這張令人震驚的圖片可能揭示了為什么我們的星系中心沒有恒星

這張令人震驚的圖片可能揭示了為什么我們的星系中心沒有恒星

If you've gazed at the star-studded Milky Way in the night sky, you may have wondered about the strange haze at its heart.

如果你凝視過夜空中繁星點(diǎn)點(diǎn)的銀河，你可能會對其中心奇怪的薄霧感到好奇。

Photo: NASA/SOFIA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Herschel

Astronomers, too, have long puzzled over that creamy filling. If the core is made up of gas and dust — the key ingredients for fresh-baked stars — why are there so few of them hanging around there?

長期以來，天文學(xué)家也一直對這種奶油狀的填充物感到困惑。如果核心是由氣體和灰塵組成的——這是新鮮恒星的關(guān)鍵成分——那么它們?yōu)槭裁茨敲瓷倌?

This spellbinding new image from NASA — capturing the core in a sweeping, 600-light-year wide panorama — may offer a hint.

這張來自美國國家航空航天局的引人入勝的新圖像——以600光年寬的全景捕捉到了地核——可能提供了一個(gè)線索。

Using infrared data, scientists were able to illuminate the galaxy's core in spectacular high-definition, revealing features that have never been seen before.

利用紅外數(shù)據(jù)，科學(xué)家們能夠以驚人的清晰度照亮銀河系的核心，揭示出以前從未見過的特征。

Astronomers are hoping those super-crisp details will help them account for the mysterious dearth of stars in the region.

天文學(xué)家希望這些超級清晰的細(xì)節(jié)能幫助他們解釋該地區(qū)恒星的神秘缺乏。

"The Milky Way's central regions have significantly more of the dense gas and dust that are the building blocks for new stars compared to other parts of the galaxy," NASA notes in a press release. "Yet, there are 10 times fewer massive stars born here than expected."

NASA在一份新聞稿中指出:“與銀河系的其他部分相比，銀河系的中心區(qū)域有更多的致密氣體和塵埃，它們是形成新恒星的基石。”“然而，這里誕生的大質(zhì)量恒星是預(yù)期的10倍。”

If the center of our galaxy is also its oven, where fresh stars are baked from raw ingredients like gas and dust, you might think there would be more than a few celestial cookies hanging around there.

如果我們的星系中心也是它的烤箱，在那里新鮮的恒星是由氣體和塵埃等原料烘烤而成，你可能會認(rèn)為那里會有很多天上的餅干。

But even the stars that do manage to emerge from that central oven come out strange and misshapen. They tend to stick together, resulting in dense gatherings of bright stars like the Quintuplet Cluster and Arches Cluster. You can see both clusters in the incredibly high-resolution image NASA captured.

但即使是那些從中央爐中冒出來的星星，也會奇怪而畸形。它們傾向于粘在一起，導(dǎo)致明亮的恒星密集聚集，如五胞胎星系團(tuán)和拱門星系團(tuán)。你可以在NASA拍攝的高分辨率圖像中看到這兩個(gè)星團(tuán)。

For their research, astronomers relied on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, known simply as SOFIA. As the largest airborne telescope in existence, SOFIA can cast its infrared eye far into the cosmos, all while mounted on a roving Boeing 747 that has been modified to bear a bevy of sensors.

天文學(xué)家的研究依賴于平流層紅外天文臺，簡稱索菲亞。作為現(xiàn)存最大的機(jī)載望遠(yuǎn)鏡，索菲亞可以將它的紅外望遠(yuǎn)鏡投射到宇宙深處，而這一切都是安裝在一架波音747飛機(jī)上的，這架飛機(jī)經(jīng)過改裝，裝有一組傳感器。

Without SOFIA's penetrating gaze, much of the details at the heart of our galaxy would be concealed by the dense, light-blocking clouds that dominate the region. The image even reveals clouds of material being hoovered into the galaxy's black hole-in-residence: Sagittarius A*.

如果沒有索菲亞敏銳的目光，我們銀河系中心的許多細(xì)節(jié)將會被籠罩在這一區(qū)域的濃密、遮光的云層所掩蓋。這張照片甚至揭示了被吸入星系黑洞的物質(zhì)云:人馬座A*。

"It's incredible to see our galactic center in detail we've never seen before," James Radomski, a scientists at SOFIA notes in the release. "Studying this area has been like trying to assemble a puzzle with missing pieces. The SOFIA data fills in some of the holes, putting us significantly closer to having a complete picture."

索菲亞的科學(xué)家詹姆斯·拉多姆斯基在新聞稿中寫道:“看到我們從未見過的銀河系中心的細(xì)節(jié)，真是令人難以置信。”“研究這一領(lǐng)域就像用缺失的碎片拼湊拼圖。索菲亞的數(shù)據(jù)填補(bǔ)了一些漏洞，使我們更接近完整的圖像。”

To fill in that picture even further, astronomers once again turn to the telescope of tomorrow: The James Webb Space Satellite. Already fully assembled, the all-seeing eye is expected to launch in March 2021. Once in orbit, its powerful sensors will be able to draw back the cosmic curtain even further than the pioneering Hubble Space Telescope.

為了進(jìn)一步完善這一理論，天文學(xué)家們再次求助于未來的望遠(yuǎn)鏡:詹姆斯·韋伯太空衛(wèi)星。已經(jīng)完全組裝完畢的全視之眼預(yù)計(jì)將于2021年3月推出。一旦進(jìn)入軌道，它強(qiáng)大的傳感器將能夠拉開宇宙的帷幕，甚至比開創(chuàng)性的哈勃太空望遠(yuǎn)鏡還要遠(yuǎn)。

And unravelling the mystery of our own cosmic heart could also help us understand the inner workings of much more distant galaxies.

解開我們自己的宇宙之心的奧秘也可以幫助我們了解更遙遠(yuǎn)星系的內(nèi)部運(yùn)作。

"Understanding how massive star birth happens at the center of our own galaxy gives us information that can help us learn about other, more distant galaxies," principal investigator Matthew Hankins of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, explains in the statement. "Using multiple telescopes gives us clues we need to understand these processes, and there's still more to be uncovered."

位于加州帕薩迪納市的加州理工學(xué)院的首席研究員馬修·漢金斯在聲明中解釋說:“了解銀河系中心的大質(zhì)量恒星是如何誕生的，可以為我們提供信息，幫助我們了解其他更遠(yuǎn)的星系。”“使用多個(gè)望遠(yuǎn)鏡為我們提供了了解這些過程所需的線索，還有更多的東西有待發(fā)現(xiàn)。”