□ 曹 燕

雙語(yǔ)小知識(shí)（四）

□ 曹 燕

The Stinger 尖刺

The celestial scorpion has a potent stinger. The two stars at the end of its tail — the stars that mark the stinger — are bright, big, and heavy. And at least one of them is likely to suffer a sting of its own: it’ll explode as a supernova. In fact, it may explode twice.

天空中的蝎子有著強(qiáng)有力的尖刺。天蝎座尾巴尖兒上的兩顆星——兩顆標(biāo)志著尖刺的恒星——它們明亮、巨大而沉重。至少，它們中的一顆很可能忍受著它自己的叮咬：它將以超新星的形式爆發(fā)。實(shí)際上，它很可能會(huì)爆發(fā)兩次。

The stars are known as Lambda and Upsilon Scorpii. Lambda is the brighter of the two, with Upsilon close to the right.

這兩顆恒星也被稱為尾宿八和尾宿九。尾宿八是兩者中更亮的一顆，尾宿九緊鄰其右。

Upsilon is perhaps 10 or 11 times the mass of the Sun — quite hefty by stellar standards. And Lambda consists of at least three stars. The main star is a little heavier than Upsilon, while another is quite similar to Upsilon.

尾宿九可能10或11倍于太陽(yáng)質(zhì)量——這對(duì)于恒星的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)來(lái)講是非常重的。尾宿八至少由三顆恒星組成。主星比尾宿九稍微重一些，而另一顆和尾宿九接近。

The stars of the stinger are probably just 10 million to 15 million years old — a tiny fraction of the age of the Sun. Yet they’re already nearing the ends of their lives. As they get closer to the end, they’ll puff up, getting much bigger and brighter.

尖刺上的恒星們大約有1000萬(wàn)到1500萬(wàn)歲了——這與太陽(yáng)年齡相比微不足道。盡管如此，它們已接近生命的盡頭了。當(dāng)行將就木時(shí)，它們會(huì)膨脹起來(lái)，變得更大、更亮。

2011年7月底攝于壩上草原的天蝎座照片，圖片拍攝：李昕。

Before long, though, each star will reach a stage where it can no longer produce nuclear reactions in its core. The core will collapse. Then, if the star is heavy enough, its outer layers will blast into space, forming a titanic explosion known as a supernova.

不久之后，每顆恒星都將面臨內(nèi)核不能繼續(xù)進(jìn)行核反應(yīng)的階段。內(nèi)核將坍塌。之后，如果恒星足夠重，它的外層將向宇宙空間爆炸，形成被稱為超新星的巨大爆炸。

That’s almost certainly the fate of the brighter star of Lambda Scorpii. And depending on their exact masses, it could also be the fate of Lambda’s other bright star, and of Upsilon as well— creating a series of blasts that could briefly increase the“sting” of the scorpion.

這幾乎是尾宿八中較亮的恒星不可逃避的命運(yùn)?；诖_切質(zhì)量，這可能也是尾宿八其他亮星的命運(yùn)，尾宿九也是一樣——產(chǎn)生能夠短時(shí)間加強(qiáng)天蝎“尖刺”的一系列爆炸。

Delta Scorpii 房宿三

Delta Scorpii is an intriguing system. Its main star is only about 10 million years old — a mere infant on the stellar timescale. Yet it’s also about 13 times as massive as the Sun. Such heavy stars “burn” their nuclear fuel in a hurry, so they age much faster than smaller stars. So Delta Scorpii’s main star is already nearing the end of its normal lifetime.

房宿三是一個(gè)迷人的系統(tǒng)，其主要恒星的年齡只有大約1000萬(wàn)歲——這在恒星的時(shí)間坐標(biāo)里只不過是一個(gè)小嬰兒。盡管如此，它也有大約13倍于太陽(yáng)的質(zhì)量。如此之重的恒星極速“燃燒”它們的核燃料，因而它們比個(gè)頭兒小的恒星“老”得快。也因?yàn)槿绱?，房宿三的主星也接近它正常壽命的盡頭。

在宇宙塵埃云的映襯下，房宿三（右側(cè)稍低的那顆）顯得格外炫目。圖片來(lái)源：NASA，John Davis

The star is spinning rapidly, so it’s throwing off a lot of hot gas, which cools and condenses to make tiny grains of dust. These grains form a disk that’s at least 125 million miles wide.

這顆恒星正在高速旋轉(zhuǎn)，所以正在拋出很多能夠冷卻、濃縮成細(xì)小塵埃顆粒的熾熱氣體。這些顆粒形成至少1.25億英里寬的盤。

The star and a companion follow an elongated orbit around each other. At their closest, they almost touch. That appears to cause the system to flare brightly. In fact, during the two most recent encounters, Delta Scorpii jumped to almost twice its normal brightness.

這顆恒星和它的伙伴沿著被拉長(zhǎng)的軌道繞彼此運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。在它們最接近的時(shí)候，它們幾乎可以相觸碰。這就導(dǎo)致系統(tǒng)出現(xiàn)了明亮的耀斑。實(shí)際上，在最近兩次碰面時(shí)，房宿三飆升到正常亮度的近2倍。

Over the next few million years, the main star will puff up to enormous proportions, so it’ll shine many times brighter still. After that, it’s likely to explode as a supernova— briefly giving the scorpion a big head.

幾百萬(wàn)年之后，這顆主要恒星將腫脹到非常巨大的規(guī)模，所以它將會(huì)變亮許多倍。在此之后，它可能會(huì)爆炸成一顆超新星——短暫地給予天蝎一顆碩大的頭顱。

Butterfly Nebula蝴蝶星云

The scorpion is one of the most unappealing creatures on the planet. The celestial scorpion, however, offers one of the most appealing creatures in the galaxy: the Butterfly Nebula. This amazing structure emerged from its cocoon about 2,000 years ago as seen from Earth. Today, its colorful wings spread across more than two light-years.

蝎子是全世界最不能打動(dòng)人的生物了。但是，天空中的天蝎座卻提供了銀河系最引人入勝的生物之一：蝴蝶星云。從地球上看，這一令人贊嘆的構(gòu)造在2000年前破繭而出?，F(xiàn)在，它色彩斑斕的翅膀漫卷了超過2光年的距離。

The “wings” are big bubbles of gas and dust. They once formed the outer layers of a star that was heavier than the Sun. The star’s hot but dead core sits at the center of the nebula.

“翅膀們”是氣體和塵埃組成的巨大泡泡。它們?cè)?jīng)組成了一顆比太陽(yáng)還重的恒星外層。那顆恒星熾熱但沒有生命力的內(nèi)核居于星云的中心位置。

Until the last couple of thousand years, the core generated energy through nuclear fusion. Today, though, that process has stopped. The leftover core, which is about two-thirds as massive as the Sun, shines perhaps 2,000 times brighter than the Sun. And its surface is hundreds of thousands of degrees hotter than the Sun’s.

直到最近幾千年，內(nèi)核以核聚變的方式發(fā)出能量。當(dāng)然，如今，這一進(jìn)程停止了。殘余的內(nèi)核，大約有太陽(yáng)的三分之二那么多質(zhì)量，發(fā)出了比太陽(yáng)亮大約2000倍的光。它的表面也比太陽(yáng)熱成千上萬(wàn)度。

展開翅膀的蝴蝶絢麗奪目。圖片來(lái)源：NASA, ESA, 以及哈勃SM4 ERO團(tuán)隊(duì)，后期制作及版權(quán)：Francesco Antonucci

But the dying core may be fading by as much as one percent per year. And it will continue to cool and fade rapidly over the next few millennia. At the end of that time, the core will be a white dwarf — a dense ball not much bigger than Earth. By then, the surrounding butterfly will begin to fade, destroying a bit of beauty in the celestial scorpion.

但是，將死的內(nèi)核可能以大概每年百分之一的速度衰退。在未來(lái)的幾千年里，它將繼續(xù)變冷并迅速衰退。到最后，內(nèi)核將變成白矮星——一個(gè)密度很高但比地球大不了多少的圓球。屆時(shí)，圍繞它的蝴蝶將開始凋零，綻放于天蝎中的美麗將被摧毀。

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