导读:NASA在太阳系外发现100多颗类地行星。
It has also detected nine small planets within so-called habitable zones, where conditions are favourable for liquid water - and potentially life.
NASA还在所谓的“可居住带”内发现了9颗较小的行星，就这些行星的空间位置来看，很有可能存在液态水和生命。
The finds are contained within a catalogue of 1,284 new planets detected by Kepler - which more than doubles the previous tally.
这一结果是从NASA开普勒望远镜新发现的1284颗行星（两倍多于之前发现的行星）中分析得出的。
Nasa said it was the biggest single announcement of new exoplanets.
NASA说这是有史以来最大的太阳系外星系发现报告。
Space agency scientists discussed the new findings in a teleconference on Tuesday.
周二的时候，航天局的科学家们在一场电话会议上讨论了这一结果。
Statistical analyses of Kepler’s expanding sample of worlds help astronomers understand how common planets like our own might be.
天文学家们对开普勒望远镜的观测结果进行了统计分析，结果表明像地球一样的行星在宇宙中可能非常普遍。
Dr Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at Nasa’s Ames Research Center in California, said calculations suggested there could be more than 10 billion potentially habitable planets in the Milky Way.
据加州NASA埃姆斯研究中心开普勒项目科学家娜塔莉·巴塔利亚博士透露，计算表明在银河系存在有超过100亿颗适合居住的行星。
"about 24% of the stars harbour potentially habitable planets that are smaller than about 1.6 times the size of the Earth. That’s a number that we like because it’s below that size that we estimate planets are likely to be rocky," said Dr Batalha.
巴塔利亚博士说：“银河系大约有24%的恒星系统拥有适合人类居住的行星，这些行星都小于地球体积的1.6倍。这个数值是合适的，因为它小于我们计算出的行星处于岩石状所必须的临界值。”
"If you ask yourself where is the next habitable planet likely to be, it’s within about 11 light-years, which is very close."
“如果你想知道下一个适合居住的行星可能在哪，那么我告诉你它就在据我们11光年远的地方，非常近。”
Future observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope could examine starlight filtered through the atmospheres of exoplanets for potential markers of biology.
NASA将用韦伯太空望远镜等观测设施对这些行星进行进一步的观测，将对从这些系外行星大气层里透过来的光进行检验，以筛选那些有可能存在生命的行星。
"The ultimate goal of our search is to detect the light from a habitable exoplanet and analyse that light for gases like water vapour, oxygen, methane and carbon dioxide - gases that might indicate the presence of a biological ecosystem," said Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at Nasa.
NASA天体物理学主任保罗·赫兹说：“我们观测的最终目的是探测从系外可居住行星传过来的光，并且对其进行透光气体分析。我们将对气体中的水蒸气、氧气、甲烷和二氧化碳进行分析，从而推定那儿是否可能有生态系统的存在。”
Of the telescope’s finds to date, the planets Kepler-186f and Kepler-452b are arguably the most Earth-like in terms of properties such as their size, the temperature of their host star and the energy received from their star.
就目前的观测结果来说，开普勒-186f和开普勒-452b是和地球最像的两颗行星。它们的大小、中心恒星的温度以及它们可以从其吸收到的能量都和地球相类似。
Dr Batalha said the new finds Kepler 1638b and Kepler-1229b were intriguing targets in the search for habitable planets.
巴塔利亚博士说新发现的开普勒-1638b和开普勒-1229b都是在寻找可居住行星过程中的有趣的目标。
The Nasa Ames researcher said the Kepler mission was part of a "larger strategic goal of finding evidence of life beyond Earth: knowing whether we’re alone or not, to know... how life manifests itself in the galaxy and what is the diversity".
她说开普勒任务是“一个寻找地外生命证据的伟大战略目标，以求证地球是否是宇宙中唯一存在生命的行星，以求证银河系中生命的起源，以及探究到底什么是多样性。”
She added: "Being able to look up to a point of light and being able to say: ’That star has a living world orbiting it.’ I think that’s very profound and answers questions about why we’re here."
她补充说道：“从光的角度开展研究，使得我们能够说‘围绕那颗恒星的行星里，有一颗行星上有生命’。我认为那样的发现具有很深远的意义，而且能够回答为什么我们在地球诞生的问题。”
