A science news preview of 2011
2011科技新闻预测
The year 2010 saw many amazing advances in research, from a synthetic life form to the first dust returned to Earth from an asteroid.
从虚拟生活形式到从小行星上飞回地球的第一粒尘埃，2011年探索领域会有许多惊人进展。
Here, BBC News looks ahead to some of the areas of science and space exploration where headlines might be made in 2011.
在此，《BBC新闻》预测了2011年科学和太空探索领域可能出现的新闻标题。
ANOTHER EARTH
另一个地球
In 2010, astronomers reported more than 100 new candidate exoplanets - planets beyond our Solar System - bringing the total to more than 500. Most of these are so-called hot Jupiters - huge gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars - which are easiest to detect using existing techniques.
2010年，天文学家称原来100多个外部行星代表（太阳系以外的行星），现在总数超过了500。这些大都是所谓的热木星，（在它们的母系星系附近有巨大的气体巨型轨道）用现有技术最容易探测这些行星。
The smallest known exoplanet is Corot-7b, which has a diameter less than twice that of Earth. But its surface temperature is estimated to be around 1,000C, making it far too hot to host any life forms. But in September 2010, a US team announced that it had discovered the planet Gliese 581g orbiting a star some 20 light-years away.
科罗-7b是已知外部行星中最小的一个，它的直径不超过地球直径的两倍。表面温度大约在1000摄氏度左右，这样滚烫的表面不能生存任何生命形式。然而，2010年9月，一组美国队宣称他们发现行星格雷司581g绕一个大约有20光年远的星球运转。
Gliese 581g has a mass about three to four times that of Earth, but it orbits in the so-called "Goldilocks zone" - a region around its host star where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold. Such conditions could allow for the presence on the planet's surface of liquid water - a key ingredient for life.
格雷司518g的质量大约是地球的三到四倍，但它的轨道在所谓的“可居住区”——既不冷也不热的主星的周围区域。这些条件允许星球表面有液态水（生命形式的主要成分）的存在。
But researchers are on the look-out for distant worlds that are even more like our own. This search is being carried out both from telescopes on the ground and from space. Next year should see a release of data collected by the US Kepler space telescope, launched into orbit in March 2009. Most of the exoplanet candidates reported by Kepler so far are Neptune-sized or larger. But the US space agency (Nasa) hopes that the telescope's extraordinarily sensitive detectors will lead it to worlds ever more like our own.
然而研究者们仍在寻找与地球更像的遥远世界。这种探索不仅要从地面望远镜展开，还有太空。明年就会看到美国开普勒太空望远镜收集的一系列数据报道，该望远镜是2009年3月发射到太空的。到目前为止，它探测的多数外部行星和海王星一般大，或者更大。但美国航天航空局希望这个望远镜格外敏感的探测器会探测到与地球更像的世界。
RISE OF THE PRIVATEERS
私有飞船的增加
In 2011, the US space agency is likely to launch its final space shuttle flight. But as one era in space ends, another is dawning, as privately built space vehicles make their first flights. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is due to launch into space for the first time in 2011. Backed by Sir Richard Branson, the new ship is capable of carrying eight people - two crew and six passengers - and will eventually take people prepared to pay $200,000 (￡126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere.
2011年，美国航天航空局可能会发射最后一架航天飞机。正如一个太空时代的结束意味着另一个的开始，私人制造的太空飞船会进行首次航行。2011年维珍银河航天公司准备首次将宇宙飞船2号发射到太空。在理查德.布兰森的支持下，新飞船能装载8个人-两个机组人员和六个乘客-在太空做这样一次短途旅行人们最终的花费是20万美元（12.6万英镑）。
Several companies are involved in providing for the commercial re-supply of the International Space Station (ISS). Earlier this year, one of these firms, SpaceX launched its Dragon capsule - designed to carry cargo and astronauts - into space atop its own Falcon 9 rocket. In 2011, the Taurus II rocket built by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences should make its first flight. The two-stage launcher will eventually loft a capsule named Cygnus, which is designed to carry cargo to the space station. But further along on the horizon, Orbital is working on a crewed spaceplane about one quarter the size of the space shuttle.
一些公司为国际空间站提供商业再供应。今年上半年，其中一个公司，太空X用自己的猎鹰9号火箭把“龙”太空舱发射到太空，该太空舱用来装载货物和宇航员。据《轨道科学》报道，2011年弗吉尼亚制造的“金牛2号”火箭会首次试航。最终这个两阶段发射器会发射一个叫“天鹅”的太空舱，该太空舱用来向空间站运载货物。但不久，轨道公司会研发一个大小为航天飞机四分之一的载人飞船。
Another firm vying for a slice of the re-supply market is Sierra Nevada. The firm is developing a space vehicle called Dream Chaser, which could carry six to eight people to and from low-Earth orbit. Sir Richard Branson has given his support to the project, a move which could see Virgin buy seats on the Dream Chaser or allow its WhiteKnightTwo vehicle to be used as a carrier aircraft for Sierra Nevada's space vehicle during its atmospheric flight tests. More details of the effort should emerge in 2011.
另一个与此竞争寻求一点再供应市场的公司是内华达山脉。该公司正研发叫“追梦者”的航天飞船，该飞船能载6到8人在近地轨道往返飞行。从理查德.布兰森先生支持该项目的举动可以看出，弗吉尼亚买了追梦者的席位，或者内华达山脉的航天飞船作首次试航时，弗吉尼亚允许它的“白色骑士2号”作飞船的运载工具。2011年会出现这种努力的更多细节。
RACE FOR THE HIGGS 为西格雷粒子竞赛
As 2010 drew to a close, Cern (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), which operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), announced that it might delay a shut-down of the LHC currently planned for the end of 2011.
2011年即将到来，运行大型强子对撞机的欧洲原子核研究委员会最近宣称，大型强子对撞机的停之运营可能会推迟，他们原计划在2011年末停止。
Delaying the shut-down by one year, until the end of 2012, would give the vast particle smasher extra time to look for signs of the Higgs boson, the particle which is responsible for the property of mass.
运营停止推迟一年，延迟到2012年，这样会使这种大型粒子对撞机有多余时间寻找西格雷粒子的踪影，这种粒子决定物质质量的性质。
It may be just as well, because the LHC is not the only smasher looking for hints of the Higgs. The Tevatron accelerator, based underground at the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, could also have its run extended to look for the elusive boson particle. The Higgs is a crucial missing piece in the Standard Model, the most widely accepted framework for particle physics.
不只如此，因为大型强子对撞机不是寻找西格雷粒子踪影的唯一对撞机。这种美国伊利诺斯巴达维亚的费米国家加速器实验室地下基地研发的粒子加速器还能扩展到寻找躲避的玻色子。西格雷粒子是标准模型缺失的一个重要部分，而标准模型是粒子物理学界广泛认可的结构框架。
During 2011, the LHC will become sensitive enough to probe hitherto unexplored domains in particle physics. Scientists will be looking for evidence of "supersymmetry" - a theory in which existing elementary particles are paired with a massive "shadow" partner - and extra dimensions. But if these searches draw a blank, it could be just as informative.
2011年间，大型粒子对撞机要足够敏感，它将探测到目前为止粒子物理学还未探索的领域。科学家们会寻找“超对称”的证据（在这个理论中已有的元素粒子都与一个巨大的影子伙伴粒子相伴）和更广的领域。即使探索毫无结果，也会有所帮助。
Over the course of the coming year, Cern physicists will certainly be working to explain interesting effects seen at the LHC in 2010. These puzzling effects emerged during the statistical study of particle movements in billions of collisions from the collider's CMS experiment. According to CMS spokesman Guido Tonelli, "it's like the particles talk to each other and they decide which way to go".
在即将来临的一年中，欧洲原子核研究委员会的物理学家们会致力于解释2010年大型强子对撞机观察到的有趣结果。在科学计量中心对撞机试验中，通过数十亿次的碰撞，在对粒子运动数据进行研究时，得出了这些令人困惑的结果。据科学计量中心发言人吉多.通代利说，“就像粒子在相互交谈，他们决定走哪条路。”
