英闻独家摘选： 加州上空神秘光点是UFO？

UFO爱好者

英闻独家摘选： 加州上空神秘光点是UFO？
                    Today, tomorrow, learn English naturally. 天天自然学英语


Mysterious streaks of light were seen in the sky in the Sacramento area Friday night, shocking St. Patrick’s Day revelers who then posted videos on social media of the surprising sight.
Jaime Hernandez was at the King Cong Brewing Company in Sacramento for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration when some among the group noticed the lights. Hernandez quickly began filming. It was over in about 40 seconds, he said Saturday.
“Mainly, we were in shock, but amazed that we got to witness it,” Hernandez said in an email. “None of us had ever seen anything like it.”
The brewery owner posted Hernandez’s video to Instagram, asking if anyone could solve the mystery.
Jonathan McDowell says he can. McDowell is an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. McDowell said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press that he’s 99.9% confident the streaks of light were from burning space debris.
McDowell said that a Japanese communications package that relayed information from the International Space Station to a communications satellite and then back to Earth became obsolete in 2017 when the satellite was retired. The equipment, weighing 310 kilograms (683 pounds), was jettisoned from the space station in 2020 because it was taking up valuable space and would burn up completely upon reentry, McDowell added.
The flaming bits of wreckage created a “spectacular light show in the sky,” McDowell said. He estimated the debris was about 40 miles high, going thousands of miles per hour.
The U.S. Space Force confirmed the re-entry path over California for the Inter-Orbit Communication System, and the timing is consistent with what people saw in the sky, he added. The Space Force could not immediately be reached Saturday with questions.
注释：
streak: n
表示" 条纹"，means "a narrow marking of a different color or texture from the background"，如：The streaks are main defects of aluminium profiles surfaces. 条纹是铝合金型材表面的主要缺陷之一。
reveler: n
表示" 摆设酒宴者；饮酒狂欢者"，means "a celebrant who shares in a noisy party"，如： The town stay packed with reveller most of the night.镇上几乎整夜都挤满了寻欢作乐的人。
debris: n
表示"碎片；残骸"，means "the remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up"，如： Falling debris rained on us from above. 碎片从上面像雨点儿一样落在我们身上。
jettison: v
表示" 抛弃；丢弃；"，means "throw away, of something encumbering"，如： We jettison an unworkable plan . 我们放弃难实行的计划。
中文简要说明：
美国北加州沙加缅度（Sacramento）地区17日晚间突然出现连串神秘光点飞越上空，引发当地居民一阵热议，有人还以为是外星人或UFO，不过哈佛大学天体物理学家麦道威（Jonathan McDowell）指出，他99.9%敢保证，那些神秘光点其实是正在燃烧的太空碎片，或俗称的太空垃圾。
美联社报导，当地时间17日晚间9时过后，沙加缅度居民纷纷通报天空中划过一连串神秘光点，影片显示，这些光点呈弧线，向同一个方向飞去。
究竟这些神秘移动光点是什么？哈佛史密森尼天体物理中心（Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics）天文学家麦道威表示，他有99.9%的信心，这些亮光是燃烧中的太空残骸。
他认为那些亮光是日本的废弃通讯包，这个通讯包原本是将国际太空站的信息传输到通讯卫星上，再将讯息传回地球，不过随着通讯卫星于2017年退役，通讯包也遭到淘汰。由于重达310公斤的通讯包占据太空站宝贵的空间，因此通讯包于2020年与太空站脱离，他说，通讯包返回地球时会完全燃烧殆尽。 麦道威形容这些燃烧的残骸在天空中创造了「壮观的灯光秀」，他预估这些残骸当时划过40英里（约6万4373公尺）高空，时速高达数千英里。