◎管淑平
What do you need to map a billion stars? A billion-pixel camera certainly helps.
你需要什麼來繪製一張10億顆恆星的星系圖？一台10億畫素的相機肯定幫得上忙。
Scientists hope to glean more clues about the origin and evolution of the universe, and in particular our own galaxy, after a camera of this incredible scale -- fitted to the Gaia space telescope -- was launched.
科學家希望，一台如此不可思議等級的相機裝設於蓋亞太空望遠鏡發射後，能蒐集更多有關宇宙、尤其是我們自己這個銀河系的起源和演進的線索。
Gaia, which lifted off from French Guiana, has been tasked with mapping the Milky Way in greater detail than ever before.
從法屬圭亞那升空的蓋亞望遠鏡，被賦予前所未有的更大精細度繪製銀河系星系圖的任務。
Designed and built by Astrium for the European Space Agency （ESA）, the makers say the telescope is so sensitive that it could measure a person’s thumbnail from the Moon, or to put it another way, detect the width of a human hair from 1,000km （620 miles） away.
由阿斯特里姆公司為歐洲太空總署設計、打造，製造者說，這具望遠鏡細膩度高到能夠從月球測量一個人的拇指指甲，或者換句話說，能從1000公里外偵測到一根人髮的寬度。
Gaia will study the position, distance, movement, chemical composition and brightness of a billion stars in the galaxy.
蓋亞望遠鏡將研究此星系中10億顆恆星的位置、距離、運動、化學成分和亮度。
The value of putting a billion-pixel camera into space has been championed by Robert Massey from the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society.
英國皇家天文學會的羅勃．梅西支持將一台10億畫素相機放上太空的價值。
"Until now astronomers have relied on very indirect methods to gauge the distance to all but the nearest stars, meaning that the foundation on which we build a map of the universe is surprisingly weak," he said.
「到現在為止，天文學家要估測除了最近恆星之外的所有星體距離，一向仰賴非常間接的方式，這意味著，我們賴以建立這個宇宙地圖的基礎驚人地薄弱。」
新聞辭典：
glean：動詞，（逐步）蒐集。例句：I have to glean more information before I can make a comment.（我得先蒐集更多訊息才能評論。）
to put it another way：動詞片語，換句話說。例句：Do you share our opinion? or to put it another way--- are you with us?（你和我們看法相同，或者換句話說，你支持我們嗎？）
champion：動詞，提倡，擁護，支持；名詞，提倡者、擁護者。例句：He is a champion of civil rights.（他是民權鬥士。）
本文引用至 自由時報電子報 http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/
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