[전문 + mp3] / [받아쓰기]
It has taken more than nine years for an American spacecraft to reach the far edge of our solar system. The spacecraft, named New Horizons, sailed past the “dwarf planet" Pluto on Tuesday. New Horizons flew 4.88 billion kilometers to reach Pluto. The spacecraft completed the fly-by Tuesday morning, after reaching an area called the Kuiper Belt, which lies outside the planet Neptune. This success tops off a 50-year effort by scientists to explore our solar system. “It’s truly a mark in human history,” said John Grunsfeld. He is the associate administrator for science at NASA, the American space agency. He is with the mission control center at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.
* spacecraft = 우주선/ solar system = 태양계/ dwart planet = 왜소행성/ Pluto = 명왕성/ fly-by = (우주선의) 접근 비행/ the Kuiper Belt = 카이퍼대(帶) (태양계를 둘러싼 폭 1,440억 km의 먼지, 얼음층)/ Neptune = 해왕성/ top sth off (with ~) = (~으로) ~을 마무리짓다/ 응용물리연구소(應用物理硏究所)
The spacecraft is so far from Earth, that radio signals, traveling at the speed of light, take about four-and-a-half hours to reach scientists on our planet. More information is expected to arrive Tuesday night. That is when New Horizons is expected to send final word that it has passed some 12,550 kilometers from Pluto. “We will get information from the spacecraft and know if it’s healthy,” said Alice Bowman, the mission operations manager. By that time, New Horizons will have spent almost a day in radio silence. It has been quiet while it works on a series of observations as it flies past Pluto and its five moons. New Horizons is traveling at speeds of about 14 kilometers per second. The spacecraft is about the size of a baby grand piano. It is fueled by nuclear power. For several hours after the closest pass by Pluto, New Horizons will look back at the planet. It will study its atmosphere using radio signals sent from Earth as a probe. New Horizons does not have the ability to fire rockets to slow down and go into orbit around Pluto. So its cameras and scientific instruments must work on the fly, without slowing down.
* radio signal = 무선 신호/ the speed of light = 광속/ fuel = 연료를 공급하다/ atmosphere = 대기/ probe = 탐침, 탐색침; 무인 우주 탐사선/ go into orbit = 궤도에 오르다; (일 따위가) 잘 풀리다/ on the fly = 움직이는 상태에서(작동 중); 대충 그때 그때 봐 가며/ slow down = [속도, 진행]을 늦추다
