天文學(xué)家首次觀測到三個黑洞的合并

天文學(xué)家首次觀測到三個黑洞的合并

A trio of monster black holes have been spotted crashing into each other.

三個巨型黑洞在相互碰撞。

The galactic fracas is taking place 300 million light-years from Earth and will lead to the birth of a single, mega black hole.

銀河系的混亂發(fā)生在離地球3億光年的地方，這將導(dǎo)致一個巨型黑洞的誕生。

Scientists in Germany discovered the rare event within NGC 6240, a well-studied nearby galaxy.

德國科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了NGC 6240星系內(nèi)的罕見事件。

The black holes are close to each other at the core of the system and shed light on how massive galaxies are born.

這些黑洞在星系的核心位置相互靠近，揭示了巨大的星系是如何誕生的。

“Up until now, such a concentration of three supermassive black holes had never been discovered in the universe,” said Dr. Peter Weilbacher, of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam.

波茨坦萊布尼茨天體物理研究所的彼得·威爾巴赫博士說:“到目前為止，在宇宙中還從未發(fā)現(xiàn)過三個如此密集的超大質(zhì)量黑洞。”

“The present case provides evidence of a simultaneous merging process of three galaxies along with their central black holes.”

“目前的情況提供了三個星系及其中心黑洞同時合并過程的證據(jù)。”

Astronomers used the Very Large Telescope in Chile to make their discovery.

天文學(xué)家使用智利的超大望遠(yuǎn)鏡獲得了這一發(fā)現(xiàn)。

The NGC 6240 galaxy is relatively close to our own Milky Way in space terms and has an odd shape.

NGC 6240星系在空間上與我們的銀河系比較接近，而且形狀奇特。

Galaxies are often made up of hundreds of billions of stars locked in an orbital dance with a supermassive black hole at the core.

星系通常由幾千億顆恒星組成，它們被鎖在軌道上，在核心處有一個超大質(zhì)量黑洞。

It had long been assumed NGC 6240 formed when two smaller galaxies collided, leaving it with a pair of black holes – hence the odd shape.

長期以來，人們一直認(rèn)為NGC 6240是由兩個較小的星系碰撞產(chǎn)生的，碰撞后留下了一對黑洞，因此形成了奇怪的形狀。

However, the new observations revealed the galaxy, in fact, had three black holes crammed into its violent core.

然而，新的觀測結(jié)果表明，事實上，在這個星系的猛烈的核心中有三個黑洞。

“Through our observations with extremely high spatial resolution we were able to show that NGC 6240 hosts not two but three supermassive black holes in its center,” said Professor Wolfram Kollatschny, an astronomer at the University of Göttingen.

哥廷根大學(xué)的天文學(xué)家Wolfram Kollatschny教授說:“通過我們的高空間分辨率觀測，我們能夠證明NGC 6240的中心不是兩個而是三個超大質(zhì)量黑洞。”

“Each of the three heavyweights has a mass of more than 90 million suns.

這三個重量級的行星都有超過9000萬個太陽的質(zhì)量。

“They are located in a region of space less than 3,000 light-years across, i.e. in less than one-hundredth of the total size of the galaxy.”

“它們所處的空間跨度不到3000光年，不到整個銀河系的百分之一。”

According to the team, the discovery opens new doors for our understanding of the universe.

據(jù)研究小組稱，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)為我們理解宇宙打開了新的大門。

Up until now, scientists had not been able to explain how the biggest galaxies in the universe evolved through the space processes we know and understand.

到目前為止，科學(xué)家們還不能解釋宇宙中最大的星系是如何通過我們所知道和理解的空間過程而進化的。

This puzzle could be solved if it’s proved that three or more supermassive black holes can merge into a single entity.

如果能證明三個或更多的超大質(zhì)量黑洞可以合并成一個實體，這個難題就可以解決。

“If simultaneous merging processes of several galaxies took place, then the largest galaxies with their central supermassive black holes were able to evolve much faster,” Dr Weilbacher added.

“如果同時發(fā)生幾個星系的合并過程，那么最大的星系和它們的中心超大質(zhì)量黑洞就能夠進化得更快，”威爾巴赫博士補充說。

“Our observations provide the first indication of this scenario.”

“我們的觀察為這種情況提供了第一個跡象。”

The study was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

這項研究發(fā)表在《天文學(xué)與天體物理學(xué)》雜志上。