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Scientists recently observed an extremely powerful explosion coming from an ancient galaxy.
科学家最近观测到一次来自一个古老星系的威力极其强大的爆炸。
The astronomers suspect the gamma ray burst they saw was the result of two neutron stars crashing into each other.
天文学家怀疑他们看到的伽玛射线暴是两颗中子星相互碰撞的结果。
Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars that have collapsed into themselves.
中子星是大质量恒星坍缩后的残骸。
They are small in size but extremely heavy.
它们的体积很小，但非常重。
The stars are in an area dense with space objects near a supermassive black hole at the center of their galaxy.
这些恒星所在的星系中心有一个超大质量黑洞，附近有密集的太空物体。
"In order to explain the gamma-ray burst, it has to have been a compact star, so not one like the sun," said study lead writer astronomer Andrew Levan of Radboud University in The Netherlands.
研究报告的主要作者、荷兰拉德堡德大学天文学家安德鲁·莱文说：“为了解释伽玛射线暴，它必须是一颗致密恒星，所以不是像太阳那样的恒星”。
The study appeared in the publication Nature Astronomy.
这项研究发表在《自然·天文学》杂志上。
Scientist Wen-fai Fong of Northwestern University in Illinois co-wrote the study.
伊利诺伊州西北大学的科学家方文辉参与了这项研究。
"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe," she noted.
她指出：“伽玛射线暴是宇宙中最强的爆炸”。
The researchers said that gravitational forces from the black hole may cause nearby objects to move around a lot, increasing the chance of collision.
研究人员表示，来自黑洞的引力可能会导致附近的物体大量移动，从而增加碰撞的机会。
When very massive stars, those more than 10 times larger than the sun, die in explosions, they can become neutron stars or even black holes.
当比太阳大10倍以上的超大质量恒星在爆炸中死亡时，它们可能会变成中子星甚至黑洞。
Smaller stars like the sun leave behind what are called white dwarves.
像太阳这样较小的恒星会留下白矮星。
These new observations show another path to star death.
这些新的观测结果表明了恒星死亡的另一种途径。
In Nature Astronomy, Levan said, "The idea that stars also can die through collisions in extremely dense regions has been around since at least the 1980s. So we've been waiting for 40 years for the signatures to be found observationally."
在《自然·天文学》杂志上，莱文说：“至少从20世纪80年代起，恒星也可能会在密度极高的区域因碰撞而死亡的想法就一直存在。因此，我们已经等了40年，等待通过观测发现这些特征。”
Scientists used the data from different telescopes to study the gamma-ray bursts, which took place over 3 billion light years away.
科学家使用来自不同望远镜的数据来研究发生在30亿光年之外的伽玛射线暴。
A light year is about 9.5 trillion kilometers.
一光年约为9.5万亿公里。
Most of the galaxy's stars are billions of years old.
银河系中的大多数恒星都有数十亿年的历史。
Fong wrote: "The galaxy is what we call a 'quiescent' - a galaxy that is not actively forming stars at a high rate…."
方写道：“这个星系是我们所说的‘静止’星系——一个不以高速率活跃地形成恒星的星系。”
Quiescent galaxies have supermassive black holes in their center, where many collisions take place.
静止星系的中心有超大质量的黑洞，在那里发生了许多碰撞。
Levan said: "You certainly wouldn't want a front-row seat to one of these events."
莱文说：“你肯定不想坐在前排观看这样的活动。”
I'm Dominic Varela.
多米尼克·瓦雷拉为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
