“營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良”的黑洞打破了所有規(guī)則

“營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良”黑洞打破了所有規(guī)則

Black holes don't give up their secrets easily.

黑洞不容易泄露它們的秘密。

Researchers used Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph to observe matter swirling deep inside the disk. (Photo: NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi, A. Laor and M. Chiaberge)

Despite decades of scientific speculation, we didn't even lay eyes on one until earlier this year when astronomers finally captured an image of Powehi — an apt Hawaiian term meaning "adorned fathomless dark creation."

盡管經(jīng)過(guò)了幾十年的科學(xué)推測(cè)，直到今年早些時(shí)候天文學(xué)家們終于捕捉到波伊希的圖像，我們才真正看到了它。波伊希是夏威夷語(yǔ)，意思是“裝飾著深不見(jiàn)底的黑暗造物”。

And now, scientists have detected another supermassive black hole that's even more "fathomless." In fact, it breaks the few rules we expect even black holes to abide by.

現(xiàn)在，科學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了另一個(gè)超大質(zhì)量的黑洞，它甚至更加“深不可測(cè)”。事實(shí)上，它打破了我們所期望的即使是黑洞也能遵守的一些規(guī)則。

The light-sucking anomaly, described in a newly published study, lies at the heart of spiral galaxy NGC 3147, about 130 million light-years from where you're currently sitting. This supermassive black hole is very hungry. In fact, researchers say it's malnourished because it can't find enough material to hoover into its gaping maw.

在最新發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究中描述了這一吸光異常現(xiàn)象，它位于螺旋星系NGC 3147的中心，距離你現(xiàn)在所在的位置約1.3億光年。這個(gè)超大質(zhì)量黑洞非常饑餓。事實(shí)上，研究人員說(shuō)它營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良是因?yàn)樗也坏阶銐虻奈镔|(zhì)吸進(jìn)張開(kāi)的胃里。

And yet, despite lean offerings at the galactic buffet, this hungry hippo has a flat, compact disk of matter embedded in its gravitational field. The matter is whirling around 3147's black hole at a frantic pace of about a 10th of the speed of light.

然而，盡管銀河自助餐提供的食物不多，這個(gè)饑餓的黑洞卻有一個(gè)扁平的、緊湊的物質(zhì)圓盤(pán)，嵌在它的引力場(chǎng)中。該物質(zhì)正以約為光速十分之一的瘋狂速度圍繞著3147的黑洞旋轉(zhuǎn)。

An artist's rendering of the black hole in galaxy NGC 3147. (Photo: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild and L. Hustak)

As NASA explains in a press release, that kind of disk typically accompanies an engorged black hole — one that's getting plenty of nourishment from its surroundings. And yet, this black hole, despite having about 250 million times the mass of our sun, is faint and famished.

正如美國(guó)宇航局在一份新聞稿中解釋的那樣，這種圓盤(pán)通常伴隨著一個(gè)膨脹的黑洞——一個(gè)從周?chē)h(huán)境中獲得大量營(yíng)養(yǎng)的黑洞。然而，盡管這個(gè)黑洞的質(zhì)量是我們太陽(yáng)的2.5億倍，它仍然虛弱而饑餓。

Indeed, it took a very close scan by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph to even detect its presence.

事實(shí)上，哈勃太空望遠(yuǎn)鏡的成像光譜儀對(duì)它進(jìn)行了非常近距離的掃描，甚至發(fā)現(xiàn)了它的存在。

"Without Hubble, we wouldn't have been able to see this because the black-hole region has a low luminosity," noted study co-author Marco Chiaberge of the European Space Agency in the NASA release. "The luminosities of the stars in the galaxy outshine anything in the nucleus. So if you observe it from the ground, you're dominated by the brightness of the stars, which drowns the feeble emission from the nucleus."

“如果沒(méi)有哈勃，我們就不可能看到這一點(diǎn)，因?yàn)楹诙磪^(qū)域的光度很低，”研究報(bào)告的合著者、歐洲航天局的馬可·基亞伯吉在NASA的新聞稿中指出。“星系中恒星的亮度比原子核中的任何東西都要亮。所以，如果你從地面上觀察它，你就會(huì)被恒星的亮度所控制，而恒星的亮度掩蓋了原子核發(fā)出的微弱輻射。”

For answers, not surprisingly, we may have to turn, yet again, to Albert Einstein. Specifically, researchers want to test his theories of relativity on the galactic carnivore. The brilliant and much-misquoted German physicist did, after all, predict black holes existed long before we found them.

為了尋找答案，我們可能不得不再次求助于阿爾伯特•愛(ài)因斯坦，這并不奇怪。具體來(lái)說(shuō)，研究人員想要在銀河食肉動(dòng)物身上驗(yàn)證他的相對(duì)論。畢竟，這位才華橫溢的德國(guó)物理學(xué)家確實(shí)在我們發(fā)現(xiàn)黑洞之前很久就預(yù)言過(guò)黑洞的存在。

His theories of relativity, when tested on this black hole's unlikely gas disk, could give astronomers an unprecedented glimpse into the previously "fathomless" processes that occur close to a black hole.

當(dāng)他的相對(duì)論在這個(gè)不太可能存在的黑洞的氣盤(pán)上進(jìn)行測(cè)試時(shí)，可能會(huì)讓天文學(xué)家們對(duì)以前發(fā)生在黑洞附近的“深不可測(cè)”的過(guò)程有一個(gè)前所未有的了解。

"This is an intriguing peek at a disk very close to a black hole, so close that the velocities and the intensity of the gravitational pull are affecting how the photons of light look," noted study co-author Stefano Bianchi of Italy's Roma Tre University in the release. "We cannot understand the data unless we include the theories of relativity."

意大利羅馬特雷大學(xué)的研究合作者斯特凡諾·比安奇在研究報(bào)告中指出:“這是對(duì)一個(gè)非常接近黑洞圓盤(pán)的一次有趣的觀察，它離黑洞如此之近，以至于速度和引力的強(qiáng)度正在影響光子的形狀。”“如果不依靠相對(duì)論，我們就無(wú)法理解這些數(shù)據(jù)。”

It seems this black hole may defy most current astronomical theories. It may even defy the rules of existence itself. But we'll have to wait and see if it can defy Einstein.

這個(gè)黑洞似乎與目前大多數(shù)天文學(xué)理論相悖。它甚至可能違背存在本身的規(guī)則。但我們必須拭目以待，看它能否挑戰(zhàn)愛(ài)因斯坦。