冥王星 你為什么心碎?.

　　北京時間7月14日19時49分,美國“新視野”號探測器從距離冥王星表面1.25萬公里處飛過,成為首個探測這顆遙遠矮行星的人類探測器。

　　During a news briing at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on Tuesday, NASA scientists revealed what they've gleaned from the latest photos of Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft was set to make its closest approach of the dwarf planet on Tuesday, and while scientists wait for confirmation of thatflyby -- and the 16 months worth of data that it will bring.

　　周二，約翰霍普金斯應(yīng)用物理實驗室舉行的發(fā)布會上，美國國家航空航天局(NASA)的科學家透露，他們已收集到來自冥王星的最新圖像。按計劃設(shè)定，新視野號飛行探測器會在周二近距離飛掠這顆矮行星，屆時將向在地面等待確認飛掠的科學家傳回歷時16個月所收集到的數(shù)據(jù)。

　　Remember Pluto's heart?

　　還記得冥王星的心嗎?

　　Well, it's broken.

　　好吧，它的心已碎。

　　What you're looking at is an image of Pluto with heavily exaggerated color data -- like when you amp up the saturation on an Instagram. It's a bit hard to see (sorry) but one side of the "heart" is much bluer than the other. In fact, the lt-hand side seems pretty beige-y.

　　你所看到的冥王星圖像，附帶有極度夸張的色彩數(shù)據(jù)，就像你在Instagram(一款圖片分享應(yīng)用)上放大圖片的色彩飽和度那樣。圖片讓人看起來(抱歉~)有點兒費力，但你還是能看到這顆“心”的一邊要比另一邊藍得多。實際上看，左邊的部分看起來更偏于米黃色。

　　This seems to confirm something that the NASA scientists suspected based on recent photos of the "heart" feature: It's actually two features. In the latest images, it looks like the lt half of the heart is smoother than the right, the team said at the briing. It's possible that some texture has been lost in the compression of the image, but it could also mean that one side of the heart is a different geological feature than the other -- they're just both very bright, compared with the rest of the surface.

　　這似乎證實了NASA科學家們基于這顆“心”的近照所作出的猜測，即實際上心有兩部分組成。科研團隊在簡報會上指出，根據(jù)最新的圖像，似乎這顆“心”的左半邊要比右半邊平滑的多。很有可能是在圖像的壓縮過程中丟失了某些質(zhì)地，但這也有可能意味著，這顆“心”的一邊與另一邊地質(zhì)特征存在差異。相對于冥王星表面的其他部分而言，這兩部分都很明亮。

　　And speaking of Pluto's features, NASA scientists are now giving unofficial names to some of the things they've spotted -- names they can submit to the International Astronomical Union for official approval. They're sticking with the trend of underworld creatures and gods -- Pluto, after all, was the Roman god of the underworld -- and have tentatively named a previously observed dark, whale-shaped splotch (just to the lt of the broken heart) after "Cthulhu," the dark deity invented by author H.P. Lovecraft.

　　談到冥王星的特征，NASA科學家們正準備給一些他們發(fā)現(xiàn)到的東西進行非正式命名。他們可以將這些名字遞交給國際天文學聯(lián)合會以獲得官方認證。此次命名將延續(xù)以往的傳統(tǒng)，以陰間神靈命名。畢竟，冥王星就是以羅馬神話中掌管陰間的冥王所命名的。科學家們已打算將前不久觀察到的一塊鯨魚形深色暗斑區(qū)域(就在這顆破碎的“心”的左邊)，命名為“克蘇魯”(由作家H·P·洛夫卡拉夫特創(chuàng)作的一個邪神)。