A new planet
新行星

Vulcan?
火神星？

Time to start giving extrasolar planets proper names
該替太陽系之外的行星適當(dāng)命名了



ASTRONOMERS are a curious bunch. Some like to name things. Others prefer numbers and letters. Those who study the solar system fall into the former camp. Every planet, asteroid, moon, mountain and crater has its name. Mankind’s mythologies have been ransacked so thoroughly that the need to identify each orbiting rock has resulted in such curiosities as Zappafrank, Lennon, McCartney and even Bagehot. Those who study other planetary systems have been more restrained. Planets orbiting stars beyond the sun are labelled merely with the name of the star and a suffix letter. Even if planets and moons were found round Alpha Centauri, as envisaged by the writers of “Avatar”, they would not get glorious monikers like Polyphemus and Pandora. They would just be letters—and lower-case ones, to boot.
天文學(xué)家們是一群奇妙之人，有些喜歡命名，有些喜歡數(shù)字和字母。研究太陽系的天文學(xué)家屬于前一個(gè)陣營。由于每一行星、小行星、月亮、山岳及火山口都有自己的名字，人類的神話故事已被傾囊搜遍，結(jié)果那些需要甄別的巖石行星只好被冠上“Zappafrank”、列農(nóng)（Lennon）、麥卡特尼（McCartney）、甚至巴杰特（Bagehot）這類離奇的名字。研究其它行星系統(tǒng)的科學(xué)家則受到更多的命名限制。屬于太陽以外恒星的行星們僅僅得到該恒星的名稱，外加一個(gè)后綴字母。即使它們圍著半人馬座（Alpha Centauri）團(tuán)團(tuán)轉(zhuǎn)，也得不到像《阿凡達(dá)》中“波呂斐摩斯”和“潘多拉”( Polyphemus and Pandora) 如此星光燦爛的綽號(hào)。它們只是一些附屬的字母，而且還是小寫的字母。

That is sad. Though the nominative diarrhoea of the solar system may have gone a little far, a well-chosen name is both picturesque and memorable. Perhaps, therefore, it is time to change the convention and give such a name to an extrasolar planet. And an ideal candidate has just turned up—one that matches one of astronomy’s own myths: the legendary, non-existent planet Vulcan.
這真是悲劇也。雖然太陽系諸星的大名起得比較出格，但精心挑選的名字可以引經(jīng)據(jù)典，有趣難忘。因此，也許到了改變星際命名公約，并該給太陽系外的行星起個(gè)好名字的時(shí)候?，F(xiàn)在，恰巧有顆理想的星球出現(xiàn)了——它正符合天文學(xué)自己的神話：一個(gè)有關(guān)不曾存在的行星：“火神星”（Vulcan）的傳說。

Kepler-10b, to give this planet’s current name, is the latest discovery by Kepler, an American spacecraft. The new object, whose existence was announced on January 10th at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Seattle, is causing excitement because it is the smallest extrasolar planet yet discovered. Its diameter is a mere 1.4 times that of Earth, though it weighs 4.6 terrestrial masses. What makes it Vulcanlike, though, is that it circles its star, Kepler-10, once every 20 hours, in an orbit a twentieth the size of Mercury’s.
這顆星球現(xiàn)名為Kepler-10b，是美國航天器Kepler的最新發(fā)現(xiàn)。美國天文學(xué)會(huì)于1月10日在西雅圖會(huì)議上宣布了它的存在。這顆目前在太陽系的外星系中所發(fā)現(xiàn)的最小行星引起了興奮關(guān)注：其直徑只有地球的1.4倍，但重量達(dá)地球的4.6倍。說它像“火神星”，是因?yàn)樗?0小時(shí)以軌跡相當(dāng)于水星軌跡的1/20的長度繞其恒星（Kepler-10）一周。

Astronomers of the 19th century spent decades searching for a planet within Mercury’s orbit, and confidently named it after the fireloving Roman god of smiths even before they found it. Their reason for thinking Vulcan existed was that Mercury’s orbit behaved as if a more inward planet was tugging on it.
19世紀(jì)的天文學(xué)家花了幾十年時(shí)間尋找在水星軌道之內(nèi)的行星，并且在未找到這顆星之前就自信地將它命名為羅馬愛火的鐵匠之神（Vulcan）。他們認(rèn)為“火神星”有存在的理由，因?yàn)樗堑能壽E表現(xiàn)出如同受到了一個(gè)更接近內(nèi)層星球的拉動(dòng)。

That discrepancy was eventually explained by Einstein as a relativistic effect of the sun’s gravity, and the search for Vulcan petered out. Kepler-10b, however, has some curious parallels with the solar system’s non-existent innermost planet. The first is its location so close to its parent star. Second, despite its size, it is quite heavy. That would have been a useful characteristic in the original Vulcan, had it been real. Third, its high mass probably means it is made of iron, an appropriate material for a planet named after a divine smith. And fourth, it was found in exactly the way the hunt for Vulcan proceeded—by noting the slight dip in light from its parent star caused when it passed in front of that star.
這種差別最終被愛因斯坦以太陽引力相對(duì)效應(yīng)解釋清楚了，因此對(duì)“火神星”的搜索也逐漸淡失。然而對(duì)Kepler -10b的好奇與當(dāng)年搜索太陽系內(nèi)不存在的近核心行星頗有相似之處。首先是新行星的位置非常接近其所屬恒星，其次，它雖小卻相當(dāng)沉重。如果當(dāng)年找到了火神星的話，那顆星也會(huì)具備這個(gè)有用的特征。第三，新星的高重量值可能意味著它由鐵組成，正好適合用火神并且是一名鐵匠來命名。第四，它被發(fā)現(xiàn)的方法正如當(dāng)年尋找火神星一樣——當(dāng)它在其"父”恒星前面飛過時(shí)，導(dǎo)致恒星亮度微微黯淡的這個(gè)關(guān)鍵被捕捉到了。

Numbers have their place in science, of course. Indeed, the subject is founded on them. But the driving force behind a lot of scientific activity is far more romantic than many non-scientists appreciate—and the search for other Earths, with their tantalising promise of other life forms, is about as romantic as it gets.
誠然，數(shù)字在科學(xué)領(lǐng)域中占有重要的位置，并且科學(xué)就建立在數(shù)字的基礎(chǔ)之上。但是驅(qū)動(dòng)科學(xué)實(shí)踐背后的浪漫理想遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了許多非科學(xué)家所能意識(shí)到的范圍——尋找其他的地球，以及那些地球上可能有其他生命形式的吸引力，是這種浪漫理想的極致。

Keep numbers, then, in their proper place—for counting things. For describing them, names are better. And where better to start the process of naming the unfolding atlas of new planets than with the magical smith who was Venus’s husband and cuckolded by Mars?
那么就把數(shù)字保留在其合適的位置上——用于計(jì)算物體吧。若描敘物體的話還是起名為佳。在打開太空?qǐng)D，開始替新行星取名的時(shí)候，還有什么，能好過用一位娶了維納斯女神卻被馬爾斯神戴了綠帽子的神奇鐵匠“火神”來命名一顆新行星呢？