1 . Based on new data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission and other space science data sets, astronomers have created an animation to model dust in the Milky Way. The work was presented this week at a national astronomy meeting.
The animation shows the cumulative build-up of dust looking from Earth’s local neighbourhood to about 13,000 light years towards the galactic centre—around 10% of the overall distance across the Milky Way. Close by, dust swirls all around but, further out, the concentration of dust along the galactic plane (银道面) becomes clear. Two ‘windows’, one above and one below the galactic plane, are also revealed.
“Dust clouds are related to the birth and death of stars, so their distribution tells a story of how structures formed in the galaxy and how the galaxy evolves,” said Nick Cox, coordinator of the EXPLORE project which is developing the tools. “The maps are also important, for cosmologists (宇宙学家) in revealing regions where there is no dust, allowing us to have a clear, unobstructed view out of the Milky Way. This helps in studying the Universe beyond, such as to make Deep Field observations with Hubble or the new James Webb Space Telescope.”
“State-of-the-art machine learning and visual analytics have the power to greatly enhance scientific return and discovery for space science missions, but their use is still relatively novel in the field of astronomy,” said Albert Zijlstra, of the University of Manchester and the EXPLORE project. “With a constant stream of new data, we have an increasing wealth of information to mine—way beyond the scope of what humans could process in a lifetime. We need tools like the ones we are developing for EXPLORE to support scientific discovery, such as by helping us to characterize properties within the data, or to pick out the most interesting or unusual features and structures.”
1. What can we learn about the animation from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is created to replace the dust in the Milky Way. |
| B．It shows dust in a long span of space. |
| C．It employs space data from an individual data base. |
| D．The animation hasn’t been presented. |
| A．The distribution of dust clouds helps to dig the past of the galaxy. |
| B．Only Hubble and the new James Web Telescope can help explore the galaxy. |
| C．Cosmologists use maps to find where there is full of precious star dust clouds. |
| D．Dust clouds are closely related to the formation and death of various kinds of galaxies. |
| A．Fruitless. | B．Controversial. | C．Unrealistic. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Open Invitation of the Wide Galaxy | B．Thrilling Project for the European Team |
| C．Deep Dive into the Dusty Milky Way | D．Immersing Trip to the Grand Solar System |
2 . Sometimes called “Earth’s twin,” Venus is similar to our world in size and composition. The two rocky planets are also roughly the same distance from the sun, and both have an atmosphere. While Venus’s cold and unpleasant landscape does make it seem far less like Earth, scientists recently detected another striking similarity between the two, the presence of active volcanoes.
When NASA’s Magellan mission mapped much of the planet with radar in the 1990sit revealed an unexpectedly youthful surface-there were surprisingly a few craters (火山口)which suggested active geologic (地质的) processes. Although few missions have visited Venus since then, researchers have continued to mine the collection of data from.
Using this decades-old data, planetary scientist Robert Herrick discovered that a Magellan. volcano called Maat Mons is alive with volcanic activity. In this case, lava(岩浆)flows that moved for eight months during an imaging cycle from 1990 to 1992, according to a study published in Science in 2023. The findings are the first real evidence that volcanoes have erupted on Venus during modern times.
What’s more, volcanic activity on Venus could be even more common and dramatic than on Earth. A study published in JGR Planets in 2023 mapped out enormous potential volcanic features on Venus’ surface, and there’s a good chance that some of them could be active today. On top of that, another 2023 study, also in JGR Planets, found that the very high surface temperature on Venus, over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, allows lava flows to slowly leak out.
A list of new missions are headed to Venus over the next decade, including NASA’s Veritas mission, which aims to map the planet’s surface to better understand its geologic history. These projects should settle the question of how the paths of Venus and Earth divided so sharply, with one becoming a hell and the other able to harbor life, and confirm whether volcanoes are still erupting on the planet today.
1. Why does the writer mention Venus is Earth’s twin in Paragraph 1?| A．To prove a theory. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To clarify a concept. | D．To make predictions. |
| A．Robert Herrick’s discovery was based on previous data. |
| B．The findings are the first evidence of volcanoes on Venus. |
| C．There are more huge volcanoes on Venus than on Earth. |
| D．Volcanic activities on Venus are as common as on Earth. |
| A．Mapping the surface of Venus with accuracy. |
| B．Analyzing how volcanoes came into existence. |
| C．Understanding how the two planets evolved differently. |
| D．Confirming whether Venus is suitable for humans to live. |
| A．Venus Is Earth’s Twin. | B．Venus Is an Awful Hell. |
| C．Venus Is a Youthful Planet. | D．Venus Is Volcanically Active. |
3 . If a scientist sees a unicorn (独角兽), she’ll probably want to see more than one before telling the world about her discovery. But sometimes one unicorn is enough.
In 2007 an astronomer named Duncan Lorimer reported finding a new kind of astronomical event. It was a brief stream of energy so powerful that it could reach Earth from a galaxy billions of light-years away. He called it a fast radio burst (FRB). This remarkable find, if real, could make huge contributions to the study about universe. He predicted there would be many more – but that year, he spotted just one.
It’s not unheard of for one event to kick off a whole new field of scientific inquiry. Still it’s rare. When Lorimer’s paper came out in the journal, it was not surprising that many were skeptical. “Sometimes, what seems like a remarkable scientific discovery turns out to be an error in the data,” some commented.
Later, a young graduate student was assigned the task of finding more FRBs. Using the same radio telescope Lorimer once used, she found more bursts that just looked like FRBs. But because of the ways they appeared in the telescope data, she was virtually certain that they were some other kind of radio interference and gave them another name: perytons. As years ticked by and no more FRBs were discovered, some astronomers began to conclude Lorimer had found nothing more than an unusual example of one of these perytons.
Good news: in 2011, there was a report of a second FRB. Four more were found in 2013. Bad news: all of them came from the same Lorimer’s radio telescope. But ultimately, in 2014, there was a report from another radio telescope. More discoveries started showing up from other telescopes on a somewhat regular basis. At last the conversation about FRBs shifted – from whether they were real to where they came from.
Years of research have passed by since then. Now, Victoria Kaspi, a physics professor and principal investigator on the FRB team, predicts that once the more advanced telescopes come online in 2024, the location and distance of most FRBs detected can be found out, which will provide “golden opportunities for astronomers to study the large-scale structure of the universe”.
Finally, this “unicorn” story came to a somehow surprising end. Several years ago, a team reanalyzed the same data from the radio telescope by which Lorimer found the first FRB. There was one more that they had previously missed. Since then, other teams have analyzed even older data and found FRBs in those datasets too.
“They were just sitting there, waiting to be discovered by better techniques,” Lorimer says.
1. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word in paragraph 3?| A．Optimistic. | B．Curious. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．To suggest that the new scientific discovery was a myth. |
| B．To imply magical creatures may actually exist in the world. |
| C．To symbolize the previously unknown and unseen discoveries. |
| D．To quote an incident that once happened in the field of science. |
| A．Because it might mean the results were not reliable. |
| B．Because they were all found by a young graduate student. |
| C．Because these were given the name perytons and were not real FRBs. |
| D．Because not every astronomer had the same type of telescope as Lorimer. |
| A．It’s possible for just one event to start a new field of scientific research. |
| B．New scientific discoveries can’t be made without advanced research techniques. |
| C．Scientists shouldn’t deny new discoveries even if they lack evidence temporarily. |
| D．Scientists should be careful to distinguish new discoveries from errors in the datasets. |
4 . The surface of Mars is etched with ancient river valleys and lake basins. Some researchers think that liquid water once flowed on the Red Planet. Today, Mars is too cold for much, if any, liquid water to exist. And 3.8 billion years ago, when the flowing water formed, the sun was fainter than it is today, making it even harder to imagine a warm Martian climate. That’s why many researchers think Mars may have gone in and out of deep freezes.
Some researchers have suggested that early Mars only thawed out when large asteroid impacts or volcanic eruptions temporarily warmed the planet. But Kasting, a geologist at Penn State University, thinks warm windows from such dramatic events would have been too brief to carve the vast canyons that exist on Mars. Now, Kasting and his colleagues have come up with an alternative explanation. They think Mars may have experienced a series of climate cycles.
The idea goes like this: When Mars was cold and frozen, volcanoes continued to belch out the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and hydrogen into the atmosphere. There, the gas blanket trapped heat and warmed the planet up until liquid water began to flow, forming Mars’ rivers and lakes. However, warm temperatures and abundant water would also have sped up certain chemical reactions that consumed carbon dioxide, reducing the greenhouse effect and cooling the planet back down again. Then the cycle would repeat.
Kasting shared his theory with other astronomers at the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, and in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. So far, Kasting’s team has only shown that such an explanation is possible, according to climate models. But the researchers say field trips could help test the idea by looking for evidence of multiple warm events, and their durations.
1. What made researchers believe that liquid water once existed on Mars?| A．The surface of Mars is with liquid water. |
| B．The temperatures of the sun. |
| C．The geological features of Mars. |
| D．The faintness of the sun. |
| A．Large asteroids had no impact on Mars. |
| B．Deep valleys couldn’t be formed in a short period of time. |
| C．Volcanic eruptions were very frequent on Mars. |
| D．Carbon dioxide and hydrogen were abundant in the atmosphere. |
| A．Carbon dioxide and hydrogen would not be changed. |
| B．The greenhouse gases played an important role in this cycle. |
| C．The climate cycles would experience three times in total. |
| D．Hot environment and a large amount of water would accelerate certain chemical reactions to generate carbon dioxide. |
| A．Climate Cycles Could Have Carved Canyons on Mars |
| B．Large Asteroid Impacts on the Red Planet |
| C．Liquid Water Existing on Mars |
| D．Ancient River Valleys Have Been Found on Mars |
5 . Earth’s oceans are changing color and climate breakdown is probably to blame, according to a research. The deep blue sea is actually becoming steadily greener over time, according to the study, with areas in the low latitudes(纬度)near the equator especially affected.
“The reason why we care about this is not that we care about the color, but that the color is a reflection of the changes in the state of the ecosystem,” said BB Cael, a scientist and author of the study published in Nature.
The previous research focused on changes in the greenness of the ocean to learn about trends in the changing climate. But Cael’s team pored over 20 years of observations by NASA’s Modis-Aqua satellite, a comprehensive database, and looked for patterns of change in the ocean’s color through a fuller color spectrum(色谱)including red and blue.
The changes have been detected in over 56% of the world’s oceans. In most areas there’s a clear “greening effect”, Cael said, but he added that there are also places where red or blue colorings are rising or falling. “These are not massive ecosystem-destroying changes. They may be mild,” said Cael. “But this gives us an additional piece of evidence that human activity is likely affecting large parts of the global biosphere(生物圈)in a way that we haven’t been able to understand. ”
Although this discovery firmly documents another consequence of a changing climate, what is not yet clear is how strong these changes are and what is happening inside the ocean to cause them, according to Michael J Behrenfeld, a researcher of ocean productivity, who was not involved in the research.
NASA will be launching an advanced satellite mission in January 2024 called Pace which will also measure hundreds of colors in the ocean instead of a handful, progressing studies like these further. “Making more meaningful inferences about what the changes actually are is definitely a big next step,” said Cael.
1. Why should attention be drawn to the changing color of oceans?| A．It reflects ecosystem changes. |
| B．It causes climate breakdown. |
| C．Human activities are affected. |
| D．Low latitude areas are influenced. |
| A．Copied. | B．Covered. | C．Studied. | D．Borrowed. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Dismissive. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Pace’s function. |
| B．Cael’s suggestions. |
| C．Meaningful inferences. |
| D．NASA’s further research plans. |
6 . An international team of scientists says it has discovered two new “super-Earth” type planets about 100 light-years away, one of which may be suitable for life. Unlike any of the planets in our solar system, the two newly-discovered super-Earths are larger than Earth, but lighter than icy planets like Uranus and Neptune.
Researchers at Belgium’s University of Liège announced that they found another one while using Earth-based telescopes to confirm the existence of a different planet initially discovered by a NASA satellite in the same solar system.
NASA’s satellite found planet LP 890-9b, which is about 30% larger than Earth and orbits its sun, LP 890-9, in just 2.7 days. ULiège researchers used their telescopes in Chile and Spain to take a closer look at the planet with high-precision cameras. That’s when the scientists discovered another planet, LP 890-9c, which is 40% larger than Earth and takes 8.5 days to orbit its sun.
Francisco Pozuelos, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, said that the planet could be suitable to life despite being a mere 3.7 million miles from its sun. Earth, by comparison, is located over 93 million miles away from our sun. “Although this planet orbits very close to its star, the amount of stellar irradiation (恒星辐射量) it receives is still low, and could allow the presence of liquid water on the planet’s surface, so long as it has a sufficient atmosphere,” Pozuelos said. That’s because although LP 890-9 is by far larger than its planets, it is about 6.5 times smaller than our sun and is roughly half as cool temperature-wise as our sun, he added. “This explains why LP 890-9c, despite being much closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun, could still have conditions that are suitable for life,” said Pozuelos.
1. Which of the following is the smallest?| A．LP 890-9. | B．The Earth. | C．LP 890-9b. | D．LP 890-9c. |
| A．By analyzing its mass and orbit. |
| B．By comparing it with LP 890-9b. |
| C．By using ground-based telescopes. |
| D．By taking photos from a NASA satellite. |
| A．Different opinions about the new planet. |
| B．Scientists’ future plan about the new planet. |
| C．Reasons for the new planet being suitable to live on. |
| D．Comparisons between the planet and our Earth. |
| A．Two Newly-discovered Super-Earths |
| B．Looking for Life Existing in Outer Space |
| C．Great Breakthroughs Made by Scientists |
| D．LP 890-9c, the Future Substitute of Our Earth |
7 . Scientists know quite a lot about stars. After centuries of pointing telescopes at the night sky, astronomers and amateurs alike can figure out key traits of any star, such as its mass or its composition.
To calculate a star’s mass, just look at the time it takes to orbit a companion star. Then do a bit of calculation. To determine what it’s made of, look to the spectrum of light the star sends out. But one question scientists haven’t quite cracked yet is how to calculate the exact time of a star.
“The sun is the only star we know the age of,” says astronomer David Soderblom. He works at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. We use what we know about it and how it compares to others, he says, to figure out the age of other stars.
Even well-studied stars surprise scientists every now and then. In 2019, the red supergiant Betelgeuse became gradually dark. At the time, astronomers weren’t sure if this star was just going through a phase. The alternative was more exciting: It might be ready to explode as a supernova. (Turns out it was just a phase.) The sun also shook things up when scientists noticed that it wasn’t behaving like other middle-aged stars. It’s not as magnetically active as other stars of its age and mass. That suggests astronomers still might not fully understand the timeline of middle age.
Using physics and indirect measurements, scientists can make a rough estimate of a star’s age. Some methods, it turns out, work better for different types of stars.
Why do we even care? Galaxies are huge collections of stars of different ages. Star ages might help us figure out how such galaxies grow and evolve or how planets within them form. Knowing star ages might even assist in the search for life in other solar systems.
1. What may scientists want to research about stars most now?| A．Their companions. | B．Their types. |
| C．Their ages. | D．Their characteristics. |
| A．Discussed. | B．Described. | C．Touched. | D．Solved. |
| A．To show scientists still have puzzles about stars. |
| B．To prove scientists have studied stars to the full. |
| C．To provide facts for scientists’ researches on stars. |
| D．To warn scientists to notice some surprising stars. |
| A．The reasons for caring about the space. | B．The significance of researching star ages. |
| C．The ways of measuring a star’s age. | D．The benefits of figuring out solar systems. |
8 . Do stars only appear at night? The answer is no. Venus (金星) is the only star that can be seen in daytime. It shone at its brightest in the night sky on Feb 17 this year.
Venus is the second planet from the sun. It is the second brightest natural object, behind the earth’s moon, in the night sky. Why is it so bright?
First of all, Venus is the closest planet to the earth. It is also covered by highly reflective (反射的) clouds, which can reflect about 70 percent of the sunlight striking (照射) it, almost twice as much as the earth does. Some people call 2017 the year of Venus, because the planet is at its brightest twice this year. Venus gets brighter when it goes further away from the sun, and nearer to the earth. The brightest moment happened once in February, and will happen again, during daylight, on April 30.
If Venus is so bright and close to us, isn’t it a better choice for human exploration (探索) than Mars? It is closer to the earth than Mars and it’s closer to the earth in size. The closer distance to the sun means solar power (太阳能) would be easier to generate as well.
However, with a temperature of about 465℃ on the surface, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system!
But scientists never give up. Recently, a team of NASA and Russian scientists created new computer equipment that can stand temperatures of 480℃. It can work under Venus-like conditions (环境) for almost 22 days.
The next step, according to the scientists, is to send a probe (探测器) to Venus by 2025.
1. Which of the following about Venus is NOT true?| A．It’s the only star that can be seen in daylight. | B．It’s the second planet from the sun. |
| C．It’s the brightest natural object in the night sky. | D．It’s the closest planet to the earth. |
| A．heat | B．produce | C．spread | D．form |
| A．The closer distance to the earth. | B．The similar size to the earth. |
| C．Too much solar power to use. | D．The extremely high temperature. |
a. was created by some UK scientists b. can stand temperatures of 480℃
c. can work for about 22 days on Venus d. will be sent to Venus by 2025
| A．ab | B．bc | C．cd | D．Ad |
9 . A new study focuses on K2-18b, an exoplanet(系外行星) discovered in 2018, which orbits a red dwarf star close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as Earth does from our sun.
Recently, scientists have discovered gas giants that have water in their atmospheres, but this is the least giant planet ever to have water detected in its atmosphere. “The water detection was quite clear to us relatively early on,” lead author Bjorn Benneke, a professor at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Universite de Montreal, told Space.com in an interview.
“Studies have suggested that planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres could host certain forms of life.” Benneke said. However, “K2-18b’s large atmosphere is extremely thick and creates high-pressure conditions, which likely prevents life as we know it from existing on the planet’s surface.” a news release reads. While these researchers found evidence for liquid water clouds on K2-18b, because of its lack of surface, rain wouldn’t pool on the planet. Without a real surface, so to speak, landing on the planet would also be nearly impossible to land on, especially because the gas is so thick and has such an incredibly high pressure that any Earth-created spacecraft sent there would be destroyed.
Benneke suggests that, possibly, this planet formed by rock absorbing large amounts of gas, “like a vacuum cleaner,” he said. The gas absorbed would have more than doubled the planet and increased its volume Warren eightfood.
To come to these conclusions, the research team analyzed data from Hubble Space Telescope observations that they made between 2019 and 2020 of the K2-18b planet passing in front of its star eight times. This type of research, Benneke said, is leading toward a final goal of “being able to study real, true earth-like planets.” We are not quite there yet, he said, but this is really exciting.”
1. Why is it impossible to land on the K2-18b?| A．It has thin gas. | B．It doesn’t have a real surface. |
| C．It has too much water. | D．It is too far from the earth. |
| A．By releasing gas itself. | B．By receiving radiation from the sun. |
| C．By taking in much gas by rocks. | D．By getting away from the red dwarf star. |
| A．Scientists are making progress in studying real earth-like planets. |
| B．It is impossible for humans to land on other earth-like planets. |
| C．Scientists have succeeded in exploring K2-18b completely. |
| D．The K2-18b planet has passed before its star eight times between 2019 and 2020. |
| A．The exploration of the outer space. |
| B．The study of solar systems’ environment. |
| C．The discovery of the K2-18b planet. |
| D．The research on the K2-18b planet. |
10 . Just as it does on Earth, it snows on Mars. However, scientists have found that Martian snow is “dustier” than it is on Earth, which could mean it’s warmer and more likely to melt into water, a new study suggests.
“There is a chance that this dusty and dark ice might melt a few centimeters down,” said the study’s lead author, Aditya Khuller, in a statement.
In June, a separate study suggested that there maybe more water on the Red Planet than previously thought, including “dozens” of lakes less than a mile beneath the surface of the Red Planet.
The scientists believe that the ice that was dug up by the Phoenix lander in 2008 (and subsequent falling snow) occurred from a snowfall sometime over the past million years.
“It is widely believed that Mars has experienced multiple ice ages throughout its history, and it looks like the ice being exposed throughout the mid-latitudes of Mars is a relic of this ancient dusty snowfall,” Khuller added.
If researchers are able to better learn about the prospects of water on Mars, then they may be able to better learn about its prospects for once hosting life.
“Characterizing these properties can significantly improve models of ice stability on Mars and inform us about its age and origin,” the researchers wrote in the study.
The researchers say that more work is required to determine if the ice actually melts into water.
Kuller added, “We are working on developing improved computer simulations of Martian ice to study how it evolves over time, and whether it might melt to form liquid water. The results from this study will be integral to our work because knowing how dark the ice is directly influence how warm it gets.”
Although scientists confirmed in 2018 that Mars still has lakes filled with liquid water, it has been somewhat difficult to find.
1. Why does the ice on Mars melt easier than that on Earth?| A．Because Mars’ ice is dustier and darker. | B．Because it snows more often on Mars. |
| C．Because Mars’ ice is exposed to the sun for long. | D．Because the temperature is not stable on Mars. |
| A．To help reduce ice’s meiting on Mars. | B．To better learn if Mars is potentially capable of hosting life. |
| C．To accelerate its turning into water. | D．To research how much water there is on Mars. |
| A．Impossible. | B．Unbelievable. | C．Essential. | D．Interesting. |
| A．It’s easy to find lakes with liquid water on Mars. |
| B．The Phoenix lander was the first explorer to land on Mars. |
| C．It’s impossible to learn the origin of Mars’ ice. |
| D．Scientists are striving for improving ice stability on Mars. |
