2015理工A级职称英语新增文章(费尽心血整理版).docx

Small But Wise　　On December 14,NASA1 blasted a small but mighty telescope into space. The telescope iscalled WISE and is about as wide around as a trashcan. Dont let its small size fool you:WISE hasa powerful digital camera, and it will be taking pictures of some the wildest objects2 in the knownuniverse,includingasteroids,faintstars,blazing galaxies3 and giant clouds of dust where planetsand stars are born.Im very excited because were going to be seeing parts of the universe that we havent seenbefore,said Ned Wright, a scientist who directs the WISE project.Since arriving in space,the WISE telescope has been circling the Earth,held by gravity in apolar orbit4(this means it crosses close to the north and south poles with each lap5).Its camera ispointed outward,away from the Earth,and WISE will snap a picture of a different part of the skyevery 11 minutes. After six months it will have taken pictures across the entire sky.The pictures taken by WISE wont be like everyday digital photographs,however. WISEstands forWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.As its name suggests,the WISE camera takespictures of features that give off infrared radiation6.　　Radiation is energy that travels as a wave. Visible light, including the familiar spectrum oflight7 that becomes visible in a rainbow,is an example of radiation. When an ordinary digitalcamera takes a picture of a tree,forexample,it receives the waves of visible light that are reflected offthe tree. When these waves enter the camera through the lens,theyre processed by the camera,whichthen puts the image together.Waves of infrared radiation are longer than waves of visible light, so ordinary digital camerasdont see them,and neither do the eyes of human beings. Although invisible to the eye,longerinfrared radiation can be detected as warmth by the skin.　Thats a key idea to why WISE will be able to see things other telescopes cant. Noteverything in the universe shows up in visible light. Asteroids,forexample,are giant rocks that