Voice of America is an international news and broadcast organization serving Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East and Balkan countries
Learning English use a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower pace than VOA's other English broadcasts. Previously known as Special English.(2020/01/23 09:30)
Call it luck, but not “dumb luck.”
Just three days into Wolf Cukier’s summer internship with the American space agency NASA, he found a new planet.
The 17-year-old high school student was tasked with looking through data from a telescope in search of evidence of planets outside our solar system.
“I was pretty much spending my summer looking at graphs on a computer screen.”
And on his third day with NASA, Cukier found it -- a previously unknown planet orbiting two stars.
Cukier was looking at data produced by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, known as TESS. Although he did not see the physical planet, he saw clear evidence of it.
“I couldn't say that I was confident it was a planet because it was day three on the job. And I couldn't say anything with confidence quite yet. But out of the hundred different targets that I looked at, I remember I put about 10 asterisks next to this one, saying this one looks good, we should look at this one first.”
The planet is 1,300 light years from Earth.
What Cukier had found was evidence of changes in the light of the two stars, called binary stars. The way scientists “see” such a distant planet is by changes in light. If a planet is moving between the telescope and the star it orbits, it produces an effect similar to an eclipse that we see here on Earth.
In other words, the planet blocks some of the sun’s light from the telescope. In graphs and other data, this shows up as a dip -- a line that moves down and then up again.
Later that day, Cukier met with his boss, Veselin Kostov, to go over his find.
The high school student was working with a team of scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, not far from Washington, D.C.
NASA has about 2,000 interns across the country each year.
Kostov told VOA that Cukier came into his office and told him he had something that “looks interesting.”
It was “a really exciting couple of hours” to make sure what they saw “was real,” Kostov said.
“Once we were pretty confident that they were mostly real, we reached out to the rest of the team,” Kostov said. Other team members found more transits of the planet, giving them more evidence.
Because the planet is so big, NASA scientists believe it is made of gas, like Saturn or Jupiter. Even if it had been rocky, like Earth, the planet seems to be too close to one of the stars to be able to support life.
A team of NASA scientists, including Cukier, submitted the finding to a scientific journal. The work will be published soon.
Reading scientific journals in his classes at Scarsdale High School in New York is what brought Cukier to his internship at NASA. Under the supervision of two high school teachers, he and other students in the program study a science field of their choice. Cukier settled on the field of astrobiology.
He contacted people at NASA to help him gain an internship. While at NASA in the summer of 2018, he studied “Goldilocks” zones—planets that have conditions that could support life.
NASA invited Cukier back the following summer. And that is when he found the planet.
NASA’s Kostov holds a doctoral degree from Johns Hopkins University. Both he and Cukier have advice for students wanting to study the stars. First, study physics and math.
Other than that, Cukier says it was both luck and “putting in the hard work” that led to his discovery.
“Yes what I did is impressive, but it also didn't take that many special skills. So, if someone is interested in science, like my age, and even if they don't have training, they should still just reach out to researchers and find something that they can do because almost anyone can look through data looking for dips.
“It just happened to be me, who saw this one.”
Since the news broke earlier this month, Cukier has told his story to many media organizations. He says that even though it has been fun, the attention is a “bit overwhelming.”
As for his future, Cukier plans to study either physics or astrophysics in college. He hopes to attend Stanford, Princeton or M.I.T., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology next autumn.
But first comes his high school graduation this spring.
I’m Anne Ball.
Anne Ball wrote this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
What do you think of this story? Would you like to study the stars? Write to us in the comments section below.
dumb luck – n. informal saying meaning something good happens completely by chance without being planned or deserved
internship – n. a position as an intern to learn on the job
solar system – n. our sun and planets moving around it
graph – n. a drawing that uses a series of dots and lines to show how much or quickly something changes
confident – adj. having a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something : having confidence
asterisk – n. a symbol * that is used in printed text that can signal importance
eclipse – n. an occasion when the sun looks like it is completely or partially covered with a dark circle because the moon is between the sun and the Earth
impressive – adj. deserving attention, admiration, or respect : making a good impression
overwhelming – adj. very great in number, effect, emotions or force(2020/01/23 08:02)
Chinese state media say officials are canceling flights and trains leaving the city of Wuhan to limit the spread of a new, deadly virus.
The state-owned People's Daily newspaper reported on Twitter Thursday that no one would be permitted to leave the city starting at 10 a.m. The official Xinhua News Agency said that officials also were asking people not to leave without specific reasons.
Wuhan city officials reportedly ordered city buses and boats to temporarily stop operating. Wuhan is a city of several million people in China’s central Hubei province.
Health officials urged people in the city to avoid crowds and public gatherings. They warned that the newly identified coronavirus has infected more than 500 people and killed at least 17. It is believed to have come from a market selling wild animals and seafood.
The coronavirus comes from a family of viruses that can cause the common cold but also more serious sicknesses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. Between 2002 and 2003, the SARS outbreak spread from China to other countries and killed about 800 people.
Li Bin is deputy director of China’s National Health Commission. He said, "There has already been human-to-human transmission and infection of medical workers.”
Doctor Nathalie MacDermott of King's College London said it is likely the virus can spread through the air through sneezing or coughing.
In Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) said its meeting with health experts is continuing into a second day. The WHO is trying to decide whether to declare the outbreak a “global health emergency.” In recent years, the health organization declared emergencies for the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Zika virus in the Americas.
The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) said the virus was likely to spread to countries “with the greatest volume of people traveling to and from Wuhan.”
Airports around the world have increased screening of visitors from Wuhan. And Singapore is screening all passengers from China.
Officials in Thailand on Wednesday said four people -- a Thai national and three Chinese visitors -- are infected with the virus. Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan have all reported one case. All of the infected people were from Wuhan or had recently traveled there.
In Hong Kong, media have reported the first case in a person arriving from the mainland.
Mexico was investigating a possible case also. And North Korea has banned all foreign visitors.
Doctor Peter Horby is a professor of infectious diseases at Oxford University. He said there are three criteria to decide whether the coronavirus is a global health emergency: the outbreak must be an extraordinary event, there must be a risk of international spread and an international response is required.
"In my opinion, those three criteria have been met," he said.
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Hai Do adapted this story for VOA Learning English based on reporting from the Associated Press and Reuters. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
_____________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
transmission –n. the process in which something spreads from person to person
specific - adj. special or particular
sneeze - v. to suddenly force air out through your nose and mouth with a usually loud noise because your body is reacting to dust, a sickness, etc.
cough - v. to force air through your throat with a short, loud noise often because you are sick
global - adj. involving the whole world
volume –n. an amount or number of something
screen –v. to examine people to find out if they have a disease
criteria –n. (pl.) reasons for making a judgement or deciding on something
The little-known word “pettifogging” was used during a 1905 impeachment trial of a judge. This week, Chief Justice John Roberts used it again during the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Roberts is the presiding officer of the trial. He did not say much during the trial’s first day. Instead, the impeachment managers from the House of Representatives and the president’s lawyers argued about the charges against Trump.
Late at night, however, the arguments became heated.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat, wanted the Republican-controlled Senate to permit witnesses at the trial. He told senators that a vote to deny witnesses was a “treacherous vote.” He added that it would be “a vote against an honest trial. A vote against the United States."
In answer to that, White House counsel Pat Cipollone said, "The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler, is you. For the way you addressed this body. This is the United States Senate. You're not in charge here."
Twelve hours into his position as presiding officer, Roberts reminded everyone who was in charge. He issued a warning for both sides to avoid the use of strong language.
Roberts said, "In the 1905 Swayne trial, a senator objected when one of the managers used the word 'pettifogging' and the presiding officer said the word ought not to have been used. I don't think we need to aspire to that high of a standard, but I do think those addressing the Senate should remember where they are."
Overnight, dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster reported, the lookups for the word “pettifogger” went up by over 30,000 percent.
So, what does this word mean?
Let's break it down. Petti- comes from the adjective “petty,” which means “not very important or serious.” And -fogger may come from an old slang word that meant “a whining beggar.”
Merriam-Webster says pettifogger has two main meanings. The first is “a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable.” The second meaning is “one given to quibbling over trifles.” Quibble is another word for argue. And a trifle is something that is unimportant or of little value.
Pettifogging means “worrying too much about details that are minor or not important,” says Merriam-Webster’s Learning English dictionary.
Roberts was noting that the two sides were arguing over small, unimportant issues as they addressed “the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
I’m Ashley Thompson.
Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
_______________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
manager - n. someone who is in charge
treacherous - adj. something that can not be trusted
embarrassed - adj. feeling or looking foolish in public
aspire - v. to want to achieve something
standard - n. a level of achievement that is considered desirable
slang - n. words that are used very informally by a particular group of people
whine - v. to complain in an annoying way
beggar - n. a person who lives by begging for money
deliberative - adj. done in order to discuss and consider facts and reasons carefully(2020/01/23 07:58)
検索