CNN News: NASA在一个恒星系发现7颗类地行星

Yesterday, astronomers announced that they’ve discovered seven Earth-sized planets all orbiting the same star. The findings were published in a journal "Nature". NASA says this is a record number of these kinds of planets orbiting this kind of star. It also believes that three of the planets are in what’s called the habitable zone. Scientists define that as the space around the star where a planet is most likely to have water.

昨日，天文学家宣布发现了有7个类似与地球大小的行星在围绕这同样的恒星运动。该研究结果发表在《自然》杂志上。美国宇航局表示，该数字刷新了围绕同一恒星转动的行星数量的记录。同时，有三个行星在处于所谓的“宜居区”。科学家认为该恒星周围的恒星上最可能有水。

This isn’t exactly in our neighborhood. They say the star is 40 light years away and it’d take a human spacecraft millions of years to get there.

但是它们并不是我们人类的邻居。科学家表示，这个恒星距离与地球的距离为40光年。人类乘坐宇宙飞船需要数万的时间才能够到达。

So, how did researchers identify planet at that distance? Well, examining stars with the telescope based in Chile, they saw shadows occasionally interrupting the star light. They say that these shadows indicated that planets were passing between the telescope and the star, like eclipses.

那么科学家是如何判定行星的距离呢?通过位于智利观察恒星的天文望远镜，科学家发现不时会有阴影挡住这个恒星发出的光。科学家表示,，这些阴影表明行星通过望远镜和恒星，就如同日食现象一样。

What they’re hoping to do in the future is determine the planet’s atmosphere and whether they really have liquid water.

科学家希望在未来可以确定该恒星的大气成分以及是否真的有液态水。