VOA常速英語-NASA即將發射新型探測器

原標題：VOA常速英語-NASA即將發射新型探測器

Engineers have been assembling and testing TESS, since its arrival at NASA』s Space Center.

自從抵達NASA太空中心以來，工程師們一直在組裝和測試TESS。

Its mission is to locate exoplanets that orbit a star, similar to the way the Earth orbits the Sun and see whether these planets can support life.

它的任務是尋找圍繞恆星軌道的系外行星，類似於地球圍繞太陽軌道運行方式的行星，以及這些行星是否有生命存在。

To find these new worlds TESS will look for dips in the brightness of stars indicating planets passing in front of them.

為了發現這些新的世界，TESS會在行星經過它的運行軌道時觀測它們的明暗度變化。

「It is going to survey nearly the entire sky, looking at hundreds of thousands of stars up to millions of stars,

它將勘察幾乎整片天空，觀察成千上萬甚至數以百萬計的恆星，

looking for new planets orbiting these other stars.」

尋找著這些圍繞其他恆星旋轉的新行星。

TESS will divide the sky into sections, looking at each slice for 27 days, before switching to the next area.

TESS會把天空劃分成幾個部分，每個部分觀察27天之後才會轉戰下一部分。

「And it is done, we will have surveyed 85 percent of the sky for science of exoplanets.」

我們將會對宇宙中百分之八十五的地外行星進行經科學檢測。

TESS will be building on the mission of the Kepler space telescope that launched in 2009, but will soon run out of fuel.

2009年發射的開普勒太空望遠鏡燃料即將耗盡，TESS將在它的基礎上繼續進行勘察任務。

Kepler discovered about 2,600 confirmed exoplanets, but they are far away.

開普勒發現了大約2600顆已被證實的系外行星，但它們都很遙遠。

TESS will spend about two years searching for new worlds closer to our solar system, planets orbiting stars close enough and bright enough,

TESS將花費大約兩年時間尋找更接近太陽系行星的新世界，這些行星的軌道距離地球足夠近且足夠亮，

so earthbound astronomers can study them in more detail.

以便地球天文學家可以更詳細地研究它們。

「We can do follow-up measurements such as getting the mass of the planet and looking at the atmosphere

我們可以做後續測量，比如獲得地球的質量，觀察大氣，

and searching for things like water vapor and even maybe signs of life on the planet.」

尋找水蒸氣等物質，甚至可能是地球上的生命跡象。

「Tess is the mission that is going to detect some of those planets that we first dream of going to in a realistic way.」

TESS的任務是前往那些此前推測可能存在生命的理想星球去探測，去證實。

Scientists hope to one day send robots to these planets for further exploration.

科學家希望有一天能夠將機器人發射到這些行星從而進行進一步的探索。

I』m faith Lapidus VOA news.

VOA記者費思。

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