#大學英語聽力#

Proxima Centauri is our nearest neighbouring star; it's just 4.2 light-years away.

比鄰星是我們最近的鄰星，它只有4.2光年遠。

It has one planet that astronomers know of, a potentially habitable world called Proxima b.

據天文學家所知，它有一顆行星，一個潛在的宜居星球，叫做Proxima b。

But in a new study, researchers from Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics report that they have observed changes in the star's activity that indicate it could have another planet.

但在一項新的研究中，義大利國家天體物理研究所的研究人員報告說，他們觀察到了這顆恆星活動的變化，表明它可能有另一顆行星。

They dubbed the world Proxima c in their paper, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

他們在他們的論文中將世界比鄰c命名為Proxima c，這篇論文於週三發表在“科學進步”雜誌上。

The potential new planet seems to be a super-Earth – the term for a planet with a mass larger than Earth but significantly smaller than the ice giant Neptune.

潛在的新行星似乎是超級地球-這個術語指的是品質大於地球但明顯小於冰川巨星海王星的行星。

"Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the sun, and this detection would make it the closest planetary system to us," astronomer Mario Damasso, the paper's lead author, told Business Insider in an email.

“比鄰星是距離太陽最近的恆星，這種探測將使它成為離我們最近的行星系統，”該論文的主要作者天文學家馬里奧·達馬索(Mario Damasso)在一封電子郵件中告訴“商業內幕”(Business Insider)。

Proxima c (if it exists) is probably not habitable – given its distance from its star, the planet is probably freezing or shrouded in a suffocating hydrogen-helium atmosphere.

Proxima c(如果存在的話)可能不適合居住-考慮到它與恆星的距離，這顆行星可能正在冰凍或籠罩在令人窒息的氫氦大氣中。

But its proximity to us could offer a unique opportunity to study another star system.

但它靠近我們可以提供一個獨特的機會來研究另一個恆星系統。

If it's real, Proxima c should not exist where it is.

如果它是真實的，Proxima c不應該存在於它所在的地方。