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8．LITTLE PLANET
小世界
Q. If an asteroid was very small butsupermassive, could you really live on it like the Little Prince?
Q．如果有一颗小行星非常小，但质量却非常大，那么有没有可能像小王子那样住在上面？
-Samantha Harper
——萨曼莎•哈珀
“Did you eat my rose?”“Maybe.”
“你把我的玫瑰吃了吗？”“大概吧。”
A. THE LITTLE PRINCE, BY Antoine deSaint-Exupéry, is a story about a traveler from a distant asteroid. It's simpleand sad and poignant and memorable.1 It's ostensibly a children's book, butit's hard to pin down who the intended audience is. In any case, it certainlyhas found an audience; it's among the best-selling books in history.
A．《小王子》一书由安东尼•德•圣-埃克苏佩里写成，讲述了一个来自遥远的小行星的旅行者的故事。整个故事简单而又伤感，意味深长且让人念念不忘。1这本书表面上是写给小孩儿看的，但你却很难说这本书到底是写给谁看的。但不管怎样，这本书肯定找对了读者，它是史上销量最多的书之一。
It was written in 1942. That's aninteresting time to write about asteroids, because in 1942 we didn't actuallyknow what asteroids looked like. Even in our best telescopes, the largestasteroids were visible only as points of light. In fact, that's where theirname comes from-the word asteroid means “starlike.”
《小王子》一书写于1942年。在这个时间段写关于小行星的故事挺不错的，因为在1942年人们甚至都不知道小行星长什么样子。即使是用那时最先进的望远镜，那些最大的小行星看起来也不过是一团亮光。事实上这就是“小行星”（asteroid）一词的来源——意思是“像星星那样的”。
We got our first confirmation of whatasteroids looked like in 1971, when Mariner 9 visited Mars and snapped picturesof Phobos and Deimos. These moons, believed to be captured asteroids,solidified the modern image of asteroids as cratered potatoes. Before the1970s, it was common for science fiction to assume small asteroids would beround, like planets.
直到1971年，“水手9号”探测器造访火星并拍下了火卫一和火卫二的照片后，人们才第一次一睹小行星的真容。这些被火星俘获的小行星也加深了人们心中“小行星就像是坑坑洼洼的土豆”的印象。在20世纪70年代之前，科幻小说中的小行星基本都是圆形的，就像行星一样。
The Little Prince took this a step further,imagining an asteroid as a tiny planet with gravity, air, and a rose. There'sno point in trying to critique the science here, because (1) it's not a storyabout asteroids, and (2) it opens with a parable about how foolish adults arefor looking at everything too literally.
而《小王子》一书则更进一步，它设想了一个有重力、空气和一枝玫瑰的小行星。在此不应该批评这本书一点都不科学，一是因为它本来就不是一本讲小行星的书；二是它开篇就是一个寓言，讲述成年人总是从字面意思看待一切是多么地愚蠢。
Rather than using science to chip away atthe story, let's see what strange new pieces it can add. If there really were asuperdense asteroid with enough surface gravity to walk around on, it wouldhave some pretty remarkable properties.
因此我不打算用科学去削减这个故事，相反我打算看看科学能不能加进去什么神奇的东西。如果确实有一颗超级密实的星球，并且表面重力大到能让人在表面上走动，那么它肯定会有一些十分惊人的性质。
