行星撞地球最遭殃国家盘点 中国上榜

　If you live in Britain, the U.S., start preparing now. 生活在英国和美国的人们可能要开始着手准备应对天外飞来的横祸了。

Scientists have drawn up a league table of the countries which will be worst affected in the event of an asteroid strike.

有科学家们已经制定出了一张表单，内容是当发生小行星撞击地球时，将遭受到最严重后或影响的国家名单。

They have identified for the first time those which will suffer catastrophic loss of life or be so crippled it will be almost impossible for them to recover.

科学家们首次确定了在发生灾难时，那些将出现巨大生命伤亡以及财产损失，严重到几乎没有可能复原的国家。

Developed countries make up the majority of those on the list, but China is there too because of the sheer number of people who would die.

这份名单中发达国家占了绝大多数，不过因为中国人口数量庞大，若真的发生撞击地球的灾难，伤亡程度更是不言而喻。

Even smaller countries like Sweden are in grave danger because of the damage to their infrastructure.

尽管国土面积不大，但瑞典这样的国家也处于危险之中，因为灾难将对基础设施造成极大的破坏。

The list has been compiled by researchers from the University of Southampton using software called called NEOimpactor, short for NASA's ‘NEO’ or Near Earth Object programme.

这份名单是由来自难开普敦的研究学者们利用一项名为NEOimpactor的软件所测算出来的，NEO是美国宇航局近地面项目的英文缩写。

Overall the top ten countries most at risk are: China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the U.S, the Philippines, Italy, the U.K, Brazil and Nigeria.

前十位国家最危险的是：中国，印度尼西亚，印度，日本，美国，菲律宾，意大利，英国，巴西和尼日利亚。

Looking at population loss, the U.S, China, Indonesia, India and Japan are most in danger.

论及人员伤亡，美国，中国，印度尼西亚，印度和日本首当其冲。

Those countries which face massive devastation to their infrastructure are Canada, the U.S, China, Japan and Sweden.

基础设施将遭到严重破坏的国家包括了加拿大，美国，中国，日本和瑞典。

The threat of asteroids was illustrated on Monday when a rock as large as a small house soared within 7,500 miles of Earth.

周一，人们发现了在距离地球附近7500公里出出现了一块大小相当于一座房子的陨石。

Red-faced astronomers only discovered it a few days before and until then they thought it was a piece of space junk.

这块红色的物体被发现以及有几天的时间了，在最后被证实其实只是一块太空垃圾。

‘The threat of Earth being hit by an asteroid is increasingly being accepted as the single greatest natural disaster hazard faced by humanity,’ said Nick Bailey, of the University of Southampton, who developed the NEOimpactor software.

难开普敦大学的Nick Bailey是NEOimpactor软件的开发者，他说：“地球遭受小行星撞击的危险与日俱增，它也被认为是自然与人类将要面对的最大浩劫。”

‘The consequences for human populations and infrastructure as a result of an impact are enormous.

“由此引发的后果将对于地球人口和基础设施造成难以估量的后果。”

‘Nearly one hundred years ago a remote region near the Tunguska River witnessed the largest asteroid impact event in living memory when a relatively small object (approximately 50 meters in diameter) exploded in mid-air.

“在将近一百年前，通古斯河附近的一个偏远地区见证了人类记忆中最大规模的小行星撞击地球事件，当时有一块直径约50米的物体在半空发生了爆炸。”

‘While it only flattened unpopulated forest, had it exploded over London it could have devastated everything within the M25.

“尽管它只是将无人居住的森林夷为了平地，但当发生在人口密度高的大都市时，后果不堪设想。”

‘Our results highlight those countries that face the greatest risk from this most global of natural hazards and thus indicate which nations need to be involved in mitigating the threat.’

“我们的研究结果强盗了那些在面临全球性的自然灾害时风险最高的国家，这也为那些国家敲响了警钟，应该做好减灾防灾的准备了。”

According to DailyGalaxy.com it will take an asteroid bigger than 12miles in diameter to destroy all plant and animal life.

根据天王网站DailyGalaxy.com的报道，只需一颗直径在12英里或者更大一点的小型便能使得地球上的所有植物和动物遭遇毁灭性的袭击。

Such an asteroid is thought to have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs 65million years ago - a rock up to 10miles in diameter hit Earth at 25,000 an hour with a force of 100 megatons, the equivalent of one Hiroshima bomb for everyone on the planet.

“人们也认为，这样的小行星与6500万年前恐龙的灭绝有关，有一块直径10英里的小行星以每秒每小时2500英里的速度撞击地球，释放了100兆的能量，这相当于投放与地球人口总数相同的广岛原子弹。”

Earth has avoided such an event since in part because of Jupiter’s gravitational field which limits our exposure to space rocks

地球之所以避开了这样的危险，是因为木星引力场的作用，使得地球并不是完全“暴露”在太空岩石的危险之中。