小行星“本努”正把巖石拋向太空，美國宇航局也不知道原因

小行星“本努”正把巖石拋向太空，美國宇航局也不知道原因

An enormous asteroid that could one day hit Earth in a devastating impact is mysteriously spitting out rocks.

一顆巨大的小行星正在神秘地吐出巖石，這顆小行星有一天可能會對地球造成毀滅性的打擊。

So-called “doomsday” asteroid Bennu is ejecting meter-sized “particles” into space — and NASA is baffled.

所謂的“世界末日”小行星——本努——正在向太空噴射一米大小的“粒子”，這讓美國宇航局感到困惑。

Bennu has achieved infamy after being declared a “hazardous object” by astronomers.

本努在被天文學(xué)家宣布為“危險物體”后聲名狼藉。

The 1,600-foot asteroid could smash into Earth on several different dates, in an event akin to all-out nuclear war.

這顆1600英尺的小行星可能在幾個不同的日期撞擊地球，這一事件類似于全面的核戰(zhàn)爭。

Late last year’s NASA’s Osirix-Rex probe arrived at Bennu and began circling it, relaying images and data to space scientists.

去年年底，美國國家航空航天局的Osirix-Rex探測器抵達本奴并開始環(huán)繞它，向太空科學(xué)家傳送圖像和數(shù)據(jù)。

And researchers made an unexpected discovery: Bennu was occasionally “discharging” large chunks of material into space.

研究人員有了一個意想不到的發(fā)現(xiàn):本奴偶爾會向太空“發(fā)射”大塊物質(zhì)。

These particles then either briefly orbited Bennu and fell back onto its surface — or escaped into space.

這些粒子要么短暫地圍繞著本奴旋轉(zhuǎn)，然后落回它的表面——要么逃逸到太空中。

“No one has ever seen an active asteroid up close like this,” said Carl Hergenrother, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, speaking to Wired.

亞利桑那大學(xué)的天文學(xué)家卡爾·赫根羅特在接受《連線》雜志采訪時表示:“從來沒有人在這么近的距離看到過如此活躍的小行星。”

“It wasn’t that long ago that the conventional wisdom was that asteroids are these dead bodies that didn’t change very much.”

“就在不久之前，人們還普遍認(rèn)為，小行星就是些沒有多大變化的尸體。”

Some of the chunks of material were traveling at 10 feet per second and were blasted out during “ejection events.”

一些大塊的物質(zhì)以每秒10英尺的速度移動，并在“彈射事件”中爆炸出來。

The largest of these events took place on January 6 and saw 200 separate chunks ejected.

其中最大的一次發(fā)生在1月6日，有200個板塊被拋出。

“Among Bennu’s many surprises, the particle ejections sparked our curiosity and we’ve spent the last several months investigating this mystery,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

圖森市亞利桑那大學(xué)的奧西里斯-雷克斯首席研究員丹蒂·洛雷塔說:“在本努的眾多驚喜中，粒子噴射激起了我們的好奇心，我們花了幾個月的時間來研究這個謎。”

“This is a great opportunity to expand our knowledge of how asteroids behave.”

“這是一個擴展我們對小行星如何運行的知識的好機會。”

Scientists have several theories about what could be causing the ejection events.

科學(xué)家們有幾種理論可以解釋是什么導(dǎo)致了這次噴射事件。

It’s possible that meteoroids are striking Bennu, blasting material up into space.

可能是流星撞擊了本奴星，將物質(zhì)拋向太空。

Further examinations should reveal the truth.

進一步的檢查應(yīng)該揭示真相。

Importantly, the Osiris-Rex probe is also due to land on Bennu in 2023, to scoop up samples ahead of its return to Earth.

重要的是，歐西里斯-雷克斯探測器也將于2023年登陸本奴，在返回地球之前采集樣本。

The other good news is that although Bennu could hit us, it’s unlikely.

另一個好消息是，雖然本努可以攻擊我們，但不太可能。

“The possibility of Bennu hitting Earth is very low (1 in 3000) and if it does, it will be in 150-200 years time,” said Dr. Robin Smith, a physicist at Sheffield Hallam University, speaking to The Sun earlier this year.

今年早些時候，謝菲爾德哈勒姆大學(xué)的物理學(xué)家羅賓·史密斯博士在接受《太陽報》采訪時說:“‘本奴’撞擊地球的可能性很小(3000分之一)，如果真的發(fā)生，那將是150-200年后的事了。”

And by then, it’s possible that we’ll have put into place a sci-fi asteroid-blasting weapon to save us from certain doom.

到那時，我們很可能已經(jīng)安裝了一個科幻的小行星爆炸武器來拯救我們免于厄運。

However, an impact by Bennu would be devastating for Earth if it happened.

然而，如果本奴的撞擊真的發(fā)生，對地球來說將是毀滅性的。