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Scientists recently observed an extremely powerful explosion coming from an ancient galaxy.
科學家最近觀測到一次來自一個古老星系的威力極其強大的爆炸。
The astronomers suspect the gamma ray burst they saw was the result of two neutron stars crashing into each other.
天文學家懷疑他們看到的伽瑪射線暴是兩顆中子星相互碰撞的結果。
Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars that have collapsed into themselves.
中子星是大質量恒星坍縮后的殘骸。
They are small in size but extremely heavy.
它們的體積很小，但非常重。
The stars are in an area dense with space objects near a supermassive black hole at the center of their galaxy.
這些恒星所在的星系中心有一個超大質量黑洞，附近有密集的太空物體。
"In order to explain the gamma-ray burst, it has to have been a compact star, so not one like the sun," said study lead writer astronomer Andrew Levan of Radboud University in The Netherlands.
研究報告的主要作者、荷蘭拉德堡德大學天文學家安德魯·萊文說：“為了解釋伽瑪射線暴，它必須是一顆致密恒星，所以不是像太陽那樣的恒星”。
The study appeared in the publication Nature Astronomy.
這項研究發表在《自然·天文學》雜志上。
Scientist Wen-fai Fong of Northwestern University in Illinois co-wrote the study.
伊利諾伊州西北大學的科學家方文輝參與了這項研究。
"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe," she noted.
她指出：“伽瑪射線暴是宇宙中最強的爆炸”。
The researchers said that gravitational forces from the black hole may cause nearby objects to move around a lot, increasing the chance of collision.
研究人員表示，來自黑洞的引力可能會導致附近的物體大量移動，從而增加碰撞的機會。
When very massive stars, those more than 10 times larger than the sun, die in explosions, they can become neutron stars or even black holes.
當比太陽大10倍以上的超大質量恒星在爆炸中死亡時，它們可能會變成中子星甚至黑洞。
Smaller stars like the sun leave behind what are called white dwarves.
像太陽這樣較小的恒星會留下白矮星。
These new observations show another path to star death.
這些新的觀測結果表明了恒星死亡的另一種途徑。
In Nature Astronomy, Levan said, "The idea that stars also can die through collisions in extremely dense regions has been around since at least the 1980s. So we've been waiting for 40 years for the signatures to be found observationally."
在《自然·天文學》雜志上，萊文說：“至少從20世紀80年代起，恒星也可能會在密度極高的區域因碰撞而死亡的想法就一直存在。因此，我們已經等了40年，等待通過觀測發現這些特征。”
Scientists used the data from different telescopes to study the gamma-ray bursts, which took place over 3 billion light years away.
科學家使用來自不同望遠鏡的數據來研究發生在30億光年之外的伽瑪射線暴。
A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers.
一光年約為9.5萬億公里。
Most of the galaxy's stars are billions of years old.
銀河系中的大多數恒星都有數十億年的歷史。
Fong wrote: "The galaxy is what we call a 'quiescent' - a galaxy that is not actively forming stars at a high rate…."
方寫道：“這個星系是我們所說的‘靜止’星系——一個不以高速率活躍地形成恒星的星系。”
Quiescent galaxies have supermassive black holes in their center, where many collisions take place.
靜止星系的中心有超大質量的黑洞，在那里發生了許多碰撞。
Levan said: "You certainly wouldn't want a front-row seat to one of these events."
萊文說：“你肯定不想坐在前排觀看這樣的活動。”
I'm Dominic Varela.
多米尼克·瓦雷拉為您播報。
譯文為可可英語翻譯，未經授權請勿轉載！
