Hints:
Kepler 22b
NASA's orbiting Kepler telescope has discovered its first planet in the habitable zone of another star. By "habitable," astronomers mean that a planet could harbor temperatures conducive to liquid water — and maybe life.
______(填一句话。)________ “The star is some 600 light-years away.” NASA's Bill Borucki, who leads the Kepler mission, in a December 5th teleconference.
That star is a bit cooler than the sun. "So if the greenhouse warming were similar on this planet, and it had a surface, its surface temperature would be something like 72 Fahrenheit — a very pleasant temperature here on Earth."
Kepler 22b is more than twice as large as Earth. One big caveat is that it may not be rocky, like Earth is. It could instead be a gas planet like Neptune. If that were the case, prospects for life there would be rather dim.
Kepler ought to find even better candidates for life in the near future. The satellite has now tentatively identified more than 2,300 possible planets — about 50 of them in the habitable zone — that await confirmation in the years to come.
The new planet, Kepler 22b, orbits somewhat closer to its host star than Earth does to the sun.
somewhat [D.J.:'sʌmhwɔt] adv. 稍微, 有点, 达到某种程度 比较句型。 上下文看,是小写的sun..所以小写。其它文章应该大写的地方还得大写。抱歉了各位。 NASA运行的Kepler望远镜已经发现第一个存在于外星系适宜人类居住的区域中的行星。所谓“适宜居住”按天文学家们的意思就是指一个星球存在能产生液态水的温度-----并且也许已有生命存在的迹象。 这颗新发现的行星被命名为Kepler22b,它的运行轨道与该星系中主导星之间的距离与地球和太阳之间的比较接近。“这颗星距离我们约600光年。”NASA里领导Kepler任务的科学家Bill Boruckis在12月5日的远程会议上说到。 这颗星比太阳温度低一些。“因此,如果在这颗星球上也有类似的温室效应的话,它也许也有一个表面大气层,而表面的温度推测大约华氏72度----一个在地球上感觉相当宜人的温度。 Kepler 22b 是地球的两倍大。需要特别注意的一点是它也许不像地球那样含有较多的岩石。它也许像海王星那样是个气态为主的行星。如果这个推测是正确的,那么希望该星球上有生命的迹象是非常渺茫的了。 Kepler 应该在不久的将来还会找到更适合生命存在的强有力的工具。这个卫星现在已经探测到了2300颗可能存在生命的行星---其中50颗存在于宇宙中一个适宜居住的星球存在区---它们都还需要在未来进一步确认。 —John Matson ------------------------------------------by hyjtb