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66 million years ago, a much larger object hit the Earth, causing a massive extinction.
六百六十萬年前，一個更大的物體撞擊地球，造成了物種大滅絕。
75 percent of plant and animal species were lost, including, sadly, the dinosaurs.
當時地球上百分之七十五的動植物消失，包括不幸的恐龍。
That object was about 10 kilometers across, and 10 kilometers is roughly the cruising altitude of a 747 jet.
那個物體有十千米寬，而十千米是波音747的巡航高度。
So the next time you're in an airplane, snag a window seat,
所以下次當你坐飛機時，搶一個靠窗的座位，
look out and imagine a rock so enormous that resting on the ground, it just grazes your wingtip.
看著窗外想象一個如此巨大的石塊躺在地上，它恰好擦過機翼。
It's so wide that it takes your plane one full minute to fly past it.
它大到飛機需要整整一分鐘才能飛過它。
That's the size of the asteroid that hit the Earth.
這是曾經撞擊地球的小行星的大小。
It has only been within my lifetime that asteroids have been considered a credible threat to our planet.
這是小行星在我有生以來唯一一次被視作我們星球的威脅。
And since then, there's been a focused effort underway to discover and catalog these objects.
從那以后，人們集中努力發現并分類這些物體。
I am lucky enough to be part of this effort. I'm part of a team of scientists that use NASA's NEOWISE telescope.
我很幸運成為這項工作的一員。我是使用NASA的NEOWISE望遠鏡科學家小組的成員。
Now, NEOWISE was not designed to find asteroids.
現在，NEOWISE并不是為了尋找小行星而設計的。
It was designed to orbit the earth and look far beyond our solar system
而是環繞地球運動并觀測太陽系外的情形，
to seek out the coldest stars and the most luminous galaxies.
尋找最冷的星球以及最亮的星系。
And it did that very well for its designed lifetime of seven months.
而且它在其七個月的預期壽命中非常好的完成了工作。
But today, six years later, it's still going. We've repurposed it to discover and study asteroids.
但是現在，六年過去了，它仍然在工作。我們重新改造讓它開始尋找并研究小行星。
And although it's a wonderful little space robot, these days it's kind of like a used car.
雖然它是一個完美的太空機器人，但是現在它更像一輛用過的汽車。
The cryogen that used to refrigerate its sensors is long gone, so we joke that its air-conditioning is broken.
對其傳感器進行降溫的制冷劑長時間供應不足，所以我們開玩笑說它的制冷系統已經損壞。
It's got 920 million miles on the odometer,
它的里程表上顯示已經運行了九億兩千萬英里，
but it still runs great and reliably takes a photograph of the sky every 11 seconds.
但它的狀態依舊良好并且穩定的在每十一秒拍攝一張天空的照片。
It's taken 23 photos since I began speaking to you.
從我開始和大家講話到現在，它已經拍了23張照片了。
