2021年10月

爱德华王子岛的森林和树冠，加拿大 (© OliverChilds/Getty Images)

绚烂的仙女座星系 Andromeda galaxy (© NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Hey neighbor, it's World Space Week!

Space is a big, lonely place, so it's nice to know we have neighbors. The pictured Andromeda Galaxy is our Milky Way's closest—right next door at 2.5 million light years away. Our cordial relationship with Andromeda goes back about 10 billion years to when both galaxies were still forming. But trouble is brewing: Andromeda is on a collision course with the Milky Way, due for impact in 4 billion years. This neighborhood's about to get rough…

Sometime in the 4 billion years we have left (preferably this World Space Week, October 4-10), we encourage you to turn your attention to the stars, whether on a trip to the countryside, the planetarium, or your backyard. World Space Week's 2021 theme is 'Women in Space'—and it's also the theme of today's quiz. How much do you know about the final frontier's famous females?

嘿，邻居，这是世界太空周！

太空是一个又大又孤独的地方，所以知道我们有邻居很好。照片中的仙女座星系是我们银河系最近的邻居，距离我们250万光年远。我们与仙女座星系的亲密关系可以追溯到大约100亿年前，当时两个星系都还在形成。但麻烦正在酝酿：仙女座正在与银河系发生碰撞，预计将在40亿年后发生碰撞。这附近就要闹了…

在我们剩下的40亿年中的某个时候（最好是10月4日至10日的世界空间周），我们鼓励你将注意力转向星星，无论是去乡村、天文馆还是你的后院。2021年世界空间周的主题是“太空中的女性”——这也是今天测验的主题。你对《最后的边疆》的著名女性了解多少？

古罗马斗兽场，西班牙桑蒂蓬塞镇的罗马古城遗迹 The Roman amphitheater of Itálica near Santiponce, Spain (© Amazing Aerial Agency/Offset by Shutterstock)

Birthplace of Roman emperors

Just a few miles north of Seville, Spain, you'll find the ancient ruins of Itálica, the first Roman settlement in what is now Spain and the first Roman city outside of Italy. The city was founded in 206 BCE by the Roman general Scipio as a place to house veterans from the Second Punic Wars. Itálica was also the birthplace of at least two Roman emperors.

For centuries, Itálica was an elaborate urban center with a temple, a theater, public baths, gorgeous homes for the monied elite, and a population of about 8,000 residents. This aerial view is of the city's famous amphitheater, where thousands of spectators came from near and far to watch the bloody gladiator fights, hunts of wild beasts, and public executions. The 'entertainment' here was not for the faint of heart.

Today, the modern Spanish city of Santiponce has grown up around—and even atop—the ruins. Tourists come here to walk the preserved Roman streets, admire the mosaics, and imagine the scenes of life and death that happened in this amphitheater nearly 2,000 years ago.

罗马皇帝的出生地

在西班牙塞维利亚以北几英里的地方，你会发现古老的Itálica遗址，这是现在西班牙的第一个罗马定居点，也是意大利以外的第一个罗马城市。这座城市由罗马将军西皮奥于公元前206年建立，是第二次布匿战争退伍军人的住所。伊塔利卡也是至少两位罗马皇帝的出生地。

几个世纪以来，伊塔利卡一直是一个精心设计的城市中心，有寺庙、剧院、公共浴场、摩尼德精英的华丽家园，人口约8000人。这张鸟瞰图是该市著名的圆形剧场，数千名观众从四面八方赶来观看血腥的角斗士搏斗、野兽狩猎和公开处决。这里的“娱乐”不是为胆小鬼准备的。

今天，西班牙现代城市圣蒂蓬斯在废墟周围甚至在废墟上发展起来。游客们来到这里，是为了漫步保存完好的罗马街道，欣赏马赛克，想象2000年前发生在这个圆形剧场里的生死场景。

A river on the tundra

This mesmerizing expanse captures a small stretch of the 95-mile-long Ivishak River in northern Alaska. The Ivishak flows in the Philip Smith Mountains and the foothills of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The entire run of the river is in a region called the North Slope Borough, Alaska's northernmost borough (Alaska is divided into boroughs, not counties). Look at the magnificent colors and textures this photo captures—it's a view that's preserved and protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

The act was signed into law on October 2, 1968. The main purpose of the bill was to identify 'certain selected rivers of the [US] which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition…' Sure, we could have summed it up for you, but instead quoted the exact text from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to show how all-encompassing the intent of the protection is.

冻土带上的河流

这片迷人的广袤土地捕捉到了阿拉斯加北部95英里长的伊维沙克河的一小段。Ivishak河流经菲利普史密斯山脉和北极国家野生动物保护区的山麓。整条河流都在一个叫做北坡区（North Slope Bourough）的区域内，这是阿拉斯加最北端的一个自治区（阿拉斯加分为自治区，而不是县）。看看这张照片捕捉到的壮丽色彩和纹理，这是一幅受《野生和风景河流法》保护的风景画。

该法案于1968年10月2日签署成为法律。该法案的主要目的是确定“某些选定的[美国]河流及其周围环境，具有显著的风景、娱乐、地质、鱼类和野生动物、历史、文化或其他类似价值，应在自由流动的条件下予以保护……”当然，我们可以为您总结一下，而是引用了《野生和风景河流法》的确切文本，以表明保护的意图是多么全面。

星空迷