And I’m Georgie. “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” – famous words, but do you know who said them?
我是乔治。“这是人类的一小步，人类的一大步” —— 这句名言，但你知道是谁说的吗？
Neil(尼尔)
Of course - that was Neil Armstrong, the first person to land on the Moon.
当然 —— 那是尼尔·阿姆斯特朗，第一个登陆月球的人。
Georgie(乔治)
th Right, the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed Neil Armstrong on the Moon on the 20 of July 1969. But in decades after that famous event, interest in returning to the Moon faded away... until now.
Summer 2023 saw the start of a new race for the Moon between Russia’s Luna-25 spacecraft and India’s Chandrayaan-3. Russia’s rocket crashed on landing, but rd Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the 23 of August, making India only the fourth country to successfully land on the Moon.
But why this sudden interest in going back to the Moon? That’s what we’ll be discussing in this programme and, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary too.
But before we blast off, I have a question for you, Georgie. Everyone knows that Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon, and was followed by a second astronaut, Buzz Aldrin. But who was the third Apollo astronaut who flew the command module while his crewmates walked on the Moon? Was it: a) Yuri Gagarin? b) Michael Collins? or, c) Alan Shepard?
Okay, Georgie, we’ll find out the answer at the end of the programme. In some ways, the current interest in the Moon is really more about the origins of Earth. One theory is that during the early days of the solar system, around 4 billion years ago, another planet crashed into Earth breaking off a part which then formed the Moon. Unlike the Earth’s surface, which is constantly moving, the Moon is completely still, frozen in time to create a perfectly preserved record of what happened at the birth of the solar system. Here’s astronomer, Dr Becky Smethurst, explaining more to BBC Radio 4 programme, Inside Science:
好的，乔治，我们会在节目结束时找到答案。在某种程度上，目前对月球的兴趣实际上更多的是关于地球的起源。一种理论认为，在太阳系的早期，大约40亿年前，另一颗行星撞向地球，折断了一部分，然后形成了月球。与不断移动的地球表面不同，月球是完全静止的，被及时冻结，以完美地记录太阳系诞生时发生的事情。这是天文学家Becky Smethurst博士向BBC Radio 4节目Inside Science解释的更多内容：
Dr Becky Smethurst(Becky Smethurst博士)
…Whereas on the Moon, it’s just this inert rock, there's no atmosphere so every single thing that's happened to the Moon in its four-and-a-half billion years’ worth history is still recorded there on it. And so, if anyone's ever seen an image of the far side of the Moon, the side of the Moon that we cannot see from Earth is incredibly pockmarked. There are craters all over that thing, and so this is a really big deal when we're thinking about what happened to the early Earth as well, because we think all of the Earth's water came from impacts with comets and asteroids in the very early days of the solar system.
The rock which makes up the Moon is inert – it doesn’t move. It’s also full of craters - large holes in the ground caused by something hitting it. The Moon has so many of these craters, it’s described as pockmarked – having a surface that’s covered in small marks and scars.
These craters play an important part in the story. Because the Moon’s surface does not change, finding water there would explain a lot about how water, and therefore life, started on Earth. That’s why Dr Smethurst calls the Moon mission a big deal, meaning important or significant.
That’s right. Astronomers know that comets are full of ice, and think comets brought water to Earth when they crashed into it. Evidence of those crashes has been erased by the constantly moving surfaces on Earth, but not on the Moon. So, comparing water from the Moon with water on Earth could provide scientists with vital information, as Dr Smethurst explained to BBC Radio 4’s, Inside Science:
没错。天文学家知道彗星充满了冰，并认为彗星在撞击地球时将水带到了地球。这些坠机的证据已经被地球上不断移动的表面抹去了，但在月球上却没有。因此，将月球上的水与地球上的水进行比较可以为科学家提供重要信息，正如Smethurst博士向BBC Radio 4的Inside Science解释的那样：
Dr Becky Smethurst(Becky Smethurst博士)
So they'll be looking essentially to see if it has the same characteristics as water here on Earth, and then we can sort of trace that back from sort of the crater history as well to working out what actually happened. How long has it been there for as well. Also, various other minerals that might be there, these very heavy minerals that we know come from comets and asteroids. Again, that would be this sort of smoking gun to be like, yes this that's where this water came from and it's likely that Earth’s water came from there as well.
Scientists can trace the existence of water on the Moon back to find out what happened on Earth. If you trace something back, you discover the causes of something by investigating how it developed.
For this reason, Dr Smethurst says finding water on the Moon would be finding a smoking gun, a modern idiom meaning indisputable evidence or proof. We’ve learned a lot about the Moon, but we still don’t know the answer to your question, Neil - who was the third Apollo astronaut on that famous first landing in 1969? I said it was Michael Collins…
Which was… the correct answer! Michael Collins never set foot on the Moon himself, but afterwards said the experience of looking back at Earth from the Apollo spacecraft changed his life forever. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned from our trip to the Moon, starting with inert, not moving or unable to move.
If you say something is a big deal, it’s important or significant in some way.
如果你说某件事是一件大事，它在某种程度上是重要的或重要的。
Neil(尼尔)
To trace something back means to discover its causes by examining how it developed.
追溯某事意味着通过检查它是如何发展的来发现其原因的。
Georgie(乔治)
And finally, the idiom a smoking gun refers to indisputable evidence or conclusive proof of something. Once again, our six minutes are up. Join us next time for more scintillating science and useful vocabulary here at 6 Minute English. Goodbye for now!
最后，谚语“吸烟枪”是指某事的无可争辩的证据或确凿的证据。再一次，我们的六分钟结束了。下次加入我们，在 6 Minute English 上了解更多精彩的科学和有用的词汇。再见了！
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