如何阻止天外杀手撞击地球？(下)

The Queen, the Queen. [qh]

王后，王后。[qh]

Now, Hera was originally supposed to arrive about the same time as DART at Dimorphos at Didymos. [qh]

赫拉本该与DART航天器同一时间到达“迪莫弗斯”与“迪迪莫斯”。[qh]

But instead, due to delays, it is now not launching until late next year, it's going to arrive sometime in 2026. [qh]

但是，由于延误，赫拉现在要到明年晚些时候才能发射，将于2026年某个时候到达目的地。[qh]

But that's still going to tell us a whole lot more about the aftermath of this epochal impact. [qh]

但这仍将向我们展示更多关于这次划时代影响的后果。[qh]

Now, there are other things to mention as well. [qh]

现在，还有其他要提的事情。[qh]

One project I'm excited about is NASA's NEO surveyor, the Near Earth Objects Surveyor Space Telescope. [qh]

令我兴奋的一个项目是美国宇航局的NEO勘测器，即近地天体勘测空间望远镜。[qh]

That is an infrared space telescope that's meant to launch maybe sometime in 2028. [qh]

这是一个计划在2028年某个时候发射的红外太空望远镜。[qh]

And it will be a very big step towards creating this catalog of objects, and getting a better sense of what's really out there and what the threats are. [qh]

这将是创建天体目录、更好地识别外太空有什么天体以及存在什么威胁的重大一步。[qh]

And on the ground there’s something similar to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. [qh]

地面上的NEO勘测器类似于薇拉·鲁宾天文台。[qh]

One thing that's very important for this mission is it will be doing the same kind of work from the ground.[qh]

这项任务非常重要的一点是，NEO勘测器将在地面上完成同样的工作。[qh]

It will be taking these full, panoramic, high resolution images of the sky multiple times per night, each and every night making almost a high definition movie of the heavens above. [qh]

NEO勘测器将在每晚拍摄数次完整的、全景式的、高分辨率的天空图像，每晚几乎都能拍摄出高清的太空图像。[qh]

And it'll be able to see little points of light moving around, some of which could be Earth threatening asteroids. [qh]

NEO勘测器能捕捉到四处移动的小光点，其中一些可能是威胁地球的小行星。[qh]

Oh, and then that's named after Vera Rubin, right. [qh]

那是以薇拉·鲁宾的名字命名的。[qh]

Indeed. One of the discoverers of dark matter, I believe, right? [qh]

确实是。薇拉·鲁宾是暗物质的发现者之一，对吧?[qh]

Yes, yes. We also know that researchers with the help of amateur astronomers are continuing to comb through the DART data to find out more about the physics, geology and chemistry of these two asteroids. [qh]

是的。我们也知道，在业余天文学家的帮助下，为找出更多关于这两颗小行星的物理、地质和化学方面的信息，研究人员仍在持续梳理DART(航天器)的数据。[qh]

Lee, what are you looking forward to the most to finding out in the near future?[qh]

李，你最期待在不久的将来有什么发现?[qh]

Well, honestly, I kind of considered Didymos and Dimorphos a little done and dusted. [qh]

说实话，我觉得“迪迪莫斯”和“迪莫弗斯”的工作彻底告一段落了。[qh]

We’ve already smacked the space rock, we've seen what's happened. [qh]

我们已经成功撞击了太空岩石，观察到了相关情况。[qh]

I'm interested in getting this catalogue. I'm interested in knowing more about the properties of a wide diversity of asteroids, because it may not be a rubble pile that comes at us every time. [qh]

我对这份星表很感兴趣。我对详细了解各种各样的小行星的特性很感兴趣，因为不是每次都有一堆碎石会向我们袭来。[qh]

What if it's a big ball of metal? What if it's made of ice? I don't know. [qh]

如果它是个巨大的金属球体呢? 如果它由冰组成呢? 我不知道。[qh]

That’s true. [qh]

的确是这样。[qh]

So clearly, the answer is to just smack more cows into pyramids, to send out more of these sorts of missions and get a sense of what happens when we whack things really hard in the solar system.[qh]

很明显，答案就是把更多的牛撞进金字塔，发送更多这样的任务，了解当我们在太阳系中猛烈撞击天体时会是什么情况。[qh]

That said, I have to say, I don't think this is going to be enough to save us. [qh]

尽管如此，我不得不说，我认为这不足以拯救我们。[qh]

There's a lot of situations where something could still hit us real hard and fast and DART definitely wouldn’t save us. [qh]

仍会有很多天体又快又猛袭击我们的情况，而DART航天器绝对救不了我们。[qh]

I will definitely rest easy. [qh]

我一定会高枕无忧。[qh]

I hope you do. [qh]

我希望你可以。[qh]

Thanks for listening to Science, Quickly. I'm Tulika Bose.[qh]

感谢收听《科学快讯》。我是图利卡·博斯。[qh]

And I'm Lee Billings.[qh]

我是李·比林斯。[qh]