評(píng)論
打印
How heavy is the Milky Way in comparison to its neighbor galaxy, Andromeda?
和鄰居仙女座相比，我們的銀河系到底有多大？
Well, depends how you calculate it.
好吧，這就要看你如何計(jì)算。
In 2006 one group of astronomers figured the Milky Way was twice as massive as Andromeda.
2006年一組天文學(xué)家指出銀河系的質(zhì)量是仙女座的2倍。
A 2009 estimate evened the score, calculating that the two galaxies are equal in mass.
而2009年的結(jié)論則表示二者質(zhì)量持平。
Now a new formula suggests we're only half the mass of Andromeda.
現(xiàn)在的最新結(jié)論得出我們只有仙女座星系的一半。
To come up with that number, astronomers first measured the speed and distance of galaxies between three and 10 million light-years away.
這個(gè)數(shù)字是天文學(xué)家們首次根據(jù)3百萬(wàn)到一千萬(wàn)光年之間的星系的速度和距離所得出。
That allowed them to calculate the deformation of spacetime, and thus the mass, of our stellar neighborhood, aka the Local Group—a group of more than 50 galaxies, in which the Milky Way and Andromeda dominate.
這些數(shù)據(jù)可以計(jì)算出時(shí)空彎曲的程度，從而也可得出我們鄰居，一個(gè)含有50個(gè)星系以上被稱為本星系群的質(zhì)量大小，我們銀河系和仙女座都包含在這個(gè)星系群中。
They deduced the center of mass between the two heavyweights and found that Andromeda may indeed be twice as massive as the Milky Way.
他們根據(jù)二者的重量級(jí)推導(dǎo)出質(zhì)心，然后發(fā)現(xiàn)仙女座也許真的是銀河系的2倍。
The results are in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果已在《皇家天文協(xié)會(huì)每月通告》雜志上發(fā)表。
The researchers say this new model might be more accurate than past ones, because it accounts for dark matter far from each galaxy's center—assuming the data's right, that is.
研究人員表示這種新的模型也許比之前那些都精確，因?yàn)樗歉鶕?jù)遠(yuǎn)離每個(gè)星系中心的暗物質(zhì)計(jì)算—假設(shè)這些數(shù)據(jù)都正確，那就是正確的。
"Well, I never bet money on anything.
是的，我從來(lái)不為任何事情打賭。
Because I'm aware of all the uncertainties and approximations."
因?yàn)槲視?huì)意識(shí)到所有不確定和大概的情況。
Lead author Jorge Penarrubia of the University of Edinburgh.
這項(xiàng)研究的首席作家愛(ài)丁堡大學(xué)的喬治佩娜拉比亞這樣說(shuō)道。
"One year from now, two years from now, some clever guy will come and say, ‘Hey, you forgot to include this, actually when you do everything changes,’ and then you will have to accept that."
從現(xiàn)在起的1年，2年，有些自以為聰明的家伙也許會(huì)出現(xiàn)：嘿，你忘記將這個(gè)算在內(nèi)，實(shí)際上，當(dāng)你已經(jīng)開(kāi)始，任何事情都在變。然后你就不得不接受。
For now, we'll just have to accept that we live in the wimpier of the two galaxies.
從現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始，我們將不得不接受我們居住在這兩個(gè)星系中的那個(gè)較小的一個(gè)上面。
At least until the next weigh-in.
至少，直到下一次有人比重前只能接受現(xiàn)在的結(jié)果。
