太陽係外八顆新行星中包括“外星球”

天文學家說在遙遠的太陽係外最新發現的八顆新行星中的一顆是“最類似地球的外星球”。這八顆類地行星是由美國國家航空航天局（NASA）的開普勒太空望遠鏡所探測出的。此探測結果是在美國天文學會的一次會議上公布的。以下是 BBC 記者 Jonathan Webb 的報道：

Spotting ‘Alien Earths’ is the reason the Kepler spacecraft was launched six years ago. It looks deep into space for tell-tale dips in the brightness of faraway stars.

Eight new so-called exoplanets were revealed here, taking Kepler’s overall tally to more than 1,000. But only very few planets from that total are thought to be Earth-like and habitable, sitting in a temperate Goldilocks zone around their various suns.

One of the new arrivals, called Kepler 438b, is the most like our home that astronomers have ever seen: just 12% bigger than Earth and 40% warmer.

They say if we could stand on its surface, nearly 500 light years away, the sky would be red because of the dwarf star it has for a sun.

Glossary 詞彙表

tell-tale 泄露內情的

faraway 遙遠的

exoplanet 外星球

tally 累計數字，總數

habitable 可居住的

Goldilocks zone 適居帶

light years 光年

dwarf star 矮星