VOA慢速英语:New Information Adds to Understanding of Black Holes(翻译)

The human eye is unable to see black holes in space. But telescopes with special tools can help find black holes by seeing how they affect nearby stars.
人类无法用肉眼观测到宇宙中的黑洞。但配有特殊工具的望远镜可以帮助人们找到黑洞，观察到它们如何影响周边的恒星。

In February, the Japanese space agency sent its Astro-H satellite into orbit around the Earth. The satellite’s job was to examine large structures in space, like huge black holes that exist at the center of most galaxies.
日本的宇宙航空研究开发机构二月份时将Astro-H卫星送入绕地轨道。该卫星的任务是查看宇宙中的大型结构，如存在于大多数星系中心的巨大黑洞。

Galaxies are large groups of stars. Scientists estimate there are between 100 and 200 billion galaxies in the universe.
星系是恒星的巨大集合。科学家预测宇宙中有1千亿到2千亿的星系。

The Astro-H satellite fell apart after only a month in space. But in that short time, Astro-H was able to gather important information. It sent back data about the Perseus cluster – a grouping of galaxies in the star constellation Perseus. The Perseus cluster is home to hundreds of galaxies.
Astro-H卫星在进入太空一个月后解体。但在短短一个月中，它已经搜集了很多重要的信息。它发回了英仙座星系团的数据，即英仙座的一组星系。英仙座星系团有成百上千个星系组成。

They are 240 million light years from Earth.
距地球2.4亿光年。

Black holes are areas where the pull of gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. Usually they happen after very big, supergiant stars explode. The exploded star turns into something called a "supernova." It is very bright, but short-lived. Supernovas create the largest explosions in space.
黑洞所在区域地心引力很强，连光也逃不过。通常在庞大的星球爆炸后会形成黑洞。爆炸的星球会变为所谓的“超新星”。超新星非常明亮，但存在时间非常短。超新星会在宇宙制造大爆炸。

The material remaining after the supernova explosion collapses. Gravity pulls, or crushes, all the matter into a very small space. When light can no longer escape that space, it is known as a black hole.
超新星爆炸后剩下的物质会崩塌。地心引力或挤压会将所有的物质挤进一个很小的空间。当光无法逃离该区域，就形成了所谓的黑洞。

The Japanese satellite Astro-H was carrying an instrument called an X-ray spectrometer. It was able to measure the way gas flows at the center of the Perseus cluster.
日本研发的Astro-H卫星携带了X射线分光计。它可以测量气体在英仙座星系群流动的方式。

What it found was that the superheated gas at the center of the cluster flowed more calmly than researchers expected. And that told them something about how black holes work, and how galaxies are formed.
卫星传回的数据显示星座中心异常炎热的气体流动比预想的平静。这也告诉了研究人员黑洞是如何作用的，星系是怎样形成的。

Brian McNamara is an astrophysicist with the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Brian McNamara是加拿大滑铁卢大学的天体物理学家。

And that gives us a very precise measurement of how much energy is being pumped into this gas by supermassive black holes, and so it allows us to form a more complete picture of how galaxies evolve, how the stars and the gas that eventually will cool out like rain to form the stars, evolves over cosmic time.
“这非常准确地测量了这种气体被超重黑洞注入了多少能量，也向我们完整地展示了星系是如何进化，星体和气体如何最终像雨一样冷却形成恒星，在宇宙时间里慢慢进化。”

The scientists are also looking at the hot plasma — another kind of matter — and gases that surround galaxies.
科学家们还发现了星系周围有热等离子体（一种物质）和气体。

This is gas that has not cooled out and condensed out like rain in our atmosphere to form stars, planets, life, for example.And, so it’s the potential for the future, and we’re trying to understand what the future destiny of this galaxy and many other galaxies would be.
“该气体并未冷却，也未像我们大气层中的雨一样冷却形成恒星、行星，构成生命。所以未来有无限可能，我们接下来试图了解这座星系未来的命运以及其他星系的命运如何。”

McNamara says that supermassive black holes may change how galaxies form and change over time.
McNamara说超重黑洞会改变星系的形成方式，而且会随着时间发生变化。

The energy released by these giant black holes is very tightly coupled to these atmospheres, which is the stuff out of which future stars will form.
“巨大的黑洞释放的能量会与这些大气紧密结合，未来恒星将由此而形成。”

And what that means, he says, is that these huge black holes can affect the rate at which a galaxy grows.
他的意思是黑洞会影响星系成长的速度。

I’m Anne Ball.
Anne Ball 为您报道。