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New telescopes could spot aliens on planets around distant stars, if they like their cities really brightly lit. John Matson reports
据John Matson报道，只要那些住在遥远星球上的外星人们乐意于把自己的城市打扮得灯火通明，那新型天文望远镜就能够把他们给找出来。
There's probably no intelligent life in the outer solar system. But it couldn't hurt to check.
也许在外太阳系根本没有智慧生命的存在。不过探索一下总归无妨。
A new study suggests that astronomers could soon look for city lights on distant worlds. Astronomical campaigns already in the works, for instance, could spot a large illuminated city as far away as the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto and many other icy worlds orbit. The research is on the site arxiv.org. [Abraham Loeb and Edwin L. Turner, "Detection Technique for Artificially-Illuminated Objects in the Outer Solar System and Beyond"]
一项新的研究表明天文学家有望能很快探测到遥远星际的城市之光。比方说，这项研究中的一些天文活动所能探测到的城市之光最远为柯伊伯带（由冥王星和其它许多冰体环绕所形成的环带），而所能辨别的范围约为一座城市那么大。这项研究已被刊登在了arxiv.org网站上。[作者Abraham Loeb, Edwin L. Turner，"太阳系外部及周边地区人工光源探测技术"]
Artificial illumination on a Kuiper Belt Object would stand out because it would vary less than reflected sunlight does when the world moved toward or away from the sun.
柯伊伯带天体上的人工照明之所以会显得特别突出是因为不管它转向或者转离太阳，其所反射的太阳光都不会变化很大。
“Just by checking for how their brightness varies with distance, you would be able to identify interesting candidates.” Princeton's Edwin Turner, a co-author of the new study.
这项最新研究的合著者，来自普林斯顿的Edwin Turner说。“只要通过观测它们的亮度是如何随观察者位置而变化的，你就能找到有趣的候选者。”
Unfortunately, Turner says, no telescopes currently in the works would be powerful enough to identify city lights in other planetary systems. Unless the aliens like things really bright.
不幸的是，Turner说，当前的天文望远镜都不足以探测到其它行星系的城市之光。除非那些外星人们都是强光控。
“Forthcoming facilities might be able to see artificial lighting on another world if it's really much brighter than we use. It begins to become plausible that we could detect it. A million times would be for sure, and 10,000 times we might have a chance.”
“如果外星球的人工光源比我们所使用的光亮度更大，那么即将应用的新型天文望远镜就能够发现它。这似乎越来越可信了，一百万次我们就一定能够探测到外星人，一万次的话也说不定能行。”
—John Matson
