VOA科学技术2023 太空科学家面临重大任务解释极端恒星爆炸（在线收听）

Space Scientists Face Big Job Explaining Extreme Star Explosion

太空科学家面临重大任务解释极端恒星爆炸

Space scientists say they have identified what might be the "perfect explosion," but much work remains to fully explain the observation.

太空科学家表示，他们已经确定了什么可能是“完美爆炸”，但仍有许多工作要充分解释这一观测结果。

The explosion, called a kilonova, was observed in 2017 and has been studied carefully since then.

这场名为千新星的爆炸是在2017年观测到的，此后一直在仔细研究。

Astronomers say a kilonova happens when two neutron stars crash into each other. The rapidly growing explosion that they described went beyond the researchers' expectations. The event led to the formation of a black hole: an object with so much gravity that even light cannot escape it.

天文学家说，当两颗中子星相撞时，就会发生千新星。他们描述的快速增长的爆炸超出了研究人员的预期。这一事件导致了黑洞的形成：一个引力太大的物体，甚至光都无法逃脱。

The two neutron stars had a combined mass of 2.7 times that of our sun. They orbited each other for billions of years before crashing into each other at a high speed and exploding.

这两颗中子星的总质量是太阳的2.7倍。它们绕着对方轨道运行了数十亿年，然后以高速碰撞并爆炸。

This event took place in a galaxy called NGC 4993. The galaxy is at least 140 million light years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hydra. A light year is the distance light travels in a year.

这一事件发生在一个名为NGC4993的星系中。该星系在九头蛇星座方向上距离地球至少1.4亿光年。光年是光在一年中传播的距离。

Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope to study the kilonova.

天文学家使用欧洲南方天文台位于智利的超大型望远镜来研究千新星。

‘Back to the drawing board'

'返回绘图板'

The existence of kilonova explosions was proposed in 1974. The theory was confirmed in 2013. But astronomers did not know what they looked like until one was identified in 2017 and studied carefully.

1974年提出了千新星爆炸的存在。该理论于2013年得到证实。但天文学家直到2017年发现并仔细研究后才知道它们长什么样。

"It is a perfect explosion in several ways. It is beautiful...in the simplicity of the shape, and in its physical" importance, said Albert Sneppen of the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sneppen was the lead writer of the research published in Nature.

丹麦哥本哈根宇宙黎明中心的阿尔伯特·斯内彭说：“这在很多方面都是一次完美的爆炸。它很美……形状简单，物理上也很重要。”。斯内彭是《自然》杂志上发表的这项研究的主要作者。

The researchers had expected the explosion to look flat and round, with a jet of material coming out of it.

研究人员曾预计，爆炸看起来又平又圆，有一股物质从中喷出。

"To be honest, we are really going back to the drawing board with this," said study co-writer Darach Watson of the Cosmic Dawn Center.

“老实说，我们真的要重新开始这项研究了，”宇宙黎明中心的研究合著者达拉赫·沃特森说。

"Given the extreme nature of the physical conditions...there may well be fundamental physics here that we don't understand yet," Watson added.

沃森补充道：“鉴于物理条件的极端性质……这里很可能有我们还不了解的基础物理学。”。

The two neutron stars began their lives as large normal stars in a two-star system called a binary system. Each exploded and collapsed after running out of fuel, leaving behind a small and dense center, or core, only 20 kilometers across.

这两颗中子星在双星系统中作为大的正常恒星开始了它们的生命。每一个都在燃料耗尽后爆炸并坍塌，留下一个只有20公里宽的小而密集的中心或核心。

The neutron stars then slowly drew nearer to each other. They were then stretched out and pulled apart because of the power of the other's gravity. Their inner parts crashed into each other at about 25 percent of the speed of light, creating the most intense magnetic fields in the universe. The explosion released the luminosity of a billion suns for a few days.

然后中子星慢慢地彼此靠近。然后，由于对方的引力，他们被拉伸并拉开。它们的内部以大约25%的光速相互碰撞，产生了宇宙中最强烈的磁场。爆炸在几天内释放了十亿个太阳的光度。

The two briefly formed a single massive neutron star that then collapsed to form a black hole.

这两颗恒星短暂地形成了一颗大质量中子星，然后坍塌形成黑洞。

The outer parts of the neutron stars, however, were stretched into long streamers, with some material flying off into space. During the process, the densities and temperatures were so strong that they created heavy elements, including gold, platinum, arsenic, uranium and iodine.

然而，中子星的外部被拉长成长长的飘带，一些物质飞入太空。在这个过程中，密度和温度如此之高，以至于产生了重元素，包括金、铂、砷、铀和碘。

Sneppen used the term challenge, meaning a difficult task or problem, to talk about the findings, which are hard understand.

Snepen用“挑战”一词来谈论难以理解的发现，这意味着一项艰巨的任务或问题。

"This is fundamentally astonishing, and an exciting challenge for any theoreticians and numerical simulations," Sneppen said. "The game is on."

Snepen说：“这从根本上来说是惊人的，对任何理论家和数值模拟来说都是一个令人兴奋的挑战。”。“比赛开始了。”

Words in This Story

astronomer –n. a scientist who studies objects in space such as the planets, stars and galaxies

neutron star – n. a small and dense stellar object that is thought to form from the collapse of a massive star

galaxy –n. very large groups of stars and gas that are like "islands" in the universe

perfect –adj. complete and total; nothing else could be added

constellation – n. a group of stars that forms a particular shape in the sky and has been given a name

back to the drawing board –idiomatic expression to go back after an unsuccessful attempt to try again to understand something or to do or build something

fundamental – adj. of or relating to the basic structure or function of something

luminosity – n. the state or act of producing or seeming to produce light

astonishing – adj. causing a feeling of great surprise or wonder : causing astonishment

theoretician – n. a person who forms theories about something