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You can see the planet Jupiter on a clear night, but Jupiter is humongous.
在晴朗的夜空下我們能夠看到木星，那是因為木星夠大；
Mars and Mercury are smaller than that, and you can see them, too.
盡管火星和水星比木星要小，但我們依然能看到。
Wait a minute, our moon is even smaller, and you can see that.
等等，月球更要小一些，我們還是能看到。
Could anything smaller than the moon be visible without a telescope?
那么，在不使用望遠鏡的情況下，我們還能看到比月亮更小的天體嗎？
Actually, yes.
事實上，答案是肯定的。
Though it takes a lot of patience and excellent sky conditions, it is possible to see a tiny object called Vesta.
只要我們足夠有耐心，天公也作美，我們還有機會看到一個小天體—它就是被命名為灶神星的小天體。
Although it had a molten interior and volcanoes, Vesta isn't a planet or a moon:
盡管它以溶化的金屬為核心且地表遍布火山，灶神星卻既不是行星也不是月球：
it's an asteroid.
它僅僅是一顆小行星。
Asteroids are stray chunks of rocky or metallic materials that orbit the sun but were never drawn into any of the planets.
小行星是由巖石或是金屬塊構成的小天體，他們繞太陽運動但絕不會卷入其他行星的運行軌道中。
