第1894期:Solar System’s ninth planet?

The idea that there might be a so-called Planet X moving in the distant reaches of the Solar System has been debated for more than 100 years. It's fallen in and out of vogue.

关于太阳系遥远地区可能存在一颗所谓的 X 行星的想法已经争论了 100 多年。 它时而流行，时而过时。

The latest claim is based on an analysis of the movements of objects in a band of icy material orbiting more than 3bn miles away known as the Kuiper Belt. The only way these alignments can be explained, say the Caltech team, is if an object ten times as massive as the Earth is out there somewhere moving perhaps 20 times as far away as Neptune, the current most distant planet.

最新的说法是基于对环绕超过 30 亿英里的柯伊伯带冰物质带中物体运动的分析。 加州理工学院的研究小组表示，解释这些排列的唯一方法是，是否有一个质量是地球十倍的物体存在于某个地方，其移动距离可能是当前最遥远的行星海王星的 20 倍远。

The group hope their research will spark a telescope campaign to try to track it down. One reason the claim is being taken so seriously is that it comes from the renowned astronomer Mike Brown. It was his discoveries in the outer Solar System that eventually led to Pluto losing its planet status in 2006.

该小组希望他们的研究能够引发一场望远镜运动，试图追踪它。这一说法受到如此认真对待的原因之一是它来自著名天文学家迈克·布朗。 正是他在外太阳系的发现最终导致冥王星在 2006 年失去了行星地位。

词汇表

so-called 所谓的，号称的
debated （过去分词）辩论，争论
vogue 流行，风尚
claim 声称
alignments （空间）序列
renowned 有名的，享有声望的
status 地位，资格