两颗“超级地球”新行星

仲开蓉

Two new planets called “super?Earth”

一个国际科研团队发现了两颗距离地球仅100光年的新行星，其中一颗可能适合生命生存。

1 An international team of scientists says it has discovered two new “super?Earth” type planets about 100 light years away， one of which may be suitable for life. Unlike any of the planets in our solar system， the nearly 1，600 known super?Earths are larger than Earth， but lighter than icy planets like Uranus and Neptune.

2 Researchers at Belgiums University of Liège announced that they found another one while using Earth?based telescopes to confirm the existence of a different planet initially discovered by a NASA satellite in the same solar system.

3 NASAs satellite found planet LP 890?9b， which is about 30% larger than Earth and orbits its sun in just 2.7 days. Researchers at the University of Liège used their telescopes in Chile and Spain to take a closer look at the planet with high?precision cameras. Thats when the scientists discovered another planet， LP 890?9c （renamed SPECULOOS?2c by researchers at the University of Liège）， which is 40% larger than Earth and takes 8.5 days to orbit its sun.

4 Francisco Pozuelos， a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia and one of the main co?authors of the paper， said in a news release that the planet could be suitable for life despite being a mere 3.7 million miles from its sun. Earth， by comparison， is located over 93 million miles away from our sun. “Although this planet orbits very close to its star， at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our Sun， the amount of stellar irradiation （恒星辐射量） it receives is still low， and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planets surface， provided it has a sufficient atmosphere，” Pozuelos said. “This is because the star LP 890?9c is about 6.5 times smaller than the Sun and has a surface temperature half that of our star.”

5 Scientists at the University of Liège then follow up NASAs findings with ground?based telescopes to confirm and characterize the planets.

Detail 1. Which of the following is the smallest？

A. The Sun.

B. The Earth.

C. LP 890?9b.

D. LP 890?9c.

Detail 2. How did scientists discover LP 890?9c？

A. By analyzing Earths orbit.

B. By taking LP 890?9bs photos.

C. By comparing with LP 890?9b.

D. By using ground?based telescopes.

Gist 3. Whats talked about in paragraph 4？

A. Different opinions about the new planet.

B. Scientists future plan on the new planet.

C. Reasons for the new planet suitable to live on.

D. Comparisons between LP 890?9c and our Earth.

Inference 4. Whats the purpose of the text？

A. To prove great breakthroughs made by scientists.

B. To show two newly discovered super?Earths.

C. To tell us LP 890?9c is the future substitute of our Earth.

D. To talk about two newly?found planets suitable for life.

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

“Although this planet orbits very close to its star， at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our Sun， the amount of stellar irradiation it receives is still low， and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planets surface， provided it has a sufficient atmosphere，” Pozuelos said. 皮苏埃洛斯说：“尽管这颗行星的轨道非常靠近它的恒星，且与其恒星的距离只有水星与太阳间距离的1/10左右，但它接收到的恒星辐射量仍然很低。如果它有足够的大气，其表面可能会出现液态水。”

【点石成金】本句是一个主从复合句。整个引号里面的部分都是直接引语，作said的宾语；句中的连词although引导的是让步状语从句；at a distance about 10 times shorter than that of Mercury around our Sun是同位语；it receives是省略了关系代词的定语从句；provided在此处为连词，引导的是条件状语从句，相当于连词if。

Ⅱ. Text?centered chunks

take a closer look at 更仔细看；更近距离观看

be suitable for 适于

by comparison 通过比较；对比起来

follow up 追查；将……深入下去