“三体”真实存在：科学家发现拥有三颗太阳的行星

 “Star Wars” fans love Tatooine and its twin suns, but astronomers¹ working with one of the world’s biggest telescopes have done Luke Skywalker’s home planet one better.

《星球大战》中的塔图因星球（Tatooine，天行者家族的故乡行星）以及它所绕行的双子太阳深受粉丝的喜爱，然而日前天文学家们利用世界上最大的天文望远镜之一发现了一个比卢克·天行者的故乡所在的星球更胜一筹的行星。

They’ve discovered a bizarre world with not two but three suns ― and seasons that last longer than a human lifetime.

他们发现了一个奇妙的新世界，在这里，你能看到不止两个太阳，而是三个，同时，每一个季节都比人类的一生还要漫长。

Known as HD 131399Ab, the unusual exoplanet is located 320 light-years from Earth in the large southern constellation² Centaurus. It’s a gas giant like Jupiter but about four times as massive.

这颗不同寻常的地外行星被命名为HD 131399Ab, 它位于南方巨大的人马星座上，距地球320光年。它是类似于木星的气体巨星，但它的体积是木星的四倍。

科学家发现拥有三颗太阳的行星

And while it’s one of the coldest exoplanets ever to be directly imaged by a telescope (rather than detected as a result of the dimming of starlight as it passes in front of its host star), HD 131399Ab is very hot by human standards. The average temperature exceeds 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit³.

虽然它是温度最冷的地外行星中被天文望远镜直接捕捉到影像的一个（而不是在从其宿星前经过时被检测到一抹暗淡的星光），HD 131399Ab星球上的平均温度超过华氏1000度，远超人类耐热标准。

In short, HD 131399Ab isn’t the kind of place you’d like to call home. (And there’s no hint that it harbors alien life.) But if you could live there, you’d find its sky a most peculiar⁴ place: You’d see either constant daylight or triple sunsets, depending on the season.

简而言之，HD 131399Ab行星绝不是一个宜居的地方（并且这里也没有发现外星生命迹象）。但是如果你有机会住在那儿，你会看到最光怪陆离的天空：根据季节的不同，你可能看到永昼，也有可能同时欣赏三个落日。

And each season on HD 131399Ab lasts about 300 years.

HD 131399Ab行星的每一个季节都持续三百年左右。

HD 131399Ab orbits the system’s brightest star, HD 131399A, at a distance of about 7.6 billion miles. That’s roughly 82 times the average distance from the Earth to the sun ― and, according to the astronomers behind the discovery, the widest orbit ever seen for a planet in a triple-star system.

HD 131399Ab绕行的星球是其星系中最亮的一颗——HD 131399A行星，两者之间的距离大概是76亿英里。这一距离大约是地日平均距离的82倍，并且，发现该行星的天文学家称，HD 131399Ab星球的绕行轨道在三星星系中是最宽的。

The other two stars in the system, HD 131399B and HD 131399C, twirl around each other as they orbit HD 131399A at a distance that’s 300 to 400 times greater than the distance from the Earth to the sun.

这一星系中另外两颗行星，HD 131399B行星 和 HD 131399C行星在绕行HD 131399A行星的同时互绕旋转，它们绕行的距离则是地日距离的300至400倍。

The newfound planet was discovered using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. The ESO is supported by Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland Chile and the United Kingdom. Researchers published a paper on their findings Thursday in the journal Science.

发现HD 131399Ab行星的天文望远镜是位于智利北部的欧南台巨大望远镜阵列。欧南台是由澳大利亚、比利时、巴西、捷克共和国、丹麦、法国、芬兰、德国、意大利、荷兰、波兰、葡萄牙、西班牙、瑞典、瑞士、智利和英国这些国家联合创办的。研究人员周四在《科学》杂志上发表文章阐述他们的新发现。

Kevin Wagner, a University of Arizona Ph.D. student and the paper’s lead author, told The Huffington Post in an email that the system’s configuration⁵ is “surprising and extreme.”

凯文·瓦格纳是亚利桑那州一所大学的博士研究生，他是这篇文章的第一作者，他在电邮中告诉《赫芬顿邮报》的记者，新行星所在的星系结构令人叹为观止。

It’s also a bit precarious⁶.

但这颗行星同时也潜伏着危机。

“If the planet was further away from the most massive star in the system, it would be kicked out of the system,” Dr. Daniel Apai, assistant professor of astronomy and planetary sciences at the university and co-author of the paper, said in a news release.

丹尼尔·阿派博士是这所大学天文与行星专业的助理教授，同时也是这篇文章的联合作者，他在报道中称：“如果HD 131399Ab行星离星系中最大的行星再远一点的话，它就会被踢出这一星系。”

“Our computer simulations have shown that this type of orbit can be stable, but if you change things around just a little bit, it can become unstable⁷ very quickly.”

“我们做出的电脑模拟效果图显示，这一星系的运行轨道一般来说是稳定的，但是一旦其周围的物体发生变动，它就会瞬间变得不稳定。”

Stable or not, HD 131399A is fascinating to astronomers in part because it helps fill in gaps in our knowledge of how planets form and change orbit.

无论稳定与否，HD 131399A星系对天文学家们有着巨大的吸引力，一部分是因为它的发现填补了我们现有知识的一处空白，即行星如何形成以及如何变动轨道。

1 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

3 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

4 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

5 configuration   

n.结构，布局，形态，(计算机)配置

参考例句：

• Geographers study the configuration of the mountains.地理学家研究山脉的地形轮廓。
• Prices range from $119 to $199,depending on the particular configuration.价格因具体配置而异，从119美元至199美元不等。

6 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

7 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。