VOA慢速英语:Astronomers Still Look to Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to make valuable discoveries after more than twenty years in orbit around Earth.
哈勃太空望远镜在绕地球轨道上运行超过20年后，仍然继续有宝贵的发现。

Hubble recently showed a fourth moon orbiting Pluto. Astronomers temporarily named it P4. The moon is the smallest to be discovered around the icy dwarf planet.
哈勃太空望远镜最近发现了第四颗绕行冥王星的卫星。天文学家们暂时把它命名为P4。该是迄今为止发现的围绕这颗冰雪覆盖的矮行星的最小的卫星。

Astronomers estimate that the moon is from thirteen to thirty-four kilometers across. They first saw it in a Hubble photo taken on June twenty-eighth.
天文学家估计，该卫星的直径约13至14千米。他们第一次看到它是在6月28日哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的照片中。

The American space agency NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope in nineteen ninety. Reaching that day took years of work. Ed Weiler is NASA’s chief astronomer. Mr. Weiler has worked closely with the Hubble program since nineteen seventy-nine.
美国航空航天局NASA在1990年发射了哈勃太空望远镜，为了这一刻耗费了多年的时间。NASA首席天文学家Ed Weiler自从1979年以来一直与哈勃望远镜计划密切合作。

ED WEILER: “The Hubble, when it was launched, represented an increase in capability of other telescopes on the ground by a factor of ten. The last time in human history in astronomy that we leaped a factor of ten, in one step, was when Galileo stopped using his eye and put the first telescope to his eye.”
Ed Weiler：“当哈勃望远镜发射时，代表地面其他望远镜的能力提高了十倍。人类天文学历史上上次取得十倍的进步是伽利略首次使用天文望远镜观察太空的时候。”

NASA's first chief of astronomy was Nancy Grace Roman. Ms. Roman joined NASA in nineteen fifty-nine. She led the effort that resulted in the creation of the Hubble Space Telescope.
美国宇航局的第一个天文学负责人是Nancy Grace Roman。Roman女士在1959年加入NASA。她的努力促成了哈勃天文望远镜的诞生。

NANCY GRACE ROMAN: “Astronomers had been wanting to get observations from above the atmosphere for a long time. Looking through the atmosphere is somewhat like looking through a piece of old, stained glass. The glass has defects in it, so the image is blurred from that."
Nancy Grace Roman：“天文学家们已经渴望观察大气层上方的状况很长时间了。透过大气层来观察就好像穿过一片老旧的彩色玻璃一样。这片玻璃上有瑕疵，所以图片很模糊。”

The Hubble telescope orbits about five hundred fifty kilometers above Earth. Ms. Roman says she still remembers the first images that it captured.
哈勃望远镜大约在地球上方550千米的的轨道运行。Roman女士称，她至今还记记得哈勃望远镜拍摄到的第一张照片。

NANCY GRACE ROMAN: “I think the image that to me was most striking was the center of a globular cluster. You could see each star individually, and see their color, and it was just a fantastic sight.”
Nancy Grace Roman：“我觉得最吸引我的图像的就是中心的球状聚集物。你可以看到每一颗星，看到它们的颜色，这简直是梦幻般的景象。”

The Hubble Space Telescope has helped expand our knowledge of the universe. It helped scientists estimate that the universe began about fourteen billion years ago. Earlier estimates had placed it between ten and twenty billion years old.
哈勃太空望远镜有助于扩大我们对宇宙的的认识。它帮助科学家估计宇宙大约开始于140亿年前。以前的估计认为宇宙开始于100亿至200亿年前。

Ed Weiler says the Hubble telescope also confirmed the existence of black holes. These are extremely dense masses believed to exist at the center of most galaxies. Their gravitational pull is so strong, they absorb light.
Ed Weiler表示，哈勃望远镜也证实了黑洞的存在。这些是极端密集的物质，相信大多数星系的中心都存在。它们的引力非常强，能把光线都吸收掉。

ED WEILER: “Black holes were science fiction. 'Star Trek,' 'Star Wars.' 'Black holes -- nice theory but nobody believes in them, right?' Hubble proved they exist.”
Ed Weiler：“黑洞以前是科幻小说。如《星空奇遇记》，《星球大战》，《黑洞——优秀的理论但是无人相信》。然而，哈勃证实了它们的存在。”

The Hubble Space Telescope completed its one millionth scientific observation in July. NASA is building a new space telescope to look even deeper into the beginnings of the universe.
哈勃太空望远镜在7月份完成了第100万次科学观察任务。美国航空航天局正在建造一个新的太空望远镜，更深入地研究宇宙的起源。