的超级地球可能一开始成为太阳系的成员,与太阳紧紧相依。就像现在发现的太阳系外的行星猎人一般都围绕着整个银河系的星星一样。
The team believes that Earth and its rocky neighbors formed from leftover building blocks of planets long after smashups with Jupiter destroyed those big planets near the sun.
这些研究者们确信地球和它的岩石体邻居是由当初木星撞击一些行星之后产生的来自行星的块状残余物组成的。
As Jupiter came barrelling in toward the inner solar system, what theorists call the Grand Tack, a set of lethal gravitational tugs and pulls took place that set off a series of cataclysmal collisions between the ancient rocky worlds as their orbits began to overlap.
木星向太阳方向迁移时(类似一艘帆船绕著浮筒周围航行时会做的动作,理论上称为大转向),会产生一系列剧烈的重力牵引或者推动作用,这些作用会使得岩石体世界的行星因为转行轨道重叠而剧烈碰撞。
"It's the same thing we worry about if satellites were to be destroyed in low Earth orbit. Their fragments would start smashing into other satellites, and you'd risk a chain reaction of collisions. Our work indicates that Jupiter would have created just such a collisional cascade in the inner solar system," Laughlin says.
劳克林说,“人造卫星在低轨道运行时如果会受到冲击,这也会是我们担心的问题。这些碎片会掉入其他行星,这会是连锁的碰撞反应。我们的工作表明木星已经在太阳系制造了这样一场连续碰撞。”
The resulting debris was swept up by the sun, clearing the inner parts of the solar system.
这些碰撞形成的碎片被太阳“清理”了,才使得太阳系保持了“清洁”。
Born Out of Chaos
从混乱中诞生
As the theory goes, a second generation of inner worlds—the ones we see today—would then have formed from the chaotic planetary wreckage left behind.
从这种理论看,未来会出现的太阳系二代到时候会从这些混乱的行星残骸形成。
Astronomers have discovered nearly 500 planetary systems with multiple worlds, and typically these include a few planets with masses several times greater than the Earth’s, known as super-Earths, orbiting much closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. Jupiter-like gas giants are also often found close to their host stars.
宇航员已经发现有大约超过500多个行星系有多重行星世界,而且很典型的是这些世界中包含一些质量是地球几倍的行星,称为超级地球,它们紧紧围绕着中心星体而行,比水星与太阳的距离还要近。类木行星就经常被发现离中心星体很近。
So it appears that we see Jupiter where it is today, in the outer solar system, only because neighboring gas giant Saturn pulled Jupiter out so far. Getting Jupiter out of the way would have allowed the formation of all the rocky inner planets seen today, including Earth.
所以可能我们今天发现的木星在太阳系外所处的位置是由于它的邻居土星牵引的够远吧!把木星牵引出去才使得包括地球在内的岩石体行星得以形成。
“There is a lot of evidence that supports the idea of Jupiter's inward and then outward migration. Our work looks at the consequences of that. Jupiter's Grand Tack may well have been a 'Grand Attack' on the original inner solar system.”
“有许多证据支持木星迁移理论。我们的工作就是观察这一事件的结果。木星的大转向本来可能变成太阳系的大袭击。”
文章中的长难句:
1.As Jupiter came barrelling in toward the inner solar system, what theorists call the Grand Tack, a set of lethal gravitational tugs and pulls took place( that set off a series of cataclysmal collisions between the ancient rocky worlds as their orbits began to overlap).
句子类型:时间状语从句+插入语+定语从句
句子拆分:
主干:a set of lethal gravitational tugs and pulls took place.
时间状语从句:As Jupiter came barrelling in toward the inner solar system和as their orbits began to overlap
插入语:what theorists call the Grand Tack,修饰前面内容
定语从句:(that set off a series of cataclysmal collisions between the ancient rocky worlds as their orbits began to overlap),修饰tugs and pulls
翻译:木星向太阳方向迁移时(类似一艘帆船绕著浮筒周围航行时会做的动作,理论上称为大转向),会产生一系列剧烈的重力牵引或者推动作用,这些作用会使得岩石体世界的行星因为转行轨道重叠而剧烈碰撞。
2.It's the same thing we worry about if satellites were to be destroyed in low Earth orbit.
句子类型:虚拟语气
If …were to用于与将来事实可能相反的条件句中
翻译:人造卫星在低轨道运行时如果会受到冲击,这也会是我们担心的问题。
好了,以上就是我们今天的托福阅读文章了,希望大家能够从中学习到相关背景知识。也提醒大家在备考托福时多通过相关文章的阅读来提高自己的阅读水平。若您想了解托福考试更多相关信息请关注前程百利。
您还可能关注:

