科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)兩個黑洞合并的間隔只有21分鐘

Scientists Detected 2 Black Hole Mergers Just 21 Mins Apart, But It's Not What We Hoped

科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)兩個黑洞合并的間隔只有21分鐘，但這不是我們所希望的。

Last Wednesday, a gravitational wave detection gave astronomers quite the surprise. As researchers were going about their work at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a pair of gravitational waves rolled in just minutes apart.

上周三，一次引力波探測讓天文學(xué)家們大吃一驚。當(dāng)研究人員在激光干涉儀重力波觀測站(LIGO)進(jìn)行他們的工作時，一對引力波在幾分鐘內(nèi)相互滾動。

The first, labelled S190828j, was picked up by all three of LIGO's gravitational wave detectors at 06:34 am, coordinated universal time. The second, S190828l, was measured at 06:55 – a mere 21 minutes later.

第一顆名為S190828j的引力波探測器是在協(xié)調(diào)世界時上午6點34分由LIGO的三個引力波探測器探測到的。第二個是S190828l，測量時間是06:55——僅僅21分鐘后。

Both seemed to be the run-of-the-mill dying screams of black holes as they squish together. But here's why it's so surprising: astronomers wouldn't expect to see a pair of signals in such quick succession.

這兩種聲音似乎都是黑洞擠壓在一起時發(fā)出的垂死的尖叫聲。但令人驚訝的原因是:天文學(xué)家們不希望看到一對如此快速連續(xù)的信號。

In fact, this is only the second time two detections have rolled in on the same day. What's more, at first glance they also seemed to echo from more or less the same patch of sky.

事實上，這只是第二次兩個探測器在同一天出現(xiàn)。而且，乍一看，它們似乎也或多或少地從同一片天空中回聲。

"This is a genuine "Uh, wait, what?; We've never seen that before..." moment in gravitational wave astronomy," astrophysicist Robert Routledge from McGill University later tweeted, after openly speculating that it mightn't be a mere coincidence.

“這是真的”嗯，等等，什么?”麥吉爾大學(xué)的天體物理學(xué)家羅伯特勞特利奇(Robert Routledge)后來在推特上寫道：“我們以前從來沒有見過……”，他公開猜測這可能不僅僅是巧合。

Nobody can blame Routledge for getting excited. Unexpected events like this are what discoveries are made of, after all. As he said, this is science in real time.

沒有人能責(zé)怪勞特利奇變得興奮。畢竟，像這樣意想不到的事件才是發(fā)現(xiàn)的來源。正如他所說，這是實時科學(xué)。

One possibility briefly kicked around was that S190828j and S190828l were actually the same wave, divided by some sort of distortion in space before being roughly thrown together again. This would have been huge.

有一種可能是，S190828J和S190828L實際上是同一個波，被空間中的某種扭曲所分割，然后被粗略地重新組合在一起。這將是巨大的。

Gravitational lensing – the warping effect an intervening mass has on space, as described by general relativity – can divide and duplicate the rays of light from far-off objects. It has become a useful tool for astronomers in the measurement of distances.

引力透鏡效應(yīng)——如廣義相對論所描述的，干涉質(zhì)量對空間的翹曲效應(yīng)——可以分割和復(fù)制來自遙遠(yuǎn)物體的光線。它已成為天文學(xué)家測量距離的有用工具。

If this had indeed been a two-for-one deal, it would be the first time a gravitational wave had been observed through a gravitational lens.

如果這確實是一個二對一的交易，這將是第一次通過引力透鏡觀測到引力波。

Alas, it's now looking pretty unlikely. As the hours passed, new details emerged indicating the two signals don't overlap enough to be originating from the same source.

唉，現(xiàn)在看來，這種可能性非常小。隨著時間的推移，出現(xiàn)了新的細(xì)節(jié)，表明這兩個信號沒有重疊到足以表明來自同一個源。

If this were a lensing event, you'd expect the two localizations to sit more or less right on top of each other. They have similar shapes and appear in the same part of the sky, but they don't really overlap:

如果這是一個透鏡事件，您會期望兩個本地化或多或少地位于彼此之上。它們的形狀相似，出現(xiàn)在天空的同一部分，但它們并不真正重疊：

So close, and yet so far. Right now, this twin event is looking more like a coincidence.

如此接近，卻如此遙遠(yuǎn)?，F(xiàn)在，這兩個事件看起來更像是一個巧合。

To look on the bright side, we now live in an age where the detection of the crash-boom of galactic giants isn't a rare event, but rather an endless peel of thunder we can record and measure with an insane level of accuracy. It's hard to believe the first collision was detected only a few years ago.

往好的方面看，我們現(xiàn)在生活在這樣一個時代，探測到星系巨人的撞擊爆炸并不罕見，而是我們可以以驚人的精確度記錄和測量無盡的雷聲。很難相信第一次碰撞是在幾年前被發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

Scientists face a problem in the wake of freaky events like this one. On the one hand, wild speculations have a habit of taking on a life of their own when discussed so frankly in a public space, transforming into an established fact while barely half baked.

科學(xué)家們在類似這樣的怪異事件之后面臨著一個問題。一方面，當(dāng)在公共場合如此坦率地討論這些問題時，胡亂的猜測有一種自成一體的習(xí)慣，在半生不熟的情況下就變成了既定事實。

But time can be of the essence when we're scanning a near-infinite amount of sky for clues, too. By throwing ideas out broadly, different groups of researchers can turn their attention to a phenomenon and collect data while it's still hot.

但當(dāng)我們在無限多的天空中尋找線索時，時間也可能是最重要的。通過廣泛地拋開觀點，不同的研究小組可以將注意力轉(zhuǎn)移到一種現(xiàn)象上，并在仍然很熱的時候收集數(shù)據(jù)。

This is what scientists do best – stumble across odd events, throw out ideas, and debate which ones deserve to be inspected and which should be abandoned.

這是科學(xué)家們最擅長的——偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)一些奇怪的事件，拋出一些想法，討論哪些應(yīng)該被檢查，哪些應(yīng)該被放棄。

If there's more to S190828j and S190828l than meets the eye, we'll let you know. For now, we can be disappointed that there was no Earth-shaking discovery, while still being amazed that we have the technology to discover it at all.

如果有更多的S190828J和S190828L比符合眼睛，我們會讓你知道。到目前為止，我們可能對沒有驚天動地的發(fā)現(xiàn)感到失望，同時仍然對我們擁有發(fā)現(xiàn)它的技術(shù)感到驚訝。

We really ought to celebrate the 'disappointments' a little more often.

我們真的應(yīng)該更經(jīng)常地慶祝“失望”。