By Neil Bowdler, BBC News

媒體英語(yǔ)會(huì)帶大家一起學(xué)習(xí)BBC撰稿人在報(bào)道世界大事時(shí)常用到的單詞和短語(yǔ)。

Background:科學(xué)家近日通過(guò)“開(kāi)普勒”太空望遠(yuǎn)鏡觀測(cè)到一個(gè)距離地球2000光年的奇特行星系統(tǒng)。其恒星與太陽(yáng)相似，并有6顆行星圍繞它運(yùn)行。

Finding six new planets around a single star represents an impressive haul. Nasa is calling it the best find since the first so-called ‘exoplanet’ was discovered 16 years ago. It might not be the most populated solar system yet found - six or possibly seven planets have been found in a rival system, but it's the nature of this new discovery which is getting the astronomers scratching their heads in wonder.

Five of the six planets are crammed tightly in around the Kepler-11 star, with orbits of between just ten and 47 days. That means they're all super hot, but the data suggests they're also made mostly of gas.

That's strange, because small hot planets this close in should have been ripped asunder by their parent star in their formative years, say the scientists. One possible explanation is that the planets started out bigger and further out and were slowly dragged into tighter orbits, as part of a contracting belt of dust and asteroids.