Scientists Release Image of Gas Cloud from Star’s Explosion
科學(xué)家發(fā)布恒星爆炸產(chǎn)生的氣體云圖像
The European Southern Observatory on Monday released an image of colorful clouds of gas created by the explosion of a huge star long ago.
歐洲南方天文臺周一發(fā)布了一張由很久以前的巨星爆炸產(chǎn)生的彩色氣體云圖像。
The clouds are in our own Milky Way galaxy about 800 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometers. Scientists estimate that the star was at least eight times the mass of the sun.
這些云位于我們自己的銀河系中,距離地球約 800 光年。一光年是光在一年中傳播的距離,9.5萬億公里。科學(xué)家估計(jì)這顆恒星的質(zhì)量至少是太陽的八倍。
The area of the colorful cloud is about 600 times the size of our own solar system.
五彩云的面積大約是我們太陽系大小的600倍。
The image shows the pink and orange filament structures of the cloud. Filaments are like very thin strings such as silk or the strings of a spider's web.
該圖像顯示了云的粉紅色和橙色細(xì)絲結(jié)構(gòu)。細(xì)絲就像非常細(xì)的線,例如絲綢或蜘蛛網(wǎng)的線。
The cloud was created by the star's explosion, called a supernova.
云是由恒星爆炸產(chǎn)生的,稱為超新星。
In a supernova, a large star collapses onto its core or center. The pressure and temperature at the core become so high that atoms of heavier elements are formed, and huge amounts of energy are released in a massive explosion. A supernova can also produce very heavy elements such as iron, gold or uranium.
在超新星中,一顆大恒星坍縮到它的核心或中心。核心的壓力和溫度變得如此之高,以至于形成了更重元素的原子,并在大規(guī)模爆炸中釋放出大量能量。超新星還可以產(chǎn)生非常重的元素,例如鐵、金或鈾。
Bruno Leibundgut is an astronomer connected with the European Southern Observatory (ESO). He explained that denser areas of material from the supernova hit surrounding gas and created some of the filaments seen in the image.
Bruno Leibundgut 是一位與歐洲南方天文臺 (ESO) 有聯(lián)系的天文學(xué)家。他解釋說,來自超新星的更密集的物質(zhì)區(qū)域撞擊了周圍的氣體,并產(chǎn)生了圖像中看到的一些細(xì)絲。
He said, "Most of the material that shines is due to hydrogen atoms that are excited. The beauty of such images is that we can directly see what material was inside a star."
他說,“大部分發(fā)光的物質(zhì)都是由于被激發(fā)的氫原子。這些圖像的美妙之處在于我們可以直接看到恒星內(nèi)部的物質(zhì)。”
The image shows the cloud, called a nebula, about 11,000 years after the explosion.
該圖像顯示了爆炸后約 11,000 年的云,稱為星云。
What is left of the supernova is a small, very dense spinning object called a pulsar. The pulsar spins about 10 times per second.
超新星留下的是一個(gè)小而非常密集的旋轉(zhuǎn)物體,稱為脈沖星。脈沖星每秒旋轉(zhuǎn)約 10 次。
The picture of the cloud is a combination of many images taken by the VLT Survey telescope in Chile. The telescope uses a camera with filters to capture light of different colors. The data for the image was collected from 2013 to 2016, the ESO said.
云的圖片是智利 VLT 巡天望遠(yuǎn)鏡拍攝的許多圖像的組合。望遠(yuǎn)鏡使用帶有濾光片的照相機(jī)來捕捉不同顏色的光。ESO 表示,該圖像的數(shù)據(jù)是從 2013 年到 2016 年收集的。