CNN News:人类探测器历时十年登陆彗星

At 48 miles long and 37 miles wide, Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state. But it has the biggest name - but Carl, you might say Rhode Island has 11 letters in it. North and South Carolina, each have 13. We`ll check it. Rhode Island`s official name is State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.

全长48英里，37英里宽的罗德岛是美国最小的州，但是它却有一个响亮的名字，但是Carl，你可能会说罗德岛州一共有11个字母!北卡罗莱纳州和南卡罗拉纳州每个都有13个字母。我们会检查一下。罗德岛州的正式名字为罗德岛州与普罗维登斯庄园州。

That`s huge and that`s random.

这个名字很长也很少见。

It`s called the Rosetta Mission. For the first time ever, scientists are attempting to land a manmade spacecraft on a comet. You are looking at an animation of our Solar System. The comet we are talking about has the purple orbit on your screen. It`s named comet 67-P. Rosetta is the spacecraft that`s been traveling to it. It has the red orbit. It`s a $1.7 billion project by the European Space Agency.

这是一个被称为Rosetta的任务。这也是第一次科学家计划让一颗人类探测器降落在一颗彗星上面。现在是从太空发回来的太阳系画面。我们现在谈论的屏幕上出现的这个彗星彗星有着紫色的轨道，名称为67-P彗星。Rosetta是朝着该彗星前进的飞船。Rosetta飞船有着红色的轨道，这个飞船由欧洲航天局建造并花费了17亿美元。

It`s taken ten years for Rosetta to meet up with comet 67-P. Now, it`s on the break of releasing its small lander. About the size of the Washing machine, under the comet surface e.

Rosetta花费了10年时间才能追赶上67-P号彗星的步伐，现在Rosetta飞船正在该彗星上释放小型着陆器。这个着陆器大小仅仅有洗衣机大小，降落在彗星表面。

Scientists are hoping it will gather all kinds of information. The density in heat on comet 67-P. The chemicals that might be there.

科学家们希望通过释放着陆器来从彗星上提取需要的信息，彗星67-P上的热密度，那里可能存在着一些科学家寻找化学元素。

They want to know what comets are made of, and how they react when they get close to the Sun. But landing this really hard to do. Researchers say it has to land at the right time, in the right direction, with the right velocity. If it doesn`t, the mission could come to a crashing halt.

科学家们想知道彗星是由什么构成的，还有当它靠近太阳的时候会有怎样的反应。但是着陆工作非常困难。研究人员称着陆工作必须在非常恰当的时间进行，还需要准确的地点以及合适的运行速度。如果没有符合条件的话任务将会被终止。

If the lander hits a boulder or a crevice, it could tip over. It will take half an hour for the lander`s signal even to reach Earth, letting them know if this worked. As one European space agency scientist put it, everything is knew.

如果探测器碰到了石块或者碎石，探测器则可能会翻到。从探测器发出的信号需要花费一个半小时才能传回地球，地面工作人员才能知道方案是否可能。就像欧洲宇航局科学家说的一样，一切都是可知的。