I had thus learned a second fact of great importance: this was that the planet the little prince came from was scarcely any larger than a house! 我还了解到另一件重要的事,就是他老家所在的那个星球比一座房子大不了多少。 But that did not really surprise me much. I knew very well that in addition to the great planets-- such as the Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Venus-- to which we have given names, there are also hundreds of others, some of which are so small that one has a hard time seeing them through the telescope. When an astronomer discovers one of these he does not give it a name, but only a number. He might call it, for example, "Asteroid 325." 这倒并没有使我感到太奇怪。我知道除地球、木星、火星、金星这几个有名称的大行星以外,还有成百个别的星球,它们有的小得很,就是用望远镜也很难看见。当一个天文学者发现了其中一个星星,他就给它编上一个号码,例如把它称作“325小行星”。 I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612. 我有重要的根据认为小王子所来自的那个星球是小行星B612。 This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909. 这颗小行星仅仅在1909年被一个土耳其天文学家用望远镜看见过一次。 |