一步步解开宇宙之谜

Peter Michelson: We're looking at the universe with a different set of eyes than we're born with.

彼得·迈克尔逊：目前人类观测宇宙的视角已经发生了改变。

You're listening to astrophysicist Peter Michelson of Stanford. He's principal investigator of the Large Area Telescope on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. High energy hot spots in the universe are revealed with gamma-rays, said Michelson.

您正在收听斯坦福大学天体物理学家彼得`迈克尔逊的讲话。彼得`迈克尔逊是美国宇航局费米伽玛射线空间望远镜大视场望远镜首席研究员。他指出，通过探测伽玛射线，科学家可以观测到宇宙中的高能辐射源。

Peter Michelson: These are the highest energy form of radiation that's produced in nature. And looking at the universe with gamma-ray eyes, this reveals places in the universe where particles are accelerated to very high energies.

彼得·迈克尔逊：这些辐射源产生能量最大的辐射。通过监测伽玛射线，我们可以找到宇宙中的强辐射区。在这里，粒子被加速，获得很高的能量。

He said in its first year of a five-year mission, the Fermi telescope has discovered over 1,000 places that stream gamma-rays.

迈克尔逊表示，在执行一项5年观测任务的头一年，费米望远镜发现了超过1000个伽玛射线辐射源。

Peter Michelson: And among those are many sources that have never been seen before - things like pulsars, that are seen only in gamma-rays; gamma-ray bursts, that are explosions that we see expanding at close to the speed of light.

彼得·迈克尔逊：我们观测到许多以前从未发现过的辐射源，脉冲星是其中之一。这些辐射源只能在伽玛射线及伽玛暴中观测到，在伽玛射线暴中，物质喷流以接近光速的速度向外冲出。

Michelson said the Fermi telescope has also discovered many of what he calls "active galaxies" centered around a massive black hole. The gravity of a black hole is so strong that not even light can escape it. Michelson added that the Fermi space telescope might show, in greater detail than ever before, what the neighborhood surrounding a black hole looks like.

迈克尔逊称费米望远镜还观测到许多围绕大质量黑洞的天体，称之为“活跃星系”。黑洞的引力场很强，光也无法逃出。迈克尔逊补充道，费米空间望远镜也许能前所未有地向人们清晰展示黑洞周围的景象。