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Preventing Asteroids In The Future

 

What's up sunshine it's Monday March 17th happy St Patrick's Day hope you get a little St Patty's Day luck sprinkled on to your Monday.

St Patrick celebrated on this day each year because he is thought to have passed away around this time in the mid-fifth century.

Did you know that this primary patron saint of Ireland was not Irish he was born in Roman Britain not Ireland and was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16.

 

patron saint 守护圣徒，守护神

 

He herded  sheep for many years before fleeing to a monastery in England and that's where he became a devout follower of Christianity and was ordained a bishop.

 

devout [dɪˋvaʊt] adj. 虔誠的；虔敬的

ordain [ɔrˋden] v. 任命……为牧师（或神父等），授……以圣职

 

He then returned to Ireland as a missionary where he is said to have used the three-leaf shamrock plant to explain the three parts of the Holy Trinity while preaching.

 

shamrock [ˋʃæmrɑk] n. 酢浆草；三叶草

trinity [ˋtrɪnətɪ] n.（基督教中的）三位一体（指圣父、圣子和圣灵合为上帝）

 

All right now let's get to our lead story of the day powerful storms have swept across the Midwest and Southern parts of the United States we hope you all are safe.

 

Thousands of people are facing vast destruction from damaging winds, pounding rain and tornado outbreaks across several States dozens of people have lost their lives.

 

It began on Friday in the midwest with a line of severe storms moving East affecting more than 900 miles of the region Kansas and Texas saw dust storms from the damaging winds.

 

Oklahoma's Governor declared a state of emergency because of wind-fed wildfires.

 

wind-fed 风势助长的

 

Then Saturday we saw the most tornado warnings issued Nationwide since April of last year with at least 163 warnings issued.

 

More than 40 reported tornadoes swept across eight states in the Midwest and South the severe weather continued through Sunday with tornado warnings issued up the East Coast.

 

Hundreds of thousands of people were left without power in the wake of the storms Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri were hit hard by tornadoes.

 

In some areas power lines are down trees are toppled while debris from destroyed buildings and homes is blocking roads.

 

topple [ˋtɑp!] v. 倒塌，倒下；摇摇欲坠

 

All right, the ancient past and the futuristic now are colliding people used a light beam 10 billion times brighter than the Sun and artificial intelligence to unravel hundreds of ancient scrolls that were charred during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

 

char [tʃɑr] v. 烧成炭；烧焦

 

In 2023 the Vesuvius Challenge began as a competition to decipher the 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls using AI and other computer technology.

 

decipher [dɪˋsaɪfɚ] vt. 破解（密码等）；解释（古代文字等）；辨认（潦草的字迹等）

 

Researchers and computer scientists from around the world have enhanced the ancient ink on the Scrolls they've now virtually unrolled the fifth scroll and this could transform our understanding of ancient Greece and Rome.

 

unroll [ʌnˋrol] v.（把卷起的东西）展开，铺开；展现；显示

 

Our Nick Valencia has more :

 

this charred scroll could contain valuable insights into ancient Greek and Roman philosophy but the contents are challenging to get charred from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

 

The few hundred Scrolls left unopened are in fragile condition they're known as the Herculaneum Scrolls named for the town that was buried in the eruption.

 

Opening one could destroy its contents so researchers have now turned to artificial intelligence to help discover what's inside.

 

Using AI scientists have performed the first virtual unrolling of one of the Scrolls the process uses a particle accelerator that speeds up electrons to emit light 10 billion times brighter than the sun.

 

The light is then directed into Laboratories as x-ray beams to scan inside the Scrolls without damaging them.

 

AI was trained to Spot ink and put together images from the scan to make the text clearer for researchers to decipher.

 

So we've zoomed in essentially with an x-ray microscope is how you can think of this and we're just looking at very very detailed structures on the surface and identifying where there is ink

 

and anywhere we find ink we sort of paint it on the virtually unwrapped surface and at that point text emerges on that image and once there's something that resembles text we partner with the scholars here in Naples and around the world who specialize in these texts and they're able to read it.

 

The virtual unrolling of this scroll revealed substantial parts of the Papyrus including several columns of text it is the newest breakthrough in the Vesuvius challenge a competition which encourages people to decipher text from these Scrolls using computer vision and machine learning.

 

papyrus [pəˋpaɪrəs] n.（纸莎草纸上的）古代文献

 

The virtual unwrapping methods that the research team and the community have developed are really converging to the point where we think this year we're going to substantially read an entire scroll for the first time so that would be historic for a single scroll

 

this scroll is expected to contain ancient philosophical writings that have not been seen for nearly 2,000 years.

 

Researcher Michael mcoser thinks the text will be from the philosopher Philodemus inspired by Epicurus

 

getting new texts is great. getting new texts from an author that I've worked on for a decade and a half now is even better news uh but I'll be happy whatever it is.

 

10-second trivia the main asteroid belt where most asteroids orbiting the Sun can be found lies between which planets

 

Mercury and Venus

Earth and Mars

Mars and Jupiter

Jupiter and Saturn.

 

If you said Mars and Jupiter you're so money

 

money [ˋmʌnɪ]  adj. excellent, great

 

according to NASA the belt is estimated to contain between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids all larger than 1 kilm or 0.6 mile in diameter

 

furthermore, estimates show there are millions of smaller ones

 

to outer space now where the European space agency's Hera mission has sent stunning new images of Mars back to Earth.

 

The spacecraft about the size of a small car is swinging by Mars to use the planet's gravity for some extra momentum on its 2 year long journey to reach a double asteroid system by October of 2026 that's when it'll get an up close look at the aftermath from the NASA dark Mission which intentionally crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid altering its orbit two years ago.

 

Our McKenna Yuan shows us how scientists plan to use Hera's data to possibly defend the planet from potential Galactic shrapnel in the future

 

shrapnel [ˋʃræpnəl] n. 炸弹碎片，弹片

 

European space agency's probe Hera just captured unique views of a rarely seen side of a Martian Moon.

 

The probe swung past Mars to gain extra momentum needed to reach its intended Mission Target asteroid Didymos and its small moonlet Dimorphos.

 

Hera launched in October 2024 to study the results from a NASA Mission.

 

That's when the agency intentionally slammed its DART spacecraft into a smaller moonlet to alter its orbit.

 

dart [dɑrt] n. 标枪；镖; 猛冲，飞奔

 

The hope with both the dart and hera missions is to test asteroid deflection technology on behalf of planetary defense.

 

deflection [dɪˋflɛkʃən] n. 偏斜；偏向

 

And this is what we're doing with AI, we go into deep space and test an asteroid deflection technique.

 

To be able to model the the defense system so that we can use it to any other object in the future.

 

So we're going to gather scientific data very close by and improve our understanding of asteroids.

 

So that if needed we can deflect them.

 

Hero is expected to reach the Didymos system to begin investigating in October of 2026.

 

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10

 

866 brand new species discovered Under the Sea including something particularly cool.

 

Scientists were amped-up when they discovered a guitar shark along with the other new species uncovered by the ocean census.

 

amp up 激励; 鼓舞

 

A project launched in 2023 aiming to expand our knowledge of the ocean's depths.

 

An ambitious Global effort to discover new marine life is paying off Big Time.

 

Shedding light on more than 800 newly documented species including one guitar-shaped shark headlining the Bill.

 

bill [bɪl] n. 节目单

 

A 10-year mission called the ocean census has been underway since 2023.

 

And its first major update on 10 Expeditions spanning the globe with divers, piloted submersibles and remote Vehicles announced 866 discovered species deemed brand new to science.

 

Including a deep sea limpet a venomous gastropod and a teeny tiny pipehorse.

 

limpet [ˋlɪmpɪt] n.【动】帽贝

gastropod [ˋgæstrə͵pɑd] n.【动】腹足纲软件动物

 

But it's this newly found species of guitar shark that stole the show.

 

So named for its well shape of a guitar found off Mosambique and Tanzania.

 

The discovery of this threatened species was music to explorers’ ears.

 

Rock on and thanks for tuning in.

 

It's shout out time now and this one goes to the bombers at Kenston High School in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

 

The bombers are a little

 

bit of history in action.

 

The school's location near a major US Army ammunition plant during World War II, led them to choose the B-52 bombers that flew overhead during war time to be their mascot.

 

Rise up that's all we have time for  today.

 

Shine bright everyone and I will see you right back here tomorrow.

 

I'm Coy wire and we are CNN 10.