2022年11月14日 VOA慢速英語：科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)離地球最近的黑洞

 

Scientists say they have discovered the closest black hole to Earth.
科學(xué)家說，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了離地球最近的黑洞。
 
Black holes are areas in space where gravity is so strong that nothing – not even light – can escape them. They are believed to be formed from collapsed stars.
黑洞是空間中引力如此之強以至于什么都沒有——不即使是光——也能逃脫它們。它們被認(rèn)為是由坍縮的恒星形成的。
 
An international group of astronomers recently announced the discovery of the black hole, which sits about 1,600 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in one year. In space, light moves about 9.4 trillion kilometers each year.
一個國際天文學(xué)家小組最近宣布發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個距離地球約 1,600 光年的黑洞。一光年是光在一年內(nèi)傳播的距離。在太空中，光每年移動約 9.4 萬億公里。
 
The researchers named the black hole Gaia BH1. They say it sits in the constellation of Ophiuchus. A constellation is a grouping of stars. The black hole is believed to weigh about 10 times the mass of our sun. The team said it is three times closer to Earth than the previous record-holder.
研究人員將黑洞命名為 Gaia BH1。他們說它位于蛇夫座。星座是一組恒星。據(jù)信，黑洞的質(zhì)量約為太陽質(zhì)量的 10 倍。該團隊表示，它距離地球的距離是之前的記錄保持者的三倍。
 
The newly discovered gravitational mass was identified by observing the motion of its orbiting star. The star orbits the black hole at about the same distance as Earth orbits the sun.
新發(fā)現(xiàn)的引力質(zhì)量是通過觀察其繞行恒星的運動而確定的。這顆恒星繞黑洞運行的距離與地球繞太陽運行的距離大致相同。
 
Kareem El-Badry is an astrophysicist with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. He was the lead writer of a study describing the discovery in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Kareem El-Badry 是哈佛-史密森尼天體物理中心和德國馬克斯普朗克天文學(xué)研究所的天體物理學(xué)家。他是英國皇家天文學(xué)會月報中描述這一發(fā)現(xiàn)的研究的主要作者。

The black hole was first identified using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Gaia spacecraft. Gaia has already discovered more than 800,000 multi-star systems. El-Badry and his team then sought to confirm the discovery through numerous additional observations over a period of four months. This effort involved six different highly sensitive telescopes across the world.
首先使用歐洲航天局 (ESA) 的蓋亞宇宙飛船發(fā)現(xiàn)了黑洞。蓋亞已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了超過 800,000 個多星系統(tǒng)。然后，El-Badry 和他的團隊試圖在四個月內(nèi)通過大量額外的觀察來確認(rèn)這一發(fā)現(xiàn)。這項工作涉及全球六臺不同的高靈敏度望遠(yuǎn)鏡。
 
 
One was the 6.5-meter Magellan Baade telescope, based at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The team also used an instrument on the Gemini North telescope, which is based in Hawaii.
其中之一是位于智利拉斯坎帕納斯天文臺的 6.5 米麥哲倫巴德望遠(yuǎn)鏡。該團隊還使用了位于夏威夷的 Gemini North 望遠(yuǎn)鏡上的儀器。
 
The researchers needed such telescopes to effectively observe the orbital motion of the black hole's star. The telescope in Chile and the Gemini instrument were able to provide the astronomers with high-resolution images. The telescopes also collected sensitive data on ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths.
研究人員需要這樣的望遠(yuǎn)鏡來有效地觀察黑洞恒星的軌道運動。智利的望遠(yuǎn)鏡和雙子座儀器能夠為天文學(xué)家提供高分辨率圖像。這些望遠(yuǎn)鏡還收集了有關(guān)紫外和近紅外波長的敏感數(shù)據(jù)。
 
El-Badry said in a statement the Gemini observations "confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt" that the team had discovered a normal star and at least one black hole. El-Badry added that the black hole appears to be dormant, meaning not currently active.
El-Badry 在一份聲明中說，雙子座的觀測“毫無疑問地證實了”該團隊發(fā)現(xiàn)了一顆正常的恒星和至少一個黑洞。 El-Badry 補充說，黑洞似乎處于休眠狀態(tài)，這意味著當(dāng)前不活躍。
 
When active, black holes give off high-energy light. While dormant, they give off nothing and are difficult to identify.
活躍時，黑洞會發(fā)出高能光。雖然處于休眠狀態(tài)，但它們不會釋放任何物質(zhì)并且難以識別。
 
How did black hole form in our galaxy?
我們的銀河系中的黑洞是如何形成的？
 
The scientists said it remains unclear how the black hole formed in our Milky Way galaxy. Examinations of data collected on Gaia BH1 suggests "its existence is difficult to explain" using traditional evolutionary modeling methods, said Tineke Roegiers. She is a project information specialist with the Gaia spacecraft team.
科學(xué)家們表示，目前尚不清楚黑洞是如何在我們的銀河系中形成的。 Tineke Roegiers 說，對在 Gaia BH1 上收集的數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行的檢查表明，使用傳統(tǒng)的進(jìn)化建模方法“很難解釋它的存在”。她是蓋亞航天器團隊的項目信息專家。
 
The researchers said if the black hole formed the traditional way – from the gravitational collapse of a star – that star would have been at least 20 times the mass of our sun. This means the star would have only lived a short time, maybe only a few million years.
研究人員表示，如果黑洞以傳統(tǒng)方式形成——來自恒星的引力坍縮——那顆恒星的質(zhì)量至少是黑洞的 20 倍我們太陽的質(zhì)量。這意味著這顆恒星只會存在很短的時間，也許只有幾百萬年。
 
If both stars had formed at the same time, the scientists say, the massive star would have quickly turned into a "supergiant" and swallowed the other star before it had a chance to fully develop.
如果兩顆恒星同時形成，科學(xué)家們說，這顆大質(zhì)量恒星會很快變成一顆“超巨星”還沒來得及發(fā)育完全就吞噬了另一顆恒星。
 
 
These differences, Roegiers said, "may indicate something important is missing from our current knowledge of black hole formation."
Roegiers 說，這些差異“可能表明我們目前對黑洞形成的了解中缺少一些重要的東西。”
 
El-Badry said the mystery about Earth's closest black hole presents many questions about how it formed, "as well as how many of these dormant black holes there are out there."
El-Badry 說，關(guān)于地球最近的黑洞的謎團提出了許多關(guān)于它是如何形成的問題， “以及那里有多少這些休眠的黑洞。”
 
He added, "I have been searching for a system like Gaia BH1 for the last four years, trying all kinds of methods – but none of them worked. It has been elating to see this search finally bear fruit."
他補充說，“過去四年我一直在尋找像蓋亞BH1這樣的系統(tǒng)，嘗試了各種方法——但他們都沒有奏效?？吹竭@次搜索終于結(jié)出了果實，真是令人欣喜若狂。”