CNN News：萬年罕見現(xiàn)象

In terms of volume, which of these space objects is believed to be the smallest?

下列哪些空間物體，體積最小?

Aldebaran, mercury, the moon, or a neutron star?

畢宿五，水星，月球還是中子星?

Though their mass is incredibly dense, neutron stars are estimated to measure only around 12 miles in diameter.

雖然它們的質(zhì)量密度極高，但據(jù)估計(jì)，中子星直徑僅有約12英里。

AZUZ: Scientists worldwide are excited over a recent discovery that was just announced on Monday. It took place in a galaxy not far, far away.

阿祖茲：世界各地的科學(xué)家都對周一剛剛宣布的發(fā)現(xiàn)感到興奮。它發(fā)生在不遠(yuǎn)的一個星系里。

It’s illustrated in this animation.

動畫中進(jìn)行了演示。

Researchers say it involved two neutron stars, relatively small stars, with diameters that might be the size of a city, but they’re believed to be incredibly dense, with masses that are bigger than that of our sun.

研究人員表示，這其中涉及了兩個中子星，相對而言，中子星比較小，直徑可能只是一個城市的大小，但是科學(xué)家認(rèn)為中子星的密度極大，其質(zhì)量甚至超過我們的太陽。

What astronomers saw was a bright blue burst, believed to be when the two stars that faded to a deep red color. And though the observation was made on August 17th, researches say the collision actually happened 130 million years ago, that it took that long for the event’s light and gravitational waves to reach Earth.

天文學(xué)家所看到的是明亮的藍(lán)色爆炸光，天文學(xué)家認(rèn)為這是兩個恒星碰撞消失后變成深紅色所發(fā)生的。盡管天文學(xué)家于8月17日觀測到了這一現(xiàn)象，但是研究人員表示，碰撞實(shí)際上是發(fā)生在1.3億年前，需要花費(fèi)很長的時間，光和引力波才到達(dá)了地球。

So, why all the excitement? Well, this isn’t seen often. Collisions like this are calculated to occur less than a hundred times every million years.

那么科學(xué)家為何如此激動呢?因?yàn)榇朔N現(xiàn)象并不常見。據(jù)估計(jì)，這種碰撞現(xiàn)象每100萬年發(fā)生的次數(shù)還不到100次。

So, scientists say it’s the discovery of a lifetime and that it’s created new theories and mysteries about the universe.

所以，科學(xué)家們表示這是一生的發(fā)現(xiàn)，它創(chuàng)造了關(guān)于宇宙的新理論和奧秘。