Nasa scientists are closely monitoring the skies after two satellites crashed into each other over Siberia, in what experts have said is the first collision of its kind.
在这起被称为有史以来首例的撞击——两卫星在西伯利亚上空撞击——之后，Nasa的科学家们就开始了对太空的严密观察。
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The accident, which took place more than 400 miles above the earth’s surface on Tuesday, has left a large cloud of debris drifting in space. Nasa officials are keeping watch to see if the wreckage could endanger other spacecraft, although they said it was unlikely that the International Space Station could be damaged.
这场于周二在地球400英里的上空发生的事故，留下了大量漂浮的碎片。Nasa官员正密切关注这些残骸，看它们是否会威胁我们的航天飞船，尽管他们称，国际空间站不大可能受到损坏。
"It will be weeks at least before the true magnitude of these clouds are known," Nasa said in an alert message. "The risk to the space station is considered to be very small and within acceptable limits."
“要知道这些云雾的重要性最少要等数周，”Nasa在警告中说。“对空间站的威胁被认为是极小的，在可接受范围之内。”
The agency said that it was more concerned about the threat to an array of monitoring satellites, which it said were of "highest interest for immediate consideration".
宇航局称对监控卫星的威胁才是最大的，而这也是“目前最大利益之所在”。
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Les Kodlick of the US strategic command, said: "We believe it’s the first time that two satellites have collided in orbit." The command’s joint space operations centre was tracking 500 to 600 new bits of debris, some as small as 10cm (3.9 inches) across, in addition to the 18,000 or so other man-made objects it has catalogued, he said.
美国战略指挥部空军中校Les Kodlick将军称：“我们认为这是第一次两在轨卫星相撞。”司令部的太空指挥中心正在对500到600新的残骸，以及18000个左右人造天体监控轨道，他说。
The incident is thought to have involved a 12-year-old satellite belonging to the US company Iridium and a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite that was put into orbit in 1993. The craft, which weighed 560kg and 950kg respectively, apparently smashed into each other at high speed. Both satellites were used for telecommunications, with the US satellite an active part of Iridium’s network of 66 craft which provide satellite telephone access to more than 250,000 people worldwide.
这起事故是关于美国铱公司12年前发射的一颗卫星，以及俄罗斯1993年发射的已经失效的宇宙卫星。分别重560和950千克的两卫星，偶然高速相撞。两卫星都是用于电信，美国卫星还是铱网络66颗卫星的一部分，用于提供世界超过250，000人的卫星电话服务。
It is unclear what caused the crash, but the Russian satellite is thought to have shut down some time ago and would have had no steering mechanism.
事故原因尚不清楚，但俄罗斯卫星被认为一些时间前已经被报废，应该关停了发动机。
Although there have been collisions in the past, they only involved spent rocket parts or small satellites. The scale of this crash, said officials, was unprecedented.
尽管过去也有过撞击，但仅仅牵扯到毁坏火箭部分或者小型卫星。官员称，这次撞击的规模，是史无前例的。
"In the past almost 20 years there have been three other accidental collisions between objects in orbit, but they’ve all been very minor," said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist at Nasa’s orbital debris programme. "The most debris ever produced in an event was four … this is two intact spacecraft colliding and we have hundreds of debris out there."
“在过去大约20年间已经有3起其他的轨道考试~大卫星撞击事件，不过都是非常小的，”NAsa轨道残骸项目首席科学家Nicholas Johnson称，“曾经一起事故造成最多的残骸是4个……这次是两个完好的宇宙飞船相撞，产生了上百的残骸碎片。”
In the past abandoned or dysfunctional satellites have caused problems, with some pushed into extremely wide "graveyard" orbits that move them out of the way of other spacecraft. In several cases, rogue satellites have been shot out of the sky to prevent them crashing to Earth.
在过去，废弃的或失调的卫星曾造成过事故。为了给其他飞船让路，它们就被推到了宽阔的“墓地”轨道上去。在许多场合中，失控的卫星被射向太空，以避免与地球相撞。

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