New Moons of Jupiter Discovered 木星衛星增添新成員

笪景行

Scientists have discovered 12 new moons around Jupiter， putting the totalcount at a record-breaking 92. Thats more than any other planet in our solarsystem2. Saturn3 comes in a close second with 83 moons. These newest moons rangein size from one kilometre to three kilometres. The small moons of Jupiter and Saturnare believed to be the results of once bigger moons that collided4 with one another.Jupiters newly discovered moons have yet to be named. Only half of them are bigenough—at least 1.5 kilometres or so in size—to qualify5 for a name.

科學家們在木星周圍發現了12 顆新的衛星，木星的衛星總數達到了創紀錄的92 顆。這比太陽系中的任何其他行星都多。土星以83 顆衛星的數量緊隨其后。這些新發現的衛星直徑從一千米到三千米不等。木星和土星的小衛星被認為是曾經較大的衛星彼此碰撞的結果。新發現的木星衛星尚未被命名。其中只有一半的衛星足夠大———直徑至少在1.5 千米左右———有資格獲得一個名字。

Notes

1. Jupiter 木星

2. solar system 太陽系

3. Saturn? 土星

4. collide? 碰撞；相撞

5. qualify? 使……有權做；使……有資格擁有