美国宇航局发现了第一颗可能适合人类居住的地球大小的行星
美国宇航局发现了第一颗可能适合人类居住的地球大小的行星
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has made an exciting new discovery that could help further the search to find a future home for the human race.
美国宇航局的凌日系外行星勘测卫星(TESS)有了一项令人兴奋的新发现，这可能有助于进一步寻找人类未来的家园。
BEN BOLTON
The planet hunter, as the spacecraft is also known, found its first Earth-sized planet in a zone where conditions may allow the presence of liquid water on the surface.
“行星猎人”号(也被称为“行星猎人”)发现了它的第一颗地球大小的行星，它所在的区域的条件可能允许火星表面存在液态水。
The potentially habitable planet named TOI 700 d is located 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado.
这颗被命名为TOI 700d的宜居行星位于100光年之外的南天星座多拉多。
"TESS was designed and launched specifically to find Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby stars," said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Planets around nearby stars are easiest to follow-up with larger telescopes in space and on Earth. Discovering TOI 700 d is a key science finding for TESS. Confirming the planet's size and habitable zone status with Spitzer is another win for Spitzer as it approaches the end of science operations this January."
位于华盛顿特区的NASA总部天体物理学部门主任保罗·赫兹说:“TESS的设计和发射是专门用来寻找绕着附近的恒星运行的地球大小的行星。“在太空和地球上，用更大的望远镜追踪附近恒星周围的行星是最容易的。对TESS来说，发现TOI 700d是一个关键的科学发现。斯皮策太空望远镜确认了这颗行星的大小和适居带的状态，这是斯皮策太空望远镜在今年1月科学实验接近尾声时取得的又一次胜利。”
Scientists used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to confirm the findings and have modeled the planet's potential environment to inform future observations.
科学家们利用美国宇航局的斯皮策太空望远镜确认了这一发现，并模拟了这颗行星的潜在环境，为未来的观测提供信息。
TOI 700 is a small, cool M dwarf star. It's roughly 40% of the sun's mass and size, and about half the sun's surface temperature. TOI 700d is one of three planets tidally locked to the dwarf star, which was originally misclassified as being similar to our sun.
toi700是一颗小而凉爽的M型矮星。它的质量和大小大约是太阳的40%，表面温度大约是太阳的一半。TOI 700d是被潮汐锁定在矮星上的三颗行星之一，它最初被错误地归类为与我们的太阳相似。
"When we corrected the star's parameters, the sizes of its planets dropped, and we realized the outermost one was about the size of Earth and in the habitable zone," said Emily Gilbert, a graduate student at the University of Chicago. "Additionally, in 11 months of data we saw no flares from the star, which improves the chances TOI 700 d is habitable and makes it easier to model its atmospheric and surface conditions."
芝加哥大学研究生艾米丽·吉尔伯特说，“当我们修正了这颗恒星的参数后，它的行星尺寸减小了，我们意识到最外层的行星与地球差不多大，而且位于宜居带。”“此外，在11个月的数据中，我们没有看到来自这颗恒星的耀斑，这增加了TOI 700d适合居住的机会，并使其更容易建立其大气和表面条件的模型。”
The other two planets orbiting the star, TOI 700 b and c, were found to be too rocky or gassy to be inhabitable. While we don't know the exact conditions on TOI 700 d, NASA scientists say they can use what we do know — like the planet’s size and the type of star it orbits — to make predictions about what's possible on this newfound planet.
另外两颗围绕这颗恒星运行的行星，TOI 700b和c，被发现岩石或气体太多，不适合居住。虽然我们不知道TOI 700d上的确切情况，但NASA的科学家们说他们可以利用我们所知道的——比如这颗行星的大小和它所环绕的恒星的类型——来预测这颗新发现的行星上可能存在的情况。
