天文学家发现迄今最遥远的快速射电暴 | 六级难度

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天文学家发现迄今最遥远的快速射电暴
难度：六级难度
Astronomers have detected radio waves coming from what looks like a joining of galaxies from about 8 billion years ago.
天文学家探测到了来自大约80亿年前星系结合处的无线电波。
The discovery is the oldest-known example of an event that is difficult to explain: a fast radio burst.
这一发现是已知的最古老的难以解释的事例：快速射电暴。
In less than a millisecond, this burst released the amount of energy our sun releases in thirty years, scientists said.
科学家表示，在不到一毫秒的时间里，快速射电暴释放的能量相当于太阳30年释放的能量。
The Australian SKA Pathfinder, a radio telescope in the state of Western Australia, detected the burst.
西澳大利亚州的射电望远镜澳大利亚SKA探路者探测到了这次快速射电暴。
And the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, one of the most powerful telescopes, found the location of the burst.
位于智利的欧洲南方天文台的超大望远镜是最强大的望远镜之一，它找到了这次快速射电暴的位置。
A fast radio burst, or FRB, is a kind of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation.
快速射电暴，简称FRB，是一种射频电磁辐射。
It lasts less than a millisecond but outshines most other sources of radio waves in the universe.
它的持续时间不到一毫秒，但比宇宙中大多数其他无线电波源都要亮。
Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.
无线电波在电磁波谱中波长最长。
Ryan Shannon, an astronomer at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, was a co-leader of the study published recently in Science.
澳大利亚斯威本科技大学的天文学家瑞安·香农是最近发表在《科学》杂志上的这项研究的联合负责人。
He said radio waves in FRBs are similar to those used in microwave ovens.
他说，快速射电暴中的无线电波与微波炉中使用的无线电波相似。
And he added that this FRB had the same amount of energy needed to microwave "a bowl of popcorn twice the size of the sun."
他补充说，这种快速射电暴的能量相当于用微波炉加热“一碗两倍于太阳大小的爆米花”所需的能量。
Until now, the oldest-known such burst dated to 5 billion years ago, making this one 3 billion years older.
到目前为止，已知最古老的快速射电暴可以追溯到50亿年前，而这次快速射电暴要早30亿年。
The universe is about 13.8 billion years old.
宇宙的年龄约为138亿年。
For comparison, Earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
相比之下，地球的年龄约为45亿岁。
In seeing objects and events from long ago, researchers look across large distances, making this burst also the farthest of any FRB ever detected.
为了观察很久以前的物体和事件，研究人员观测了很远的距离，这使得这次快速射电暴也是迄今为止探测到的最远的一次。
"We now know that fast radio bursts have been around for more than half the age of the universe," said study co-leader Stuart Ryder of Macquarie University in Australia.
澳大利亚麦考瑞大学的斯图尔特·莱德是这项研究的负责人之一，他说：“我们现在知道，快速射电暴已经存在了超过宇宙年龄一半的时间了。”
Researchers first discovered fast radio bursts in 2007.
研究人员在2007年首次发现了快速射电暴。
The most likely source is a special kind of "neutron star, called a magnetar. These stars ... are some of the most extreme objects in the universe, which you would need to produce such extreme bursts," Shannon said.
香农说，最有可能的来源是一种特殊的“中子星，称为磁星。这种恒星……是宇宙中最极端的物体，你需要它们来产生如此极端的射电暴。
"There are more energetic events in the universe, associated with stellar explosions or a black hole shredding a star apart. But FRBs are unique in that they produce all their energy in radio waves, with nothing seen in other bands - optical light or X-rays for example - and that the signals are so short," Shannon added.
香农补充道：“宇宙中有更多的高能事件，它们与恒星爆炸或黑洞撕裂恒星有关。但快速射电暴的独特之处在于，它们以无线电波的形式产生所有能量，而在其他波段（例如可见光或X射线）中没有发现任何能量，而且信号非常短”。
They also are more common, Shannon explained, with around 100,000 thought to happen somewhere in the universe daily.
香农解释说，它们也更常见，科学家认为，每天在宇宙中的某个地方发生大约10万次。
Far fewer have been detected, Shannon said, and only around 50 - including this one - have been traced back to the galaxy where they began.
香农说，被探测到的快速射电暴要少得多，只有大约50个——包括这一个——被追溯到源头。
The scientists said that studying these bursts can help to detect and measure the large amount of matter believed to populate the large distances of space between galaxies.
科学家表示，研究快速射电暴有助于探测和测量据信存在于星系之间大范围空间中的大量物质。
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。