黑洞為宇宙中最明亮的物體提供能量，那么為什么我們的宇宙如此平靜呢?

黑洞為宇宙中最明亮的物體提供能量，那么為什么我們的宇宙如此平靜呢?

Despite their reputation as all-consuming voids of darkness, it might come as a surprise to learn that black holes are responsible for the brightest known phenomena in the universe. This remarkable contrast is possible because of the violent forces that black holes generate, ripping apart all matter that approaches and turning gas clouds into searing beacons of light.

盡管黑洞被認(rèn)為是吞噬一切的黑暗空間，但當(dāng)我們得知黑洞是宇宙中最明亮的現(xiàn)象的成因時(shí)，也許會感到驚訝。這種顯著的對比是可能的，因?yàn)楹诙串a(chǎn)生的強(qiáng)烈的力量，撕裂所有接近的物質(zhì)，并把氣體云變成灼熱的光信標(biāo)。

An artist's concept illustrating a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. (Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech [public domain]/Wikimedia Commons)

Sometimes, these light shows can be on an order of magnitude that's difficult to comprehend. On July 31, 2019, NASA's Spitzer telescope captured an orbital clash between two black holes that generated an explosion of light brighter than that of a trillion stars or more than twice the brightness of our own Milky Way galaxy!

有時(shí)，這些光的展示可能是一個(gè)難以理解的數(shù)量級。在2019年7月31日，美國宇航局的斯皮策望遠(yuǎn)鏡捕捉到兩個(gè)黑洞之間的軌道碰撞，產(chǎn)生了比一萬億顆恒星更亮的爆炸光，或比我們自己的銀河系亮度的兩倍還多!

A hungry cosmic furnace

饑餓的宇宙熔爐

Black holes are capable of generating these light shows due to the way they wreak havoc on everything that dares come too close to their sphere of influence. As matter and gas swirls towards the black hole's center, it forms an accretion disc where particles heat up to millions of degrees. This ionized matter is then ejected as twin beams along the axis of rotation.

黑洞之所以能夠產(chǎn)生這些光的顯示，是因?yàn)樗鼈儗θ魏胃医咏鋭萘Ψ秶氖挛锒歼M(jìn)行了破壞。當(dāng)物質(zhì)和氣體向黑洞中心旋轉(zhuǎn)時(shí)，它會形成一個(gè)吸積盤，其中的粒子會被加熱到數(shù)百萬度。然后，這種離子化物質(zhì)以雙光束的形式沿旋轉(zhuǎn)軸噴射出去。

Depending on our perspective from Earth, the jets are either known as a quasar (viewed at an angle to Earth), a blazar (pointed directly at Earth), or a radio galaxy (viewed perpendicular to Earth). Either way, these light shows — which are the absolute brightest known — and their accompanying radio emissions help researchers discover new black holes that might otherwise go undetected.

根據(jù)我們從地球的角度來看，這些噴流要么被稱為類星體(從與地球的角度觀察)，要么被稱為布拉澤(直接指向地球)，要么被稱為射電星系(從與地球垂直的角度觀察)。不管怎樣，這些絕對是已知的最亮的光顯示，以及伴隨的無線電輻射幫助研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了新的黑洞，否則這些黑洞可能無法被探測到。

SOFIA may offer answers

SOFIA可能會給出答案

Streamlines showing magnetic fields layered over a color image of the dusty ring around the Milky Way’s massive black hole. (Photo: Dust and magnetic fields: NASA/SOFIA; Star field image: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope)

One recent upgrade that may explain the relative quiet at the center of our galaxy is the new High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (HAWC+) that was added last summer to NASA's Stratospheric Observatory developed for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

最近的一次升級或許可以解釋我們星系中心相對安靜的原因，那就是去年夏天NASA為紅外天文學(xué)開發(fā)的平流層觀測站(SOFIA)增加了新的高分辨率機(jī)載寬帶攝像+ (HAWC+)。

The HAWC+ is capable of measuring the powerful magnetic fields generated by black holes with extreme sensitivity. When it was pointed at Sagittarius A*, researchers discovered that the shape and power of its magnetic field is likely pushing gas into an orbit around it; therefore keeping the gas from feeding into its center and triggering a steady glow.

HAWC+能夠以極高的靈敏度測量黑洞產(chǎn)生的強(qiáng)大磁場。當(dāng)它被指向人馬座A*時(shí)，研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)，它的磁場的形狀和功率很可能將氣體推入圍繞它的軌道;因此，防止氣體進(jìn)入其中心并觸發(fā)穩(wěn)定的輝光。

"The spiral shape of the magnetic field channels the gas into an orbit around the black hole," said Darren Dowell, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, principal investigator for the HAWC+ instrument, and lead author of the study, said in a statement. "This could explain why our black hole is quiet while others are active."

“磁場的螺旋形狀引導(dǎo)氣體進(jìn)入黑洞周圍的軌道，”NASA噴氣推進(jìn)實(shí)驗(yàn)室的科學(xué)家達(dá)倫·道爾在一份聲明中說。他是HAWC+探測器的首席研究員，也是這項(xiàng)研究的第一作者。“這可以解釋為什么我們的黑洞是安靜的，而其他的是活躍的。”

Researchers hope instruments like HAWC+, as well as increased observations from the global Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), might help shed further light on one of our galaxy's most mysterious objects.

研究人員希望，像HAWC+這樣的儀器，以及來自全球視界望遠(yuǎn)鏡(EHT)的更多觀測結(jié)果，可能有助于進(jìn)一步了解我們銀河系最神秘的物體之一。

"This is one of the first instances where we can really see how magnetic fields and interstellar matter interact with each other," added Joan Schmelz, Universities Space Research Center astrophysicist at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, and a co-author on a paper describing the observations. "HAWC+ is a game-changer."

加州硅谷NASA艾姆斯研究中心的大學(xué)空間研究中心天體物理學(xué)家瓊·施梅爾茲補(bǔ)充說:“這是我們能夠真正看到磁場和星際物質(zhì)如何相互作用的首批實(shí)例之一。HAWC+將改變游戲規(guī)則。”