欧洲望远镜在邻近星系发现“爱因斯坦环”
📖 逐句对照翻译
Scientists say Europe’s Euclid space telescope has discovered a bright ring of light circling a nearby galaxy.
科学家表示，欧洲的欧几里得太空望远镜发现了一个明亮的光环，环绕着附近的一个星系。
The observed light is known as an Einstein ring.
观测到的光被称为爱因斯坦环。
Researchers have estimated the ring encircles a galaxy 590 million light years away from Earth.
研究人员估计，这个环围绕着一个距离地球5.9亿光年的星系。
A light year is the distance light travels in a year – about 9.5 trillion kilometers.
一光年是光在一年内传播的距离——大约9.5万亿公里。
Astronomers have long known about the galaxy where the ring was discovered.
天文学家早就知道发现这个环状结构的星系。
So, they were surprised that the bright ring had not been identified before.
所以，他们对于这个明亮的环之前未被识别感到惊讶。
It was discovered in a well-studied galaxy called NGC 6505.
它是在一个名为NGC 6505、已被充分研究的星系中被发现的。
It is in the constellation – a group of stars – named Draco.
它位于一个名为德拉科的星座——一个星群——之中。
Einstein rings are rare.
爱因斯坦环很罕见。
They form when light from a more distant galaxy bends around a closer galaxy.
它们是在来自更遥远星系的光线围绕较近星系弯曲时形成的。
The nearer galaxy appears to have a circle of light, or a halo, around it.
较近的那个星系周围似乎有一圈光，或者说一个光环。
The Einstein ring gets its name from physicist Albert Einstein.
爱因斯坦环得名于物理学家阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦。
Einstein predicted that light would bend around extremely massive objects in space.
爱因斯坦预言，光线会在太空中极其巨大的物体周围弯曲。
This is called “gravitational lensing.”
这被称为“引力透镜效应”。
The American space agency NASA explains that as light passes through a gravitational lens, “it may take different paths, producing multiple images of the same object.”
美国宇航局NASA解释说，当光线穿过引力透镜时，“它可能会走不同的路径，从而产生同一物体的多个图像。”
In this way, gravity itself acts as a lens, magnifying and distorting space and time in a way that is similar to an optical lens like those in eyeglasses or contact lenses.
这样，引力本身就充当了一个透镜，以类似于眼镜或隐形眼镜中的光学透镜的方式放大并扭曲时空。
Gravitational lenses permit telescopes like Euclid to observe more distant and less-bright objects.
引力透镜使欧几里得这样的望远镜能够观测到更遥远、更暗淡的天体。
In the latest project, researchers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics used data from Euclid to create a computer model to discover the Einstein ring.
在最新的项目中，来自德国马克斯·普朗克天体物理研究所的研究人员利用欧几里得的数据创建了一个计算机模型，以发现爱因斯坦环。
The Euclid space telescope is operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
欧几里得空间望远镜由欧洲空间局（ESA）运营。
In 2023, it launched on a six-year mission that ESA officials have said aims to study the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy across the universe.
2023年，它开启了为期六年的任务，欧空局官员表示，该任务旨在研究宇宙中暗物质和暗能量的奥秘。
Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute are leading the research.
马克斯·普朗克研究所的天文学家们正在主导这项研究。
In a statement, the organization said the first sign that the Einstein ring existed came during testing right after Euclid was deployed.
该组织在一份声明中表示，爱因斯坦环存在的第一个迹象出现在欧几里得部署后的测试中。
A team member, Bruno Altieri, was looking over early data collected by Euclid.
一位团队成员布鲁诺·阿尔蒂埃里正在查看欧几里得收集的早期数据。
“Even from that first observation, I could see it,” Altieri said in a statement.
阿尔铁里在一份声明中说：“即使从第一次观察开始，我也能看出来。”
“But after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing.”
“但在欧几里得对该区域进行了更多观测之后，我们看到了一个完美的爱因斯坦环。对我这个一生都对引力透镜感兴趣的人来说，这太令人惊叹了。”
The scientists said the more distant galaxy involved in the method is about 4.4 billion light years away from Earth.
科学家们表示，该方法中涉及的较远星系距离地球约44亿光年。
They noted that the more distant galaxy had never been observed before and does not have a name.
他们指出，那个更遥远的星系以前从未被观测到，也没有名字。
Altieri’s team recently reported the findings in a study in the publication Astronomy and Astrophysics.
阿尔蒂里团队最近在《天文学与天体物理学》杂志上发表的一项研究中报告了这些发现。
Conor O’Riordan is another team member from the Max Planck Institute and was the lead writer of the study.
康纳·奥里尔丹是马克斯·普朗克研究所的另一位团队成员，也是这项研究的主要作者。
He said, “All strong lenses are special, because they're so rare, and they're incredibly useful scientifically. This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.”
他说：“所有强引力透镜都很特殊，因为它们非常罕见，而且在科学上极其有用。这一个尤其特别，因为它离地球如此之近，而且这种排列使它非常美丽。”
O’Riordan added that the researchers used the latest gravitational lensing methods developed at the institute.
奥赖尔登补充说，研究人员使用了该研究所开发的最新引力透镜方法。
This permitted them to model the light of the ring.
这使他们能够模拟光环的光线。
“We even had to look at some of the raw data to better understand how the detector works.”
我们甚至不得不查看一些原始数据，以便更好地理解探测器的工作原理。
O’Riordan said the team’s modeling operations were just the first step in studying the newly discovered Einstein ring.
奥里奥丹表示，团队的建模操作只是研究新发现的爱因斯坦环的第一步。
He said the group plans to use the ring to also study “dark matter substructures” within the lensing galaxy.
他说，该团队还计划利用这个环来研究透镜星系内部的“暗物质子结构”。
O’Riordan predicted, “Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data we've never had before.”
奥赖尔登预测：“欧几里得将彻底改变这一领域，带来我们从未拥有过的海量数据。”
I’m Bryan Lynn.
我是布莱恩·林恩。
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from The Associated Press, the Max Planck Institute, the European Space Agency and NASA.
布莱恩·林恩为VOA学习英语撰写了这篇报道，内容基于美联社、马克斯·普朗克研究所、欧洲航天局和NASA的报告。
