天文學(xué)家首次觀測(cè)到三個(gè)黑洞的合并

天文學(xué)家首次觀測(cè)到三個(gè)黑洞的合并

A trio of monster black holes have been spotted crashing into each other.

三個(gè)巨型黑洞在相互碰撞。

The galactic fracas is taking place 300 million light-years from Earth and will lead to the birth of a single, mega black hole.

銀河系的混亂發(fā)生在離地球3億光年的地方，這將導(dǎo)致一個(gè)巨型黑洞的誕生。

Scientists in Germany discovered the rare event within NGC 6240, a well-studied nearby galaxy.

德國(guó)科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了NGC 6240星系內(nèi)的罕見(jiàn)事件。

The black holes are close to each other at the core of the system and shed light on how massive galaxies are born.

這些黑洞在星系的核心位置相互靠近，揭示了巨大的星系是如何誕生的。

“Up until now, such a concentration of three supermassive black holes had never been discovered in the universe,” said Dr. Peter Weilbacher, of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.

波茨坦萊布尼茨天體物理研究所的彼得·威爾巴赫博士說(shuō):“到目前為止，在宇宙中還從未發(fā)現(xiàn)過(guò)三個(gè)如此密集的超大質(zhì)量黑洞。”

“The present case provides evidence of a simultaneous merging process of three galaxies along with their central black holes.”

“目前的情況提供了三個(gè)星系及其中心黑洞同時(shí)合并過(guò)程的證據(jù)。”

Astronomers used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to make their discovery.

天文學(xué)家使用智利的超大望遠(yuǎn)鏡獲得了這一發(fā)現(xiàn)。

The NGC 6240 galaxy is relatively close to our own Milky Way in space terms and has an odd shape.

NGC 6240星系在空間上與我們的銀河系比較接近，而且形狀奇特。

Galaxies are often made up of hundreds of billions of stars locked in an orbital dance with a supermassive black hole at the core.

星系通常由幾千億顆恒星組成，它們被鎖在軌道上，在核心處有一個(gè)超大質(zhì)量黑洞。

It had long been assumed NGC 6240 formed when two smaller galaxies collided, leaving it with a pair of black holes – hence the odd shape.

長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，人們一直認(rèn)為NGC 6240是由兩個(gè)較小的星系碰撞產(chǎn)生的，碰撞后留下了一對(duì)黑洞，因此形成了奇怪的形狀。

However, the new observations revealed the galaxy, in fact, had three black holes crammed into its violent core.

然而，新的觀測(cè)結(jié)果表明，事實(shí)上，在這個(gè)星系的猛烈的核心中有三個(gè)黑洞。

“Through our observations with extremely high spatial resolution we were able to show that NGC 6240 hosts not two but three supermassive black holes in its center,” said Professor Wolfram Kollatschny, an astronomer at the University of Göttingen.

哥廷根大學(xué)的天文學(xué)家Wolfram Kollatschny教授說(shuō):“通過(guò)我們的高空間分辨率觀測(cè)，我們能夠證明NGC 6240的中心不是兩個(gè)而是三個(gè)超大質(zhì)量黑洞。”

“Each of the three heavyweights has a mass of more than 90 million suns.

這三個(gè)重量級(jí)的行星都有超過(guò)9000萬(wàn)個(gè)太陽(yáng)的質(zhì)量。

“They are located in a region of space less than 3,000 light-years across, i.e. in less than one-hundredth of the total size of the galaxy.”

“它們所處的空間跨度不到3000光年，不到整個(gè)銀河系的百分之一。”

According to the team, the discovery opens new doors for our understanding of the universe.

據(jù)研究小組稱(chēng)，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)為我們理解宇宙打開(kāi)了新的大門(mén)。

Up until now, scientists had not been able to explain how the biggest galaxies in the universe evolved through the space processes we know and understand.

到目前為止，科學(xué)家們還不能解釋宇宙中最大的星系是如何通過(guò)我們所知道和理解的空間過(guò)程而進(jìn)化的。

This puzzle could be solved if it’s proved that three or more supermassive black holes can merge into a single entity.

如果能證明三個(gè)或更多的超大質(zhì)量黑洞可以合并成一個(gè)實(shí)體，這個(gè)難題就可以解決。

“If simultaneous merging processes of several galaxies took place, then the largest galaxies with their central supermassive black holes were able to evolve much faster,” Dr Weilbacher added.

“如果同時(shí)發(fā)生幾個(gè)星系的合并過(guò)程，那么最大的星系和它們的中心超大質(zhì)量黑洞就能夠進(jìn)化得更快，”威爾巴赫博士補(bǔ)充說(shuō)。

“Our observations provide the first indication of this scenario.”

“我們的觀察為這種情況提供了第一個(gè)跡象。”

The study was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《天文學(xué)與天體物理學(xué)》雜志上。