Astronomers say the center of our galaxy has plenty of strange, super gravity objects.
天文學家稱在我們銀河系的中心有大量陌生的超引力物體。
For years, scientists believed that circling the center of galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, were not only stars, but lots of stellar black holes.These are stars that have collapsed, creating gravity so strong even light does not get out.
許多年來,科學家認為圍繞著星系(包括我們的銀河系)中心的不僅有恆星,還有許多恆星黑洞。這些黑洞是已經崩塌的恆星產生強大的地心引力造成的,甚至連光都穿不透。
But scientists had yet to find evidence of black holes at the center of the Milky Way until now.
但是科學家至今都在尋找證據,以證明銀河系中心存在黑洞。
Astronomers studying old x-ray observations have found signs of at least 12 black holes in the inner circle of the Milky Way.And since most black holes cannot be found that way, they believe that there are likely thousands of them there.
研究舊X射線觀測的天文學家已經在銀河系的內圈發現了至少12個黑洞跡象。因為大多數黑洞都無法以這種方式被發現,因此他們認為那裡很有可能有數千個這樣的黑洞。
In fact, a study suggests there may be more than 10,000 black holes in the center of our galaxy.The findings appear in the journal Nature.
實際上,一項研究表明在銀河系中心存在上萬個黑洞。這項發現發布在《自然》雜誌上。
Chuck Hailey is an astrophysicist at Columbia University in New York.He was the lead writer of the report.He told the Associated Press, 「There’s lots of action going on there. … The galactic center is a strange place.That’s why people like to study it.」
查克·海利是紐約市哥倫比亞大學的一名天體物理學家。他是這份報告的主要作者。他告訴美聯社說:「那裡進行著很多活動……銀河系中心是一個陌生的區域,這就是人們喜歡研究它的原因。」
Scientists already know about a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.They call it Sagittarius A.
科學家已經在銀河系的中心發現一個超大質量的黑洞。他們將其稱之為人馬座A。
Supermassive black holes are the largest kind of black hole, being between a million and billion times bigger than others.This latest research shows that the newly discovered stellar black holes are in addition to Sagittarius A and they do, in fact, circle it.
超大質量黑洞是最大的一種黑洞,比其他種類的黑洞要大至少一百萬倍甚至高達十億倍。最近的研究表明,除了人馬座A之外,還存在其他新發現的恆星級黑洞,實際上它們是圍繞著人馬座A的。
The newly discovered black holes are within about 31 trillion kilometers from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.So there is still a lot of empty space and gas among all those black holes.But Hailey noted that if you looked at the amount of space around Earth, there would be zero black holes, not thousands.
新發現的黑洞大約在距銀河系中心的超大質量黑洞31萬億千米內。所以仍然有很多真空區和氣體存在於這些黑洞中間。但是海利說如果你看看地球周圍的空間的話,那就會是零個黑洞而不是上千個。
Our planet is part of a spiral arm circling the Milky Way.It is about 9.5 trillion kilometers, or 3,000 light years, from its center.In the rest of our galaxy, scientists have only identified about 60 black holes to date, Hailey added.
我們的星球是圍繞著銀河系的旋臂的一部分,距銀河中心約有9.5萬億千米或者說是3,000光年。海利補充道,在我們銀河系的其他地方,科學家到目前為止只確定了大約60個黑洞。
Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb was not part of the latest study.He called the findings exciting, but noted that they confirmed what scientists had long expected.
哈佛大學的天體物理學家阿維·洛布並沒有參與這項最新的研究。他稱這項發現很令人興奮,並指出這些發現證實了科學家們長期以來的預期。
The newly confirmed black holes are about 10 times the mass of our sun.In comparison, Sagittarius A has the mass of 4 million suns.
新確認的黑洞質量大約是太陽的十倍。相比之下,人馬座A的質量是太陽的400萬倍。
The recently discovered black holes are also only the kind that are binary, meaning they are partnered with another star.Black holes partnered with other stars produce large amounts of x-rays as the black holes pull in the star’s outer layer.Those x-rays are what astronomers observe.
最近發現的黑洞也只是一種雙星系黑洞,意為他們是和其他的恆星相伴隨的。隨著黑洞吸入恆星的外層,黑洞與其他恆星合力產生大量X射線,這些X射線就是天文學家觀測的目標。
When astronomers look at closer binary black hole systems, they could then compare what is seen with what is too weak to be observed from far away.Using that information, Hailey believes that there must be 300 to 500 binary black hole systems.
當天文學家觀察更近的雙星黑洞系統時,他們可以將就近觀察到的系統與因為遠距離而太過微弱以至於無法觀測的系統進行對比。通過這一信息,海利認為那裡肯定存在著300個到500個雙星黑洞系統。
Binary black hole systems are likely only five percent of all black holes, he added.So that means there are really thousands of them.
他補充說道:雙星黑洞系統可能只是所有黑洞的5%。因此這意味著真的存在上千個黑洞。
Hailey said there are good reasons the Milky Way’s black holes are usually in the center of the galaxy.First, their mass most often pulls them to the center.But mostly the middle of all those stars is the perfect place for black hole formation, with lots of dust and gas.
海利說這就很好地證明銀河系黑洞通常存在在星系的中心。首先,他們的重量通常會將他們拉入中心。但是伴隨著大量的塵埃和氣體,大多數恆星的中間部分是黑洞形成的絕佳地點。
He said it is 「sort of like a little farm where you have all the right conditions to produce and hold on to a large number of black holes.」
他說這「類似於一個小農場,在這裡你有所有充足的條件來生產和保留大量的黑洞」。
I’m Dorothy Gundy.
多蘿西·甘迪報導。