On December 14,NASA1 blasted a small but mighty telescope into space. The telescope is

12月14日，美国国家航空航天局发射了一个体积小而威力大的望远镜，它的名字叫“WISE”(聪明)

called WISE and is about as wide around as a trashcan. Don't let its small size fool you:WISE has

大约只有一个垃圾盒子那么宽。你可千万不要轻视这个小东西，WISE可是一款高强数码相机

a powerful digital camera, and it will be taking pictures of some the wildest objects2 in the known

它将在人类已知的宇宙里拍摄任何你所

universe,including asteroids,faint stars,blazing galaxies3 and giant clouds of dust where planets

能想到的天体，包括小行星、那些只能看到微弱的光和因燃烧而无法观察到的天

and stars are born.

体，以及自行星和恒星诞生以来的巨大尘埃云

"I'm very excited because we're going to be seeing parts of the universe that we haven't seen

Ned Wright是主持WISE项目的科学家他说：“我十分兴奋，因为我们就

before,"said Ned Wright, a scientist who directs the WISE project.

要看到以前从未看到过的那部分宇宙”。

Since arriving in space,the WISE telescope has been circling the Earth,held by gravity in a

到达宇宙空间后，WISE由于受极地轨道重力作用，一直在围绕地球旋转。

polar orbit4(this means it crosses close to the north and south poles with each lap5).Its camera is

(这意味着，每转一圈，它就离南极和北极靠近)。它的镜头是向外的，远离地球。

pointed outward,away from the Earth,and WISE will snap a picture of a different part of the sky

每11分钟WISE就会抓拍天空一个不同的部分。六个月之后，它将把整个天空

every 11 minutes. After six months it will have taken pictures across the entire sky.

拍摄完毕。

The pictures taken by WISE won't be like everyday digital photographs,however. WISE

然而，WISE拍摄的相片不会像我们日常的数码相片。WISE是Wide-field

stands for"Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer."As its name suggests,the WISE camera takes

Infrared Survey Explorer(广域红外戡测探测器)的缩写。正如名字所示，WISE能

pictures of features that give off infrared radiation6.

Radiation is energy that travels as a wave. Visible light, including the familiar spectrum of

辐射是波浪状行进的一种能量。人能看到的光，包括大家熟悉的、在彩虹里

light7 that becomes visible in a rainbow,is an example of radiation. When an ordinary digital

看到的光谱就是射线的一个例子。当普通的数码相机给一棵树照相时，它能接收

camera takes a picture of a tree,for example,it receives the waves of visible light that are reflected off

到树反射回来的、可见的光波。

the tree. When these waves enter the camera through the lens,they're processed by the camera,which

光波通过镜头进入到相机里，相机对它进行加工

then puts the image together.

然后把图像合成