天文学家首次观测到三个黑洞的合并

天文学家首次观测到三个黑洞的合并

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

三个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.

银河系的混乱发生在离地球3亿光年的地方，这将导致一个巨型黑洞的诞生。

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

德国科学家发现了NGC 6240星系内的罕见事件。

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

这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诞生的。

“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.

波茨坦莱布尼茨天体物理研究所的彼得·威尔巴赫博士说:“到目前为止，在宇宙中还从未发现过三个如此密集的超大质量黑洞。”

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

“目前的情况提供了三个星系及其中心黑洞同时合并过程的证据。”

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

天文学家使用智利的超大望远镜获得了这一发现。

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

NGC 6240星系在空间上与我们的银河系比较接近，而且形状奇特。

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

星系通常由几千亿颗恒星组成，它们被锁在轨道上，在核心处有一个超大质量黑洞。

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.

长期以来，人们一直认为NGC 6240是由两个较小的星系碰撞产生的，碰撞后留下了一对黑洞，因此形成了奇怪的形状。

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

然而，新的观测结果表明，事实上，在这个星系的猛烈的核心中有三个黑洞。

“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.

哥廷根大学的天文学家Wolfram Kollatschny教授说:“通过我们的高空间分辨率观测，我们能够证明NGC 6240的中心不是两个而是三个超大质量黑洞。”

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

这三个重量级的行星都有超过9000万个太阳的质量。

“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.”

“它们所处的空间跨度不到3000光年，不到整个银河系的百分之一。”

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

据研究小组称，这一发现为我们理解宇宙打开了新的大门。

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.

到目前为止，科学家们还不能解释宇宙中最大的星系是如何通过我们所知道和理解的空间过程而进化的。

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

如果能证明三个或更多的超大质量黑洞可以合并成一个实体，这个难题就可以解决。

“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.

“如果同时发生几个星系的合并过程，那么最大的星系和它们的中心超大质量黑洞就能够进化得更快，”威尔巴赫博士补充说。

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

“我们的观察为这种情况提供了第一个迹象。”

The study was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

这项研究发表在《天文学与天体物理学》杂志上。