周记3 今天7.15号,加油
这次看《American Scientist》
The Juno spacecraft is changing how we see Earth's largest neighbor.揭示无形 Revealing the Invisible
The Juno spacecraft has been at Jupiter and collecting data since 2016, and it has been prompting astrophysicists to revise their perceptions of that giant planet since its first data return.
自2016年以来,Juno航天器一直在木星上收集数据,自从第一个数据返回以来,它一直在促使天体物理学家们修正对这颗巨型行星的看法。
An accurate characterization of Jupiter is important, not just because we want to understand that planet and its formation, but also because Jupiter was almost certainly the first planet in our Solar System. Astrophysical models show that when Jupiter formed, it took in more than half of the available matter, so its composition is a time capsule of the ingredients present in the early Solar System. Jupiter’s formation, and what it left behind, con-strained how the rest of the Solar System—including our planet—came about. And there’s a whole class of extrasolar planets that have been discovered in other systems that are called “hot Jupiters” because our gas giant is thought to be a model for their structure and internal conditions. So if we have a wrong view of Jupiter, we won’t have an accurate understanding of these exoplanets either.
准确描述木星非常重要,这不仅是因为我们想了解该行星及其形成,还因为木星几乎可以肯定是太阳系中的第一颗行星。天体物理模型表明,Jupiter形成时吸收了一半以上的可用物质,因此其组成是早期太阳系中存在的成分的时间囊。木星的形成及其所留下的东西,限制了太阳系其余部分(包括我们的星球)如何运动。在其他系统中发现了一整类太阳系外行星,它们被称为“热木星”,因为我们的天然气巨头被认为是其结构和内部条件的典范。因此,如果我们对木星有错误的看法,我们也将不会对这些系外行星有准确的了解。
Scott Bolton, the principal investigator of the Juno mission, describes in “Inside Jupiter” (pages 98–105) just how wrong we were about our largest neighbor before Juno’s data began to set the record straight. Bolton has a long track record of working on space missions; indeed, he started developing the idea of the Juno mission while he was part of the Cassini mission to Saturn. On its way to the ringed planet, Cassini passed Jupiter, and Bolton says he petitioned for Cassini to be turned on to observe the gas giant during that distant flyby. That got him thinking about ways to image Jupiter’s interior, which is under far too much pressure for a probe to withstand. He and his team then developed the microwave imaging instruments that are now on the Juno spacecraft, which have gathered the data prompting scientists to revise our understanding of Jupiter.
朱诺特派团的首席研究员斯科特·博尔顿(Scott Bolton)在“朱庇特之内”(第98-105页)中描述了在朱诺的数据开始刷新纪录之前,我们对我们最大邻居的看法有多么错误。博尔顿(Bolton)在执行太空任务方面有着悠久的记录。的确,他是卡西尼号(Cassini)土星任务的一员,他开始构思朱诺任务。卡西尼号在驶向这颗环状行星的途中经过了木星,博尔顿说,他请卡西尼号开启,以便在那次遥远的掠过期间观察这家天然气巨人。这让他开始思考如何对木星内部进行成像,而木星承受的压力太大了。然后,他和他的团队开发了如今在Juno航天器上使用的微波成像仪器,该仪器收集了数据,促使科学家修改了我们对木星的理解。
But you don’t have to go to Jupiter to find innovation in imaging. In the medical field, imaging technologies that are faster, more detailed, and more precise are helping diagnose and treat serious diseases, particularly cancer. In “Cancer Care Is Getting Better, But Also More Expensive” (pages 106–113), Hannah McGilli-vray and Richard Wassersug discuss a field called theranostics—a combination of therapy and diagnostics—and the associated technologies that can simultaneously diagnose and treat cancers.
但是您不必去木星去寻找成像方面的创新。在医学领域,更快,更详细,更精确的成像技术正在帮助诊断和治疗严重疾病,尤其是癌症。 Hannah McGillivray和Richard Wassersug在“癌症治疗变得越来越好,但也越来越昂贵”(第106-113页)中讨论了一个名为“治疗学”的领域,即治疗学和诊断学的结合,以及可以同时进行诊断的相关技术并治疗癌症。
Technology is also revealing and capturing what would otherwise be invisible dangers to human health from our environment. For instance, air pollution can be a great unseen threat. But once it’s detected, how can the polluters be held accountable? In “How Property Rights Can Fight Pollution” (pages 92–97), Lawrence B. Cahoon, Robert H. Cutting, and Michael A. Mallin describe how data and the legal system can be combined to use property rights in the fight for human health.
技术还揭示并捕捉了我们环境对人类健康的无形危害。例如,空气污染可能是一个巨大的看不见的威胁。但是,一旦检测到污染者,如何追究污染者的责任?在“产权如何与污染作斗争”(第92-97页)中,劳伦斯B. Cahoon,Robert H. Cutting和Michael A. Mallin描述了如何将数据和法律制度结合起来在斗争中使用产权
We hope you enjoy this issue of American Scientist. As always, your feedback is welcome to help reveal what’s invisible to us—your thoughts as you read these pages and what you find most interesting.
—Fenella Saunders (@FenellaSaunders)
我们希望您喜欢本期《美国科学家》。与往常一样,我们欢迎您提供反馈,以帮助我们了解我们看不见的内容-阅读这些页面时您的想法以及最有趣的内容。
-Fenella Saunders(@FenellaSaunders)
NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter in 2016, and since then it has been stunning scientists and the public with views of Jupiter unlike any seen before. Juno’s visible-light images are processed by citizen scientists and often are color-stretched to emphasize detail and contrast. These images have led to discoveries, such as the state of Jupiter’s shrinking Great Red Spot. But Juno’s other instruments have measured properties beyond the view of visible light and have produced dramatic data about the interior of the gas giant planet, as well as revelations about its gravity, radiation, and magnetic field. In “Inside Jupiter” (pages 98–105), Scott Bolton details how all of these discoveries not only tell us about our enormous neighbor but also expand our understanding of the formation of our own planet and the rest of our Solar System, and are essential to better-characterizing exoplanets in other systems.
美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的朱诺(Juno)航天飞机于2016年抵达木星,从那以后,它所带来的许多关于木星的观点都是前所未有的震惊着科学家和公众。 Juno的可见光图像由公民科学家处理,并且通常会进行彩色拉伸以强调细节和对比度。这些图像引领了新的发现,例如木星不断缩小的大红色斑点状态。但是朱诺的其他仪器测量的属性超出了可见光的范围,并产生了有关天然气巨行星内部的生动数据,以及有关其重力,辐射和磁场的启示。在《木星内部》(第98-105页)中,斯科特·博尔顿详细介绍了所有这些发现如何不仅告诉我们有关我们巨大邻居的信息,而且还扩大了我们对我们自己的行星和太阳系其余部分的理解,并且对更好地表征其他系统中的系外行星至关重要。
The Life and Possible Death of the Great Asian Monsoon
The imperious storms have ruled India for centuries. Already unstable, what happens if they shift fundamentally?
The 2019 monsoon was the wettest on record in Mumbai, India; the subsequent flooding killed dozens of people and damaged property and crops. Years, when the monsoons do not come, can be equally dangerous because they lead to significant crop failures and famine. For centuries, scientists and government officials have attempted to understand the monsoon cycles to better predict and control the downpour.