獵戶座中巨大的“參宿四”恒星即將爆炸成為超新星

獵戶座中巨大的“參宿四”恒星即將爆炸成為超新星

Orion is one of the most well-known constellations across the universe — but the mythical warrior may be missing his right shoulder before long.

獵戶座是宇宙中最著名的星座之一，但神話中的勇士可能不久就會(huì)失去右肩。

The giant red star known as Betelgeuse, situated almost perpendicular to Orion’s belt, has rapidly dimmed since October. By mid-December, the once shining star, usually among the top 10 brightest stars in the sky, had plummeted out of the top 20, reported Villanova University’s Edward Guinan in an Astronomer’s Telegram.

這顆被稱為參宿四的巨大紅星幾乎垂直于獵戶座的腰帶，自去年10月以來(lái)迅速變暗。維拉諾瓦大學(xué)(Villanova University)的愛(ài)德華·吉南(Edward Guinan)在一份天文學(xué)家的電報(bào)中稱，到12月中旬，這顆曾經(jīng)閃亮的恒星(通常是天空中最亮的10顆恒星之一)突然從前20名中墜落。

“Now the outline of Orion is noticeably different with Betelgeuse so faint,” said Guinan.

“現(xiàn)在獵戶座的輪廓明顯不同了，參宿四很模糊，”吉南說(shuō)。

Astronomers have pointed out that the light of Betelgeuse, what astronomers call a “semi-regular variable star,” is known for fluctuating brightness. Yet, the rapid dimming as of late is unusual, they say, prompting them to wonder if the star’s spectacular demise is approaching. The explosive death of a star, also called a supernova, would cause Betelgeuse to suddenly burn even brighter before vanishing forever.

天文學(xué)家指出，被天文學(xué)家稱為“半規(guī)則變星”的參宿四的光，以其波動(dòng)的亮度而聞名。然而，他們說(shuō)，最近的快速變暗是不尋常的，這促使他們懷疑這顆恒星壯觀的死亡是否即將來(lái)臨。一顆恒星的爆炸死亡，也被稱為超新星，會(huì)導(dǎo)致參宿四突然燃燒得更亮，然后永遠(yuǎn)消失。

“The biggest question now is when it will explode in a supernova,” said Sarafina Nance, a UC Berkeley astrophysics researcher, on Twitter. The 8.5 million-year-old star probably “isn’t exploding any time soon,” she added in the tweet thread, “but will be a gorgeous spectacle” when it does.

“現(xiàn)在最大的問(wèn)題是，它什么時(shí)候會(huì)變成超新星，”加州大學(xué)伯克利分校(UC Berkeley)天體物理學(xué)研究員薩拉菲娜·南斯(Sarafina Nance)在Twitter上說(shuō)。她在推特中補(bǔ)充道，這位有著850萬(wàn)年歷史的明星可能“不會(huì)很快爆發(fā)”，“但當(dāng)它爆發(fā)時(shí)，將會(huì)是一個(gè)華麗的奇觀”。

The massive Betelgeuse is 20 times the mass of our sun, and would engross Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt and possibly even Jupiter if we were to supplant that star into our own solar system. It’s also one of the Milky Way’s closest neighbors at just 600 light-years away. But the explosion associated with the star’s demise won’t have any effect over life on Earth — aside from a good show — before fading into eternity.

這個(gè)巨大的參宿四的質(zhì)量是我們太陽(yáng)的20倍，如果我們?nèi)〈牵鹦?，地球，火星，小行星帶，甚至木星進(jìn)入我們的太陽(yáng)系，它將占據(jù)水星，金星，地球，火星，甚至木星。它也是銀河系最近的鄰居之一，離我們只有600光年。但是，與恒星死亡相關(guān)的爆炸不會(huì)對(duì)地球上的生命產(chǎn)生任何影響——除了一場(chǎng)精彩的演出——直到消失于永恒。

Betelgeuse’s supernova “would be so incredibly cool!” Nance told National Geographic. “By far and away the most incredible thing to happen in my life.”

參宿四的超新星“會(huì)非?？?”南斯告訴《國(guó)家地理》雜志。“這是我一生中最不可思議的事情。”

Unfortunately, we have no idea when the main event will go down. If the star continues to fade for another couple of weeks, “then all bets are off,” Guinan also told NatGeo. Recent studies have predicted that it will happen within the next million years, and as soon as 100,000 years from now. And there’s the possibility that it already exploded, possibly hundreds of years ago. We just haven’t waited long enough to see its impacts on the night sky.

不幸的是，我們不知道主事件什么時(shí)候結(jié)束。吉南還對(duì)國(guó)家地理頻道說(shuō)，如果這顆恒星繼續(xù)退色幾周，“那么所有的希望都破滅了。”最近的研究預(yù)測(cè)，它將在未來(lái)100萬(wàn)年內(nèi)發(fā)生，最快將在10萬(wàn)年后發(fā)生。有可能它已經(jīng)爆炸了，可能是幾百年前。我們只是沒(méi)有等足夠長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間來(lái)觀察它對(duì)夜空的影響。

“It’s actually quite rare to study a star this well pre-explosion, whenever that happens,” said Nance. “This will inevitably yield cool and interesting ideas for what happens to stars right before they explode.”

南斯說(shuō):“事實(shí)上，在爆炸之前研究恒星是非常罕見(jiàn)的。”“這將不可避免地為恒星爆炸前的情況提供一些很酷很有趣的想法。”