極其罕見(jiàn)的雙黑洞和三黑洞

三個(gè)巨大的黑洞在碰撞過(guò)程中被強(qiáng)烈的輝光所識(shí)別

An intense glow has helped in revealing the location of three gigantic black holes set on a collision course.

強(qiáng)烈的輝光有助于揭示三個(gè)巨大黑洞在碰撞過(guò)程中的位置。

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal says astronomers were searching for pairs of black holes when they "stumbled" upon three galaxies on a collision course. Each galaxy has a black hole at its centre.

發(fā)表在《天體物理學(xué)雜志》上的一項(xiàng)新研究說(shuō)，天文學(xué)家在尋找成對(duì)的黑洞時(shí)，在碰撞過(guò)程中“偶然”發(fā)現(xiàn)了三個(gè)星系。每個(gè)星系的中心都有一個(gè)黑洞。

They're a billion light-years away from Earth and were only discovered when researchers combined a range of data from terrestrial and space telescopes.

它們距離地球有10億光年，只有當(dāng)研究人員結(jié)合地面和太空望遠(yuǎn)鏡的一系列數(shù)據(jù)后才被發(fā)現(xiàn)。

Data revealed several telltale signs of the presence of black holes at the centre of each of the merging galaxies. For example, the system was glowing intensely in infrared light during a phase where one of the black holes was likely feeding on cosmic gas. Large amounts of gas and dust were also detected - typical around black holes.

數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在每一個(gè)合并星系的中心都有黑洞存在的跡象。例如，在一個(gè)黑洞可能以宇宙氣體為食的階段，這個(gè)系統(tǒng)在紅外光下發(fā)出強(qiáng)烈的光。在典型的黑洞周?chē)?，也探測(cè)到大量的氣體和塵埃。

Normally the gas and dust blocks out light coming from supermassive blackholes, but the researchers got around that by looking at infrared and x-ray images.

通常情況下，氣體和塵埃會(huì)阻擋來(lái)自超大質(zhì)量黑洞的光線(xiàn)，但研究人員通過(guò)觀察紅外和X射線(xiàn)圖像來(lái)解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

Infrared and x-ray light can get through clouds of gas and dust more easily than optical light.

紅外線(xiàn)和X射線(xiàn)比光更容易穿透氣體和塵埃云。

"Through the use of these major observatories, we have identified a new way of identifying triple supermassive black holes," said co-author Ryan Pfeifle of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

弗吉尼亞州費(fèi)爾法克斯市喬治梅森大學(xué)的合作者瑞安·普菲弗說(shuō)：“通過(guò)使用這些主要的觀測(cè)站，我們找到了一種識(shí)別三重超大質(zhì)量黑洞的新方法。”

"We hope to extend our work to find more triples using the same technique."

“我們希望擴(kuò)展我們的工作，用同樣的技術(shù)找到更多的三元組。”

Shobita Satyapal, another author of the study: "Dual and triple black holes are exceedingly rare but such systems are actually a natural consequence of galaxy mergers, which we think is how galaxies grow and evolve."

這項(xiàng)研究的另一位作者肖比塔·薩蒂亞帕爾說(shuō)：“雙黑洞和三黑洞極其罕見(jiàn)，但這樣的系統(tǒng)實(shí)際上是星系合并的自然結(jié)果，我們認(rèn)為這就是星系生長(zhǎng)和演化的方式。”

Computer simulations found that about 16 percent of pairs of black holes will have interacted with a third before merging.

計(jì)算機(jī)模擬發(fā)現(xiàn)，大約16%的雙黑洞在合并前會(huì)與第三個(gè)黑洞相互作用。