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Listen to part of a lecture in an Astronomy (astronomy / astrology) class.

astrology

n. prediction of the future according to the state of the stars

Move mjs un p

Mercury , Venus , Earth, Mars, Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , Neptune , Pluto

Professor:

Last week, we covered some arguments against going back to the moon. But, there are compelling reasons in favor of another moon landing, too; not the least of which

is trying to pinpoint the moon’s age.

（most of all / most importantly一點也不，最重要的：last but not least，非同小可）

Aged , ancient , elderly

"Not the least of which" usually follows a plural noun phrase that implies a set of things or qualities, and draws attention to a significant member of that set, e.g.

1. Tom has many engaging qualities, not the least of which is his considerable good humour.

Thus here, the underlined part is the set, and the emboldened part is the significant member of that set.

In your example, which is extremely elliptic, the set is only implicit:

2. Tom is a bad guy, [with many bad qualities], not the least of which [is the fact that最起碼/ 毫無疑問/] he is always criticizing others.

We could do this, in theory, by studying an enormous impact crater, known as the South Pole - Aitken basin. Huh, it’s located in the moon’s South Polar Region but since it’s on the far side of the moon, it can only be seen from space(universe; outer space). Here an image of…we’ll call it SPA(the South Pole - Aitken basin) basin.

This color image of the SPA basin—those aren’t it’s actual colors, obvious—this image is from the mid-90’s, from an American spacecraft called, Clementine. Hmm, unlike earlier lunar missions, Clementine didn’t only orbit (rotate around a heavenly body on a set course) around the moon’s equator(circle which is equally distant from both poles), it’s orbits enable to send back data to create this topographical (surface features of a region; science of mapping the surface features of a land area) map of…well, the gray and white area towards the bottom / button is the South Pole. The purples and blues in the middle, correspond to the lower elevations(height of something; altitude above sea or ground level; raising, lifting up; grandeur), the SPA basin itself. Hmm, the oranges and reds around it are higher elevations. The basin measures an amazing two thousand five hundred in diameter(length of a central line which extends from one side of an object to its opposite side), and its average depth is twelve kilometers. That makes it the biggest known crater in our solar system(system which includes the Sun and all the celestial bodies that orbit the Sun); and it may well be the oldest.

You know, planetary researchers love studying deep craters(bowl shaped pit (on the moon, at the mouth of a volcano, etc.); hole formed by the explosion of a mine or other explosive); to learn about the impacts that created them; how they redistributed pieces of the planet’s crust(hard coating,). And in this case, we especially wanted to know if any of the mantels（metal）(decorative structure which frames the sides and top of a fireplace), the layer beneath(below, beneath , under : 沒，有觸碰，依照法規) the crust, was exposed by the impact. Not everyone agrees. But some experts are convinced that whatever created the SPA basin did penetrate (needle/ pierce) the moon’s mantel. And we need to find out because much more than the crust, the mantel contains information about a planet’s or moon’s total composition. And that’s key to understanding planet formation. Huh, Diane?

Diane:

So, the only way to know the basin’s age is to study it’s rocks directly?

Professor:

Well, from radio survey data (method of transmitting sound via electromagnetic waves), we know that the basin contains lots of smaller craters, so it must be really old…about four billion years…give or take a few hundred years. But, that’s not very precise. If we had rock samples to study, we’d know whether (weather , whether , wether : 天氣，是否，閹羊 )these small craters were formed by impacts during the final stages of planetary formation, or if they resulted from later meteor showers（body of matter which falls through the earth's atmosphere producing a transient fiery streak）.

Diane:

But if we know around how old the basin is, I’m not sure it’s reason enough to go to the moon again.

Professor:

No, but such crude estimates…hmm, we can do better than that. Besides（besides, except : and, but, 除了，除去）, there’s other things worth investigating, like is there water I saw on the moon? Clementine’s data indicated that the wall of a south polar crater was more reflective than expected. So some experts think that there’re probably some ices there. Also, data from a later mission indicates significant concentrations of hydrogen and by inference根据推理, 推论, water, less than a meter underground at both poles.

Male Student:

Well, if there’s water how did it get there? Underground rivers?

Professor:

We think meteors that crash into the moon or tails of passing comets（celestial body with a luminous tail） may have introduced water molecules. Any water molecules that found their ways to the floors of the craters near the moon’s poles; that water would be perpetually frozen, because the floors of the craters are always in shadow shade. Huh, furthermore, if the water-ice was mixed in with rock and dust, it would be protected from evaporation.

Diane:

So, are you saying, there might be primitive life on the moon?

Professor:

Huh, that’s not my point at all. Hmm, okay. Say there is water-ice on the moon. That would be a practical value for a future moon base for astronauts. Water-ice could be melted and purified for drinking. It could also be broken down into its component parts; oxygen and hydrogen. Now, oxygen could be used to breathe, and hydrogen could be turn into fuel—rocket fuel. So water-ice could enable the creation of a self-sustaining moon base someday…a mining camp, perhaps, or a departure point for a further space exploration.

Student:

But hauling tons of equipment to the moon to make fuel and build a life support system for a moon base…wouldn’t that be too expensive?

Professor:

Hmm, permanent base…may be a ways off; we shouldn’t have to wait for that. The dust at the bottom of the SPA basin really does have a fascinating story to tell. What I wouldn’t give for a few samples of it.