天文学家发现古老超新星的秘密.docVIP

Astronomers Discover Secrets About Ancient Supernovae 天文学家发现古老超新星的秘密 In 2006 and 2007, astronomers associated with the Supernova Legacy Survey discovered two of the brightest supernovae ever seen. So big, in fact, that initially it wasn’t clear what they were or how far away they were at first. 在2006年和2007年，超新星信息巡天项目（SNLS）的天文学家们发现了两颗迄今为止最明亮的超新星。事实上，它们非常大，以至于天文学家一开始没能搞清它们是什么，或者它们离我们有多远。 SNLS-06D4eu“At first, we had no idea what these things were, even whether they were supernovae or whether they were in our galaxy or a distant one, ” said scientist D. Andrew Howell in a press release. “一开始，我们不知道那些东西是什么，甚至不能确定它们是否是超新星，也不知道它们是在银河系还是在河外星系。”科学家安德鲁·豪威尔（D. Andrew Howell）在一份新闻稿中这样说道。 Howell is the lead author of a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, where he and a team of researchers were finally able to uncover more about these two mysterious supernovae. 豪威尔是《天文物理期刊》（Astrophysical Journal）所发表的一篇新论文的主要作者，他跟一队研究人员最终发现了关于这两颗超新星的更多秘密。 What they discovered is that these two supernovae exploded before our Sun was even born – they’re located 10 billion light years away. In fact, they’re a type of supernova that might not be able to form anymore – “a relic of an earlier form of supernovae that is all but extinct today, ” the authors wrote in the paper. 他们发现，这两颗超新星早在我们太阳诞生之前就已经爆发——它们距离我们有100亿光年之遥。事实上，这种超新星可能已经无法再形成了——“（它们是）如今已经‘灭绝’的较早一类超新星的遗迹。”研究人员在论文中写道。 The reason why they’re extinct is because the environments where they formed in early universe were a lot different from those in the universe as we know it today. 这种超新星“灭绝”的原因在于，它们得以在其中形成的早期宇宙环境跟我们如今所知的宇宙环境已经大不相同了。 “These environments would have been common in the early universe, where the star formation rate was an order of magnitude higher than it is today, and the build-up of metals had not yet reached present-day levels, ” the researchers wrote in the paper. “那些环境在早期宇宙中非常常见，那时恒星的形成率要比现在高一个数量级，而且金属元素的积累尚未达到如今的水平。”研究人员在论文中写道。 According to the astronomers, these supernovae probably mark the creation of magnetars –