科学家通过新观测结果发现恒星死亡新途径

Scientists recently observed an extremely powerful explosion coming from an ancient galaxy.
科学家们最近观测到一个古老的星系发生了威力巨大的爆炸。

The astronomers suspect the gamma ray burst they saw was the result of two neutron stars crashing into each other. Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars that have collapsed into themselves. They are small in size but extremely heavy.
天文学家们怀疑他们看到的伽玛射线暴是两颗中子星相撞的结果。中子星是大质量恒星坍塌后的残骸。它们体积很小，但质量非常大。

The stars are in an area dense with space objects near a supermassive black hole at the center of their galaxy.
这些恒星位于一个密布空间物体的区域，这里靠近他们星系中心一个超大质量黑洞。

"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. The study appeared in the publication Nature Astronomy.
该研究的主要作者、荷兰拉德布大学的天文学家安德鲁·莱万说：“为了能解释伽玛射线暴，它必须是一颗致密恒星，所以它跟太阳不一样。”这项研究发表在《自然天文学》杂志上。

Scientist Wen-fai Fong of Northwestern University in Illinois co-wrote the study.
来自伊利诺伊州西北大学的科学家Wen fai Fong共同撰写了这项研究。

"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe," she noted.
她指出：“伽玛射线暴是宇宙中最强大的爆炸。”

The researchers said that gravitational forces from the black hole may cause nearby objects to move around a lot, increasing the chance of collision.
研究人员表示，来自黑洞的引力可能会导致附近物体不断移动，从而增加碰撞的机会。

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. Smaller stars like the sun leave behind what are called white dwarves.
当比太阳大10倍以上的超大质量恒星在爆炸中死亡时，它们可能会成为中子星甚至黑洞。像太阳这样较小的恒星会剩下所谓的白矮星。

These new observations show another path to star death.
这些新的观测结果展示了恒星死亡的另一条途径。

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."
莱万在《自然天文学》上表示：“恒星也可能在密度极高的区域通过碰撞而死亡的想法至少从20世纪80年代就已经存在了。因此，我们已经等了40年才能在观测上发现这些特征。”

Scientists used the data from different telescopes to study the gamma-ray bursts, which took place over 3 billion light years away. A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers.
科学家们使用了不同望远镜的数据来研究发生在30多亿光年外的伽玛射线暴。一光年大约是9.5万亿公里。

Most of the galaxy's stars are billions of years old. Fong wrote: "The galaxy is what we call a ‘quiescent' - a galaxy that is not actively forming stars at a high rate...."
银河系大多数恒星都有几十亿年的历史。Fong写道：“这个星系就是我们所说的‘静止’星系，也就是一个不再以高速率积极形成恒星的星系……”

Quiescent galaxies have supermassive black holes in their center, where many collisions take place.
静止星系的中心存在超大质量黑洞，在那里会发生许多碰撞。

Levan said: "You certainly wouldn't want a front-row seat to one of these events."
莱万说：“你肯定不想赶上这种碰撞事件。”