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Interesting sound. I would have guessed a Wild West performer was practicing with a bullwhip while also vacuuming. But no. That sound is apparently produced by the aurora borealis, the northern lights.
聽到這有趣的聲音，我會聯想到一個狂野的西部表演家正一邊揮舞著牛鞭，一邊開著吸塵器。但是，我錯了。很明顯那聲音是由北極光發出的。
Since 2000 researchers at Finland's Aalto University have been collecting audio as part of what's called the Auroral Acoustics project. Folk tales have long held that the lights also produce odd sounds, but the claims were hard to prove. And some researchers thought that any noises produced by the energetic particles that cause the light show would be far too high in the sky to be heard on the ground.
自2000年，芬蘭阿爾托大學的研究人員就開始收集光的聲音，把這當作極光升學計劃的一部分。很久以前民間故事就堅信光能發出奇怪的聲音，但卻很難得到證實。另外，一些研究人員認為形成北極光的高能粒子離地面太遠，它們發出的聲音因而無法被聽到。
But the latest results indicate that at least some sounds are produced very close to the ground. A setup of three ground-based microphones allowed researchers to estimate that the sounds occur perhaps just 70 meters up. The results were just presented at the International Congress on Sound and Vibration in Vilnius, Lithuania.
但最新的結果表明，至少有些聲音在離地很近的地方產生。研究者憑借一套由三個放在陸面的麥克風組成的設備，估算出那些聲響發生在離地大約70米的高空。不久前在立陶宛首都維爾紐斯舉辦的國際聲音和振動大會上，研究人員介紹了這項研究成果。
More information about the sounds of the northern lights could lead to a more complete understanding of the phenomenon. So if you see an aurora, keep your ears open.
如有更多關于北極光聲音的信息，人們便能全面地了解這種現象。所以，如果你看到極光，記得豎起耳朵傾聽。
