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Astronomy: De Nova Stella
天文學：新星誕生
Astronomers predict a Stella explosion will happen in 5 years time.
天文學家預測5年之內會發生一次星際爆炸
Amateur astronomers have a new date for their diaries.
對于業余天文學家們來說這是一個新篇章。
In 2022, in the constellation of Cygnus, they will be treated to the sight of a nova, or “new star”.
2022年，他們將目睹天鵝座星系中出現的一顆新星，即“新見星”的場面。
By themselves, novas are not particularly noteworthy.
不過對于他們來說，新星現象并不是特別罕見。
Several dozen a year happen in Earth’s home galaxy, the Milky Way, alone. But this one will be special for two reasons.
僅就地球的母星系-銀河系而言，每年都會出現數十次。但這一次的新星之所以格外引人矚目，是因為以下兩個原因。
One is its intensity: provided you are somewhere reasonably dark (in the countryside, in other words, rather than a big city) it will be bright enough to be seen by the naked eye.
第一個原因在于它的亮度：假若你在某些相當黑暗的地方（換言之，在鄉村而不是大城市），那么以肉眼就能清楚地看見它；
The second is that it will be the first nova whose existence was predicted before the fact.
第二個原因在于它將是第一個被觀測到之前就被預測存在的新星。
Assuming everything goes according to schedule, the credit for that will belong to Lawrence Molnar, an astronomer at Calvin College, in Michigan, and his team,
一切順利的話，這一成績將屬于密歇根州卡爾文學院的天文學家Lawrence Molnar以及其團隊，
who have set out their predictions in a paper to be published soon in the AstrophysicalJournal.
該團隊預測性的文章不久后將要在天體物理學日報中發表。
It is a tale of scientific serendipity.” Nova ”,
這是科學探索過程中的一次意外驚喜。
which is Latin for “ new ”, comes from the title of a book (also the title of this article) published in 1573 by Tycho Brahe, a Danish astronomer.
“Nova”一詞在拉丁語中意為“新生的”，這個詞在1573年，丹麥天文學家第谷·布拉赫（Tycho Brahe）撰寫的書中首次（同時也在其書名中）出現。
This recorded what would now be called a supernova that had happened the year before.
在書中，布拉赫對一顆在一年之前（1572年）爆發的“新星”（目前來看，稱為超新星更加準確）進行了記述。
By proving that the “ new star ” in question was a very great distance away—at the least,
布拉赫論述證明了這顆有待商榷的“新星”其實距離地球非常遙遠，
further than the Moon—Brahe dealt a mortalblow to the Aristotelian belief, widespread in Europe at the time, that the heavens were perfect and unchanging.
至少比月球與地球的距離要遠得多。這一觀點對當時主流的亞里士多德學派造成了毀滅性的打擊，因為在16世紀的歐洲，人們普遍認為天宇是完美無缺、永恒不變的。
But the name is a misnomer. Novas are not new stars.
但是，“新星”這個名稱其實并不準確。
Rather, they are explosions that take place on existing ones, drastically but temporarily increasing their brightness.
新星并不是剛剛誕生的恒星，而是原有的恒星發生爆炸，從而導致短時間內亮度急劇增加。
There are several kinds, but Dr Molnar’ s nova will be caused when one member of a two-star system collides with the other, causing an enormous and violent outpouring of energy.
新星的形成原因多種多樣，而莫爾納博士預測到的這顆則是由于雙星系統中的兩顆子星相互碰撞，造成巨量能量釋放。
英文文本來自經濟學人 譯文來自科技三組
