VOA慢速英语2020 天文学家发现了“缺失的环节”中型黑洞

Scientists have identified a mid-sized black hole that could be the "missing link" to help us better understand these mysterious space objects.

科学家发现了一个中型黑洞，其可能是帮助我们更好地理解这些神秘太空物体的“缺失环节”。

Researchers used data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and two X-ray observatories¹ to find the black hole, which was in the process of destroying a nearby star.

研究人员利用美国航空航天局（简称NASA）的哈勃望远镜和两个X射线天文台的数据发现了这个黑洞，其正在撕裂附近的一颗恒星。

Black holes are extremely dense² objects possessing gravitational pulls so powerful that not even light can escape.

黑洞是密度极高的物体，具有强大的引力，甚至连光都不能逃脱。

The newly identified black hole is more than 50,000 times the mass of our sun. It sits about 740 million light years from Earth in a galaxy³ containing far fewer stars than our Milky⁴ Way. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers.

新发现的黑洞质量是太阳的5万多倍。这一黑洞距离地球约7.4亿光年，其所在星系中的恒星数量远远少于我们的银河系。光年指光在一年中行进的距离，约为9.5万亿公里。

This is one of the few "intermediate-mass" black holes ever identified. It is far smaller than the supermassive black holes found at the center of large galaxies⁵. But, it is much larger than so-called stellar-mass black holes formed by the collapse⁶ of huge individual stars.

这是迄今发现的为数不多的“中等质量”黑洞之一。其远远小于在大型星系中心发现的超大质量黑洞。但是，它比巨型个体恒星坍塌所形成的“恒星质量”黑洞要大得多。

Natalie Webb is an astrophysicist at the University of Toulouse in France. She helped lead a study on the black hole that was recently reported in the publication Astrophysical Journal Letters.

纳塔莉·韦伯是法国图卢兹大学的天体物理学家。她帮助领导了一项黑洞研究，该研究于近期发表在《天体物理学杂志通讯》上。

Webb told the Reuters news agency the study confirmed that the object her team first discovered back in 2010 was in fact an intermediate-mass black hole. The star it was destroying was probably about a third the mass of our sun.

韦伯对路透社表示，这项研究证实，她的团队在2010年首次发现的物体实际上是中等质量黑洞。该黑洞正在撕裂的恒星大概是太阳质量的三分之一。

Webb noted⁷ that scientists have searched for intermediate-mass black holes for more than 40 years. However, fewer than 10 good examples are known. Scientists believe large numbers of the objects may exist even though they have not been discovered.

韦伯指出，40多年来，科学家一直在寻找中等质量黑洞。然而，目前已知的绝佳范例不超过10个。科学家认为，可能存在大量中等质量黑洞，尽管它们还未被发现。

"So finding a new one is very significant. Also, a black hole swallowing a star happens on average only once every 10,000 years or so in any ... galaxy so these are rare occurrences," Webb added.

韦伯补充说：“发现新的中等质量黑洞具有非常重要的意义。另外，黑洞吞噬恒星的现象平均每一万年才会发生一次，因此这些是非常罕见的现象。”

The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is 4 million times the mass of the sun, about 26,000 light years from Earth. The closest stellar-mass black star is about 6,000 light years from Earth.

银河系中心存在一个超大质量黑洞，其质量是太阳的400万倍，距离地球大约2.6万光年。最近的恒星质量黑洞距离地球约6000光年。

Webb called intermediate black holes the "missing link" in understanding the range of black holes. Scientists know a lot about the formation of stellar-mass black holes, which are about three to 100 times the mass of our sun. But they do not know how intermediate-mass black holes form.

韦伯称中等质量黑洞是理解黑洞范围的“缺失环节”。科学家非常了解恒星质量黑洞的形成，这种黑洞的质量大约是太阳的3到100倍。但是他们不知道中等质量黑洞的形成方式。

Scientists do have a theory that supermassive black holes arise from mid-size ones. However, Webb noted that "without finding such objects, it was impossible to validate⁸ this theory."

科学家有一个理论，即超大质量黑洞是由中等质量黑洞产生的。然而，韦伯指出，“在没有发现这样的物体之前，不可能验证这种理论。”

Intermediate-mass black holes remain difficult to find and scientists are not exactly sure why.

中等质量黑洞仍然难以发现，科学家也不能确定原因。

But University of New Hampshire astronomer⁹ and lead researcher Dacheng Lin does offer one idea. "The best explanation is that they are mostly in an environment that is devoid¹⁰ of gas, leaving the black holes with no material to consume and ... little radiation to emit - which in turn makes them extremely difficult to spot," he said.

但新罕布什尔大学的天文学家兼首席研究员林大成提出了一个想法。他说：“最好的解释是它们大多处于没有气体的环境中，这使黑洞没有任何物质可以消耗，释放的辐射也很少——继而使它们极难被发现。”

I'm Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

intermediate – adj. occurring in the middle of a process or series

significant – adj. very important

occurrence(s) – n. something that happens

range – n. a group or collection of different things or people that are usually similar in some way

validate – v. to show that something is real or correct

devoid of – adj. completely without something

consume – v. to use fuel, time, or resources

emit – v. to send light, sound or energy out from a source

1 observatories   

n.天文台，气象台( observatory的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• John Heilbron, The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories, 3-23. 约翰．海耳布隆，《教会里的太阳：教堂即太阳观测台》，第3-23页。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists use satellites, land observatories and historical data to provide information about the weather. 气象学家使用卫星、上天文台和历史资料来提供有关天气的信息。 来自互联网

2 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

3 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

4 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

5 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

6 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 validate   

vt.（法律）使有效，使生效

参考例句：

• You need an official signature to validate the order.你要有正式的签字，这张汇票才能生效。
• In order to validate the agreement,both parties sign it.为使协议有效，双方在上面签了字。

9 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

10 devoid   

adj.全无的，缺乏的

参考例句：

• He is completely devoid of humour.他十分缺乏幽默。
• The house is totally devoid of furniture.这所房子里什么家具都没有。