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This is Scientific American 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
这是科学美国人60秒科学。我是Christopher Intagliata。
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Aside from all the satellites, and the space station orbiting the Earth, there's a lot of trash circling the planet too.
除了所有的卫星和绕地球轨道运行的空间站外，还有很多垃圾在地球上空盘旋。
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Twenty-one thousand baseball-sized chunks of debris, according to NASA.
根据美国国家航空航天局的说法，有二万一千个棒球大小的碎片。
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But that number's dwarfed by the number of small particles.
但这个数字与小颗粒的数量相比相形见绌。
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There's hundreds of millions of those.
有数以亿计的人。
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"And those smaller particles tend to be going fast.
“那些较小的颗粒往往会很快。
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So you think of picking up a grain of sand at the beach, and that would be on the large side.
所以你想到在沙滩上捡起一粒沙子，这将是大的一面。
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But they're going 60 kilometers per second."
但他们的速度是每秒60公里。“
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Sigrid Close, an applied physicist and astronautical engineer at Stanford University.
Sigrid Close，斯坦福大学的应用物理学家和宇航工程师。
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Close says that whereas mechanical damage-like punctures-is the worry with the bigger chunks, the dust-sized stuff might leave more insidious, invisible marks on satellites-by causing electrical damage.
关闭说，虽然机械损坏就像穿孔一样，但是对于更大块的担心，灰尘大小的东西可能会在卫星上留下更多隐蔽的，不可见的痕迹 - 造成电气损坏。
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"We also think this phenomenon can be attributed to some of the failures and anomalies we see on orbit, that right now are basically tagged as 'unknown cause.'"
“我们还认为这种现象可归因于我们在轨道上看到的一些失误和异常，现在基本上被标记为'未知原因'。”
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Close and her colleague Alex Fletcher modeled this phenomenon mathematically, based on plasma physics behavior.
她和同事Alex Fletcher基于等离子体物理行为以数学方式模拟了这种现象。
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And here's what they think happens.
这就是他们的想法。
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First, the dust slams into the spacecraft. Incredibly fast.
首先，尘埃猛击进入航天器。非常快。
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It vaporizes and ionizes a bit of the ship-and itself.
它蒸发并电离了船的一部分 - 本身。
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Which generates a cloud of ions and electrons, traveling at different speeds.
它产生一团离子和电子，以不同的速度行进。
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And then: "It's like a spring action, the electrons are pulled back to the ions, ions are being pushed ahead a little bit.
然后：“这就像一个弹簧动作，电子被拉回离子，离子被推到前面一点点。
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And then the electrons overshoot the ions, so they oscillate, and then they go back out again."
然后电子超过离子，使它们振荡，然后它们再次返回。“
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That movement of electrons creates a pulse of electromagnetic radiation, which Close says could be the culprit for some of that electrical damage to satellites.
电子的运动产生了一个电磁辐射脉冲，Close说这可能是导致卫星电气损坏的罪魁祸首。
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The study is in the journal Physics of Plasmas.
这项研究发表在等离子体物理学杂志上。
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The implications of these small particles on future spaceflight is huge.
这些小颗粒对未来太空飞行的影响是巨大的。
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"One of my dreams is interstellar travel.
“我的梦想之一是星际旅行。
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So I love Star Trek, I grew up hoping I could build something to get outside our solar system, and I feel like this is just one of the many things we have to worry about.
所以我喜欢“星际迷航”，我从小就希望能够建立一些能够超越我们太阳系的东西，我觉得这只是我们要担心的众多事情之一。
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I think the space environment as a whole is still something we need to tackle."
我认为整个太空环境仍然是我们需要解决的问题。“
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Before it tackles any astronauts a long way from home.
在它解决任何宇航员离家很远之前。
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Thanks for listening, for Scientific American 60-Second Science. I'm Christopher Intagliata.
感谢您对科学美国人60秒科学的倾听。我是Christopher Intagliata.