CNN News：万年罕见现象

In terms of volume, which of these space objects is believed to be the smallest?

下列哪些空间物体，体积最小?

Aldebaran, mercury, the moon, or a neutron star?

毕宿五，水星，月球还是中子星?

Though their mass is incredibly dense, neutron stars are estimated to measure only around 12 miles in diameter.

虽然它们的质量密度极高，但据估计，中子星直径仅有约12英里。

AZUZ: Scientists worldwide are excited over a recent discovery that was just announced on Monday. It took place in a galaxy not far, far away.

阿祖兹：世界各地的科学家都对周一刚刚宣布的发现感到兴奋。它发生在不远的一个星系里。

It’s illustrated in this animation.

动画中进行了演示。

Researchers say it involved two neutron stars, relatively small stars, with diameters that might be the size of a city, but they’re believed to be incredibly dense, with masses that are bigger than that of our sun.

研究人员表示，这其中涉及了两个中子星，相对而言，中子星比较小，直径可能只是一个城市的大小，但是科学家认为中子星的密度极大，其质量甚至超过我们的太阳。

What astronomers saw was a bright blue burst, believed to be when the two stars that faded to a deep red color. And though the observation was made on August 17th, researches say the collision actually happened 130 million years ago, that it took that long for the event’s light and gravitational waves to reach Earth.

天文学家所看到的是明亮的蓝色爆炸光，天文学家认为这是两个恒星碰撞消失后变成深红色所发生的。尽管天文学家于8月17日观测到了这一现象，但是研究人员表示，碰撞实际上是发生在1.3亿年前，需要花费很长的时间，光和引力波才到达了地球。

So, why all the excitement? Well, this isn’t seen often. Collisions like this are calculated to occur less than a hundred times every million years.

那么科学家为何如此激动呢?因为此种现象并不常见。据估计，这种碰撞现象每100万年发生的次数还不到100次。

So, scientists say it’s the discovery of a lifetime and that it’s created new theories and mysteries about the universe.

所以，科学家们表示这是一生的发现，它创造了关于宇宙的新理论和奥秘。