【翻译】大西洋月刊4月24日隆重推出2013年“太阳系旅行记”

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/04/around-the-solar-system/100503/
Robotic probes launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and others are gathering information all across the solar system. We currently have spacecraft in orbit around the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn, and two operational rovers on Mars. Several others are on their way to smaller bodies, and a few are heading out of the solar system entirely. Although the Space Shuttle no longer flies, astronauts are still at work aboard the International Space Station, performing experiments and sending back amazing photos. With all these eyes in the sky, I'd like to take another opportunity to put together a recent photo album of our solar system -- a set of family portraits, of sorts -- as seen by our astronauts and mechanical emissaries. This time, we have a great shot of comet Pan-STARRS between the Earth and Sun, some very sharp images from Mars rover Curiosity, a preview image of Comet ISON, potentially the "comet of the century", when it approaches in November, intriguing glimpses of Saturn and its moons, and, of course, lovely images of our home, planet Earth.

美国NASA、欧洲空间局和其他太空探测研究机构通过各种天文探测器，正在搜集研究太阳系的资料。目前人类已经拥有围绕太阳、水星、金星、打球、火星、土星的轨道探测器，并在火星上发射放置了两台火星车，也发射了一些针对小行星等更小天体的探测器，一些甚至飞出了太阳系。
虽然航天飞机不再翱翔太空，天文学家们仍然坚持在外太空的宇宙空间站工作，兢兢业业地研究各种信息并向地球传回了大量精美的照片，以下与各位分享这些照片。

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

Dozens of coronal loops gyrate above several active regions of the sun, as they were rotating into view on October 17, 2012. When viewed in extreme ultraviolet light, the dancing loops of competing and connecting magnetic field lines become visible. (NASA/SDO/GSFC)
2012年10月17日拍摄的太阳日冕爆发，利用极端的紫外线观察，日冕仿佛在跳舞，切连接磁极的线变得清晰可见。

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2
A prominence composed of solar plasma just behind the edge of the Sun, rose up and swirled around for many hours, then burst away into space over about a one-day period on November 19, 2012. Unseen magnetic fields, mostly above this area, are the driving forces behind the event. Events like this are fairly common, but when viewed in profile, it is easier to see the dynamics of the plasma more clearly. (NASA/SDO/GSFC) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2012年11月19日拍摄的由太阳等离子体（Plasma）构成的云状物体，腾升、旋转并抛入太空，持续了数个小时，太阳磁场是这一现象的幕后推动力。
（等离子体是一种由自由电子和带电离子为主要成分的物质形态，广泛存在于宇宙中，常被视为是物质的第四态，被称为等离子态，或者“超气态”，也称“电浆体”。等离子体具有很高的电导率，与电磁场存在极强的耦合作用。等离子体是由克鲁克斯在1879年发现的，1928年美国科学家欧文·朗缪尔和汤克斯（Tonks）首次将“等离子体”（plasma）一词引入物理学，用来描述气体放电管里的物质形态）

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

A sweeping prominence, a huge cloud of relatively cool dense plasma is seen suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona. At times, promineces can erupt, escaping the Sun's atmosphere. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees K (over 100,000 degrees F). Every feature in the image traces magnetic field structure. The hottest areas appear almost white, while the darker red areas indicate cooler temperatures. (Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium）

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

3
A mosaic of two images that were acquired as part of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) limb imaging campaign on NASA's MESSENGER orbiter at Mercury. Once per week, MDIS captures images of Mercury's limb, with an emphasis on imaging the southern hemisphere limb. These limb images provide information about Mercury's shape and complement measurements of topography made by the Mercury Laser Altimeter of Mercury's northern hemisphere. Date acquired: October 23, 2012. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

水星信使探测器利用二重成像系统拍摄的水星表面

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

4
Mercury's Kertesz crater and its extensive system of hollows, seen in this mosaic of three separate narrow-angle camera frames from NASA's MESSENGER orbiter. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

柯特兹撞击坑是一个位于水星巨大撞击盆地卡洛里盆地西缘的撞击坑。该撞击坑于2008年以匈牙利出生的美国摄影师安德烈•柯特兹命名。
柯特兹撞击坑底部有不寻常明亮的物质存在，位于卡洛里盆地西北缘的桑德撞击坑底部也有明亮的物质存在。在柯特兹撞击坑东北方一个小撞击坑有极为明亮的射纹系统和撞击喷发物，代表该撞击坑极为年轻。

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

5
While the European Space Agency has one orbiter at Venus, it rarely sends back imagery. Reaching into the archives, this color-enhanced Venus mosaic was created from multiple orange and UV filter images taken by NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft, on February 5, 1974. (NASA/JPL/Mattias Malmer) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

欧洲空间局发射的围绕金星轨道运行的探测器，拍摄的珍贵金星画面，图片质量较1974年水手10探测器拍摄的要好很多

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

6
Comet Pan-STARRS, seen from the STEREO Behind spacecraft, on March 15, 2013. At right is the Earth, at left, a coronal mass ejection (CME) flying outward from the Sun. Following in Earth's orbit, the spacecraft is nearly opposite the Sun and looks back toward the comet and Earth, with the Sun just off the left side of the frame. The comet is in the foreground of this image. Objects that are too bright create the sharp vertical lines. The image reveals complex feather-like structures in Comet Pan-STARRS caused by dust particles. The ion tail is the thin one that's pointing almost radially away from the Sun. (NASA/ESA/SOHO) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2013年3月15日，空间站上拍摄的Pan-STARRS，这颗彗星是几年来北半球可见的最亮彗星

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

7
The moon, seen above Earth by astronaut Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, aboard the International Space Station. (Reuters/CSA/Col. Chris Hadfield) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

月亮与地球的真实比较照片

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

8
An oblique view of the northern portion of the Gruithuisen Gamma volcanic dome, on Earth's moon, on October 28, 2012, viewed from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

NASA的月球勘测轨道飞行器（LRO，全称Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ）是美国国家航空航天局（NASA）“新太空探索计划”的首个任务，其拍摄的格鲁苏申伽马山（Gruithuisen Gamma）。格鲁苏申伽马山直径20千米，高出月球表面1200米，而且在在中心位置有一个直径约900米的月坑。

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

9
A EUMETSAT weather satellite acquired this image of Earth on January 29, 2013. (NASA/EUMETSAT) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2013年1月29日拍摄的地球卫星气象云图

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

10
Expedition 33 Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide takes a picture of his reflective helmet visor while participating in a 6-hour, 38-minute spacewalk outside the International Space Station, on November 1, 2012. Various parts of the space station and much of the blue and white Earth below are mirrored in his visor. During the spacewalk, Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams and Hoshide ventured outside the orbital outpost to perform work and to support ground-based troubleshooting of an ammonia leak. (NASA) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

宇宙空间站33批成员中的飞行工程师Akihiko Hoshide 拍摄的照片，内容是2012年11月1日在宇宙空间站外长达6小时38分钟的太空漫步

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

11
An astronaut photograph showing parts of several cities in the Phoenix metro area, including Glendale and Peoria. While the major street grid is oriented north-south, the northwest-southeast oriented Grand Avenue cuts across it at image center. Photographed from the International Space Station on March 16, 2013. (NASA) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2013年3月16日从宇宙空间站拍摄的美国凤凰城都市区照片

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

12
Several tiny satellites are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station, on October 4, 2012. The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on October 4, 2012. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide set up the satellite deployment gear inside the lab and placed it in the Kibo airlock. The Japanese robotic arm then grappled the deployment system and its satellites from the airlock for deployment. (NASA) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

宇宙空间站第33批成员拍摄的人造卫星图片，这些人造卫星由空间站放出

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

13
Night time view of Auroras over North America in this October 8, 2012 satellite image. (NASA/Earth Observatory) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

太空中的北美夜景

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

14
The aurora borealis, or northern lights, fill the sky above a motorist stopped in a roadside scenic pullout in Kenai, Alaska, on March 17, 2013. (AP Photo/M. Scott Moon) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

阿拉斯加的北极光

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

15
When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over northern Quebec on November 25, 2012, winter snow and ice had transformed the pockmarked landscape of Ungava Peninsula into a seemingly endless expanse of white. However, two near-perfect circles remained stubbornly free of ice. Those ice-free areas are Pingualuit and Couture craters. Both craters were formed millions of years ago by meteorites striking the Earth's surface, and today they hold deep lakes. Couture is approximately 8 km (5 mi) wide and has a water depth of 150 m (490 ft). Pingualuit's lake is about 3 km (2 mi) across and has a depth of 246 m (807 ft). (NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

2012年11月25日拍摄的魁北克大地一片雪茫茫

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

16
Layers of atmosphere along Earth's limb and the exhaust trails from a Soyuz rocket that lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 23, 2012. At the time, the ISS was passing over northeastern China, and the photographer was looking back to the west. The plumes bent and curled in different directions, most likely due to winds blowing in different directions as the spacecraft made its way both horizontally across the sky and vertically through several atmospheric layers. The Soyuz passed through the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and into the thermosphere. Rocket trails can last for minutes to hours and reside high enough in the atmosphere that they will often remain lit well after the Sun is below the horizon. (NASA) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

哈萨克斯坦的拜科努尔航天发射场的夜空

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

17
A small jet, silhouetted against the rising moon, on February 25, 2013, in the skies above Phoenix. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

美国凤凰城上空的满月与飞机

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

18
A meteor streaked through the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia, on February 15, 2013, captured in this image by resident M. Ahmetvaleev. The small asteroid was about 56 to 66 feet (17 to 20 meters) wide, and triggered multiple shockwaves that damaged buildings across a wide area and caused hundreds of injuries. (NASA/M. Ahmetvaleev) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

车里雅宾斯克，俄罗斯的一个城市，火流星划破天空，这颗小行星估计有17-20米宽

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

19
Comet Pan-STARRS and a 1-day waxing crescent Moon, setting in the Western sky on March 12, 2013. The dark side of the Moon is lit by reflected light from the Earth, called Earthshine. (AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

近年来最亮的彗星之一，Comet Pan-STARRS 彗星与2016年3月12日划破天空，与新月相映衬

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

20
The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket launches from Pad-0A of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, on April 21, 2013. The test launch marked the first flight of Antares and the first rocket launch from Pad-0A. The Antares rocket delivered the equivalent mass of a spacecraft, a so-called mass simulated payload, into Earth's orbit. (Reuters/Bill Ingalls/NASA) #

                               
登录/注册后可看大图

      美国私营企业轨道科学公司２１日成功将一枚“安塔瑞斯”号运载火箭发射升空。美国白宫发表声明表示祝贺。美国航天局局长查尔斯·博尔登说，这是美国商业航天发射的“又一个重要里程碑”。
　　当地时间１７时许（北京时间２２日５时许），“安塔瑞斯”号从美国东海岸外的瓦勒普斯岛美国航天局基地点火发射。美国航天局电视直播画面显示，“安塔瑞斯”号从一片浓烟之中冲天而起，越飞越高，穿过淡淡的云雾，带着火光刺入蓝天。
　　大约１０分钟后，“安塔瑞斯”号进入预定轨道，其搭载的“天鹅座”飞船模型与火箭成功分离。
　　美国总统科技顾问约翰·霍尔德伦在白宫祝贺声明中说，“安塔瑞斯”号的成功发射证明了美国又一家私营企业具有航天发射能力，这为轨道科学公司今年晚些时候将“天鹅座”飞船送上国际空间站奠定基础。随着美国航天局将重心转移到更具挑战性的将人送入深空的任务上，私营企业将接过把宇航员和相关货物送入地球低轨道的接力棒。
　　美国航天局局长博尔登说，美国航天局希望倚仗美国本土企业运送给养和宇航员去国际空间站，因此今天的成功是“又一个重要里程碑”。
　　轨道科学公司原计划１７日发射“安塔瑞斯”号，但发射前１２分钟连接管线出现故障，发射被迫推迟到２０日。而２０日由于风力过大，因此改于２１日发射。
　　轨道科学公司今年为“安塔瑞斯”号安排了两次试射，第二次试射计划于今年年中实施，届时“安塔瑞斯”号将尝试把该公司研制的“天鹅座”飞船送往国际空间站。
　　轨道科学公司已与美国航天局签署了１９亿美元的合同，将向空间站发射８次货运飞船。若一切顺利，货运计划将于今年年底前开始实施。
　　美国government还与另一家私营企业太空探索技术公司签署了１６亿美元的合同，利用该公司的“龙”飞船向空间站运送货物。“龙”飞船至今已完成两次送货任务。
　　美国航天飞机２０１１年退役后，美国向空间站运送人员和货物需要依靠俄罗斯。为改变这种状况，美国航天局积极支持私营企业投身航天发射行业，鼓励它们建造能够向国际空间站运送人员和物资的航天器。“龙”飞船、“安塔瑞斯”号火箭和“天鹅座”飞船应运而生。此间舆论认为，美国的“商业航天”之路正逐渐形成。
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-04/23/c_124619415.htm