1977年发射的“旅行者一号”太空探测器发回了木星和土星的壮观图像，然后飞出太阳系，执行前往恒星的单程任务。
The space probe, Voyager I, launched in 1977, had sent back spectacular images of Jupiter and Saturn and then soared out of the Solar System on a one-way mission to the stars.
今天我想谈谈恒星对早期航海者的重要性，以及恒星的固定模式是如何被用作助航工具的。
Today I want to talk about the importance of stars for early seafarers, about how the fixed patterns of stars were used as navigational aids.
天文学家用星等和光度来描述恒星的亮度。
Astronomers describe star brightness in terms of magnitude and luminosity.
恒星的表面温度部分取决于它的质量，并影响它的亮度和颜色。
The surface temperature of a star depends in part on its mass and affects its brightness and color.
重组的图像既突出富于恒星的星野，也能展现彗星暗弱的细节。
The recombined frames show off both the rich star field and faint details of the comet.
蜘蛛星云是孕育无数恒星的摇篮，其中有些恒星质量是我们的太阳130倍。
The Tarantula is a gigantic stellar nursery where thousands of new stars are being born, some as much as 130 times as massive as our own Sun
它与其恒星的距离恰好允许液态水的存在，同时也可能由与地球成分类似的岩石构成。
It is both at the right distance from its star to potentially harbour liquid water and probably has a rocky composition like Earth.
凯克能帮助天文学家探测宇宙的年龄和膨胀的速度，并观测其他星系中恒星的诞生。
Keck is helping astronomers determine the age of the universe and its expansion rate as well as allowing them to watch the birth of stars in other galaxies.
重重障碍减缓了它们的速度，使它们能够以组成新一代恒星和行星的材料充实孕育恒星的气体云。
These impediments slow their speed, so they can enrich star-forming gas clouds with the ingredients for new generations of stars and planets.
巨星S106IR位于沙漏的束腰位置，天文学家估计该恒星的质量可能是我们太阳质量的15倍。
Giant star S106IR lies near the waist of the hourglass. Astronomers estimate the star could be up to 15 times more massive than our sun.
该行星靠恒星如此之近，很可能它有一面是永远面对着恒星的，正如月球永远只以一面面对地球。
The planet is so close to the star that one side is probably locked facing the star, the same way the moon always shows the same face to the Earth.
最近发现椭圆星系里拥有比银河系更多的红矮星，说明宇宙里所有恒星的数量可能是原先预想的三倍。
The discovery that elliptical galaxies have many more red dwarf stars than the Milky Way means that the universe might have three times as many total stars as previously thought.
恒星的形成对星系的演化很重要，对行星的产生也很重要——包括适宜人居住的或者不适宜人居住的行星。
Star formation is vital to galaxy evolution and the production of planets, both inhabited and uninhabited.
超新星残骸以重元素填充宇宙空间，压缩星际气体促进新恒星的形成，因而在星体演化过程中扮演重要角色。
Supernova remnants play an important role in stellar evolution by enriching space with heavy elements, and triggering new star formation by compressing interstellar gas.
有史以来，人类第一次观察到了一个黑洞的诞生，它生成自一颗约是太阳质量20倍恒星的超新星爆炸中。
For the first time ever, a black hole has been seen being born out of a supernova of a star perhaps 20 times the mass of our sun.
在太空的寒冷真空之中，来自大质量恒星的辐射如同光剑一般切开了冰冷的分子云，创造出奇异梦幻的雕塑。
In the cold vacuum of space, radiation from massive stars carves away at cold molecular clouds, creating bizarre, fantasy-like structures.
装备了一架可以同时观测超过10万颗恒星的望远镜，开普勒搜寻着由行星的凌日现象所产生的微弱光线。
The craft, which is armed with a telescope that can track more than 100,000 stars simultaneously, looks for slight diminutions of light caused by planetary transits.
不同的元素或化合物吸收并释放不同颜色的光波，通过对一个恒星的光谱进行研究，我们能够推测它可能的成分。
Different elements or compounds absorb and emit different colors or wavelengths of light, and by studying a star's spectrum, one can divine what its composition might be.
它们并未以行星和恒星的形式在星系中漫游，寻找可口的小吃，而是像数百亿其它恒星那样环绕银河系运行。
They don't wander the galaxy looking for tasty snacks in the form of planets and stars; they orbit the Milky Way just like the hundreds of billions of other stars do.
这些照片是利用密歇根红外组合器(MIRC)拍出来的，该仪器可以帮助天文学家观测到恒星的形状和表面特征。
The images were produced using the Michigan Infra-Red Combiner (MIRC) instrument which allows astronomers to see the shape and surface characteristics of stars.
寻找恒星工程的迹象：目前，这仅是科学幻想的内容，但一个有能力摆弄恒星的文明肯定会对我们地球人感兴趣。
Look for signs of stellar engineering: for now, this is the stuff of science fiction, but a civilization capable of tinkering with a star would surely be of interest to us Earthlings.
如果恒星的大小接近我们太阳的大小，则它可能是一个类似太阳系的行星系统的中心，并且那个行星可能适合居住。
If the star is approximately the same size as our sun, it could be the center of a planetary system much like our own-and that planet could be habitable.
这个有超过100000颗恒星的球体是一个从我们所在的星系的早期遗留下来的遗迹，它依然在绕着银河系中心公转着。
This ball of over 100, 000 stars is a relic from the early years of our Galaxy, and continues to orbit the Milky Way's center.
尘埃阻隔了星云的大部分可见光，但同时它也被星云中隐藏的年轻恒星的光芒加热了，在WISE红外镜头的帮助之下，美丽的色彩便一览无余了。
Dust blocks the view of most of this nebula in visible light. But that dust is also warmed by the light of the young stars it conceals, giving WISE a view of its beautiful infrared colors.
尘埃阻隔了星云的大部分可见光，但同时它也被星云中隐藏的年轻恒星的光芒加热了，在WISE红外镜头的帮助之下，美丽的色彩便一览无余了。
Dust blocks the view of most of this nebula in visible light.But that dust is also warmed by the light of the young stars it conceals, giving WISE a view of its beautiful infrared colors.
如果这些发自即将衰亡的恒星的射线能够辐射至那些一度冰冻的卫星和系外行星，那些星体上的冰层将会融化成液态：这将为生命的形成提供流动的海洋。
If these rays from the dying star were to wash over a once-frozen moon or exoplanet, the planetary body's icy layer would melt into liquid: setting the stage for life to form in a flowing ocean.
太阳系外行星搜索者宣布发现了一个新行星，环绕其遥远恒星的可居住带运行，这一区域既不太热，也不太冷地区有稳定的液态水，有可能成为生命的一个立足之地。
Exoplanet hunters announced a new world orbiting in its dim star's habitable zone, the not-too-hot, not-too-cold region where liquid water is stable and life could potentially find a foothold.
NASA的斯比策空间望远镜捕获到一个处于黑色的水滴状星云中的恒星摇篮，在这里诞生了新的原恒星，或者叫做恒星的胚胎；这里还发现许多从未见过的年轻恒星。
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured a glowing stellar nursery within a dark globule that reveals the birth of new protostars, or embryonic stars, and young stars never before seen.
NASA的斯比策空间望远镜捕获到一个处于黑色的水滴状星云中的恒星摇篮，在这里诞生了新的原恒星，或者叫做恒星的胚胎；这里还发现许多从未见过的年轻恒星。
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured a glowing stellar nursery within a dark globule that reveals the birth of new protostars, or embryonic stars, and young stars never before seen.
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