最震撼的6個科學事件

FIRST SPACE-TIME RIPPLES DETECTED
發現第一個時空波

A hundred years after Einstein predicted their existence, faint ripples in the fabric of the cosmos finally made their debut. Called gravitational waves, these ripples are created by some of the most violent events in the universe. Despite their extreme origins, gravitational waves remained elusive for so long because their effects on the observable universe are very small.
100年前愛因斯坦就預言了時空波的存在，宇宙結構中的虛弱波動終於登場了。這些波被稱爲引力波，是由宇宙中一些威力最大的碰撞造成的。儘管引力波的來源巨大，但它卻沉寂如此之久，因爲它對我們察覺到的宇宙的影響微乎其微。

But with the help of highly sensitive detectors in Louisiana and Washington State, scientists at last managed to sense gravitational waves passing through Earth in February. Even better, the labs detected a second round of ripples a few months later, confirming that the signal was no fluke. Astronomers are overjoyed at the achievement, because gravitational waves can act as a new way of seeing otherwise invisible objects in the universe, such as directly measuring the properties of enigmatic black holes.
但在路易斯安那州和華盛頓州高靈敏度的探測器的幫助下，科學家最終在二月份成功探測到了引力波波及地球。還有更好的消息，幾個月後實驗室又探測到了第二輪引力波，證明了波動信號並非偶然。天文學家能取得這個成就特別興奮，因爲引力波能成爲觀察此前宇宙中無法看到的物體的一種新方式，比如直接探測神祕莫測的黑洞中的物質。

DINOSAUR TAIL TRAPPED IN AMBER
琥珀裏的恐龍尾巴

It came dangerously close to becoming jewelry, but a small lump of amber found at a market in Burma luckily landed in the hands of paleontologists, who announced in December that it contained the first known piece of a dinosaur’s tail. Dating back 99 million years, the tail was originally mistaken as a bit of plant material. But closer inspection showed that it was actually bone and soft tissue covered with delicate feathers. Careful analysis revealed that the tail once belonged to a young coelurosaur, a dinosaur family that includes tyrannosaurs and modern birds.
這塊琥珀僥倖逃脫了成爲首飾的命運，它在緬甸市場上幸運地落入了生物學者的手裏，他們在12月宣佈這塊琥珀裏有首個恐龍尾巴標本。這塊尾巴有9900萬年曆史，最初被誤以爲是一塊植物。但更進一步的檢查表明這其實是骨骼和軟組織，上面覆蓋着精美的羽毛。細緻的分析揭示了這塊尾巴曾經屬於一隻年輕的虛骨龍，這一科恐龍包括霸王龍和現代鳥類。

POSSIBLY HABITABLE PLANET NEXT DOOR
附近還有適宜居住的星球

Astronomers unveiled evidence for a world orbiting the closest star to the sun. At just 4.24 light-years away, Proxima Centauri has long fascinated astronomers and fiction writers alike. The newfound planet, dubbed Proxima b, is about as massive as Earth, and it orbits near enough to its small, red star for water to stay liquid on its surface. While it may be a while until we have the technology to properly probe Proxima b for signs of life, simply knowing it exists is a boon to astrobiologists.
天文學家公佈了離太陽最近的恆星的一個衛星的相關信息。比鄰星（Proxima Centauri）只有4.24光年遠，一直吸引着天文學家和科幻小說家。這顆新發現的行星被命名爲Proxima b，大小與地球相近，繞行軌道離小的紅色恆星足夠近能使水在其表面呈液態存在。雖然我們還需要些時間才能擁有先進技術探測到Proxima b星球上是否有生命跡象，但是僅僅知道它的存在對天體生物學家來說就已經是一個重大發現了。

TREASURE TROVES OF ANCIENT HUMAN FOOTPRINTS
古人類腳印的寶庫

Tanzania has been an invaluable source of information about the earliest days of our existence, yielding bones, tools, and other trappings from multiple species of human relatives. In October, scientists were dancing with joy when hundreds of ancient human footprints were unveiled at a site there known as Engare Sero. Dated somewhere between 5,000 and 19,000 years old, these prints show signs of early humans jogging and traveling in distinct groups near a towering volcano.
坦桑尼亞一直是無價的信息來源，爲我們提供關於人類早期存在、柔韌的骨頭、工具和各種早期人類的其他陷阱的信息。10月份當數百個古人類的腳印在被稱爲Engare Sero的地方被發現的時候科學家們都高興得手舞足蹈。這些腳印有5,000年至19,000年左右的歷史，是早期人類在一座高聳的火山附近分組蹣跚前行和前進的痕跡。

GIANT MARINE CROCODILE UNVEILED
發現大型海鱷

In January, scientists stunned the world with news that the largest marine crocodile ever found had been unearthed in an African desert. Based on a fossil skull and other bones discovered in Tunisia, it seems the fantastic beast could grow to be more than 30 feet long and weighed around three tons. Dubbed Machimosaurus rex, the 120-million-year-old animal offers crucial clues to a possible mass extinction event at the end of the Jurassic period, about 145 million years ago.
1月份，科學家發佈了一個震驚世界的消息，迄今發現的最大海鱷在非洲沙漠中重見天日。根據在突尼斯發現的頭骨化石和其他骨骼，科學家推測這種神奇的野獸能長到30多英尺，體重可達3噸左右。這種動物被稱爲君王馬奇莫鱷，擁有1億2千萬年歷史，爲約1億4500萬年前侏羅紀末期動物大規模滅絕提供了重要線索。

NASA SPACECRAFT ARRIVES AT JUPITER
NASA的航天器抵達木星

It only took five years and 1.7 billion miles, but in July NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed a daredevil maneuver to get into orbit around the largest planet in our solar system. Launched in August 2011, Juno is the first human-made object to orbit Jupiter since the end of the Galileo mission in 2003. The solar-powered spacecraft is designed to study the giant planet’s structure and intense magnetic field.
NASA的“朱諾”號航天器僅耗時5年，走行17億英里，在7月份完成了一次英勇的行動進入了圍繞太陽系中最大行星運行的軌道。“朱諾”號於2011年8月發射，是2003年“伽利略”號任務結束後第一個繞木星運行的人造物體，它由太陽能提供動力，被設計用來研究木星結構和強磁場。

But first, Juno had to survive its long cruise through space and then a harrowing trip through the planet’s punishing radiation belts. On July 4, the pinwheel-like spacecraft began spinning faster, tumbling into position for a successful orbit. In the following weeks, it sent back stunning new images and fresh reams of data.
但“朱諾”號首先要經歷穿越太空的長期航行，然後完成穿越木星強輻射帶的艱難旅程。7月4日，這個像紙風車的航天器旋轉速度開始加快，進入指定位置成功開始繞行。在接下來的幾周，它發回了令人驚歎的新圖像和大量新數據。