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Sky Map Satellite Becomes Asteroid Hunter
星云地图卫星成为小行星探寻者。
Last week we told you about the end of an era: NASA ended the Kepler spacecraft's exoplanet-hunting mission, following an irreparable mechanical failure.
上周我们报道了一个时代的结束，由于无法修复的机械故障，NASA结束了开普勒太空飞船的行星探索任务。
This week, news of rebirth. NASA's WISE satellite is a space telescope that carefully surveyed the universe in infrared light. In 2010 it ran out of the cryogenic coolant that enabled its primary mission of mapping the skies. But WISE still found work, scanning for asteroids near Earth. Finally in 2011 NASA put the orbiting observatory into hibernation.
本周，是关于重生的新闻。NASA的智慧号卫星是探寻宇宙的红外线太空望远镜。2010年其低温冷却剂消耗殆尽，而低温冷却剂是其绘制星云地图的必备。但是智慧号仍在运转，寻找近地小行星。最终，在2011年，NASA让智慧号长眠。
Now NASA is planning to reboot WISE to find more asteroids. The space agency will fire it up in September for a three-year run. WISE should be able to find some 150 new near-Earth asteroids and get a better handle on another 2,000.
现在，NASA准备重启智慧号，让其发现更多的小行星。航天局将在9月份发动智慧号，让其运行三年。智慧号应该能发现大约150颗近地小行星，并且能再发现2000颗左右。
Altogether more than 10,000 near-Earth asteroids, and almost 100 near-Earth comets, have been discovered by astronomers. That census includes most of the really big ones, but the vast majority of smaller asteroids remain to be discovered. And as we saw in February—when a small asteroid exploded over Russia, breaking windows in thousands of buildings—even the little ones can still do big damage.
天文学家一共发现了超过10000颗近地小行星，大约100颗近地彗星。上述统计包括一些大型的小行星，但是大量的小型小行星亟待发现。正如我们在2月看到的，一颗在俄罗斯爆炸的小行星毁坏了数千栋建筑的川子，即使是小型小行星也能制造大损失。
—John Matson
