中英對照讀新聞》Twisted magnetic field observed around Milky Way’s central black hole銀河系中心的黑洞周圍觀測到扭曲磁場
天文學家偵測到銀河系中心黑洞人馬座A*周邊環繞螺旋型強烈磁場。(路透)
◎林家宇
Astronomers on Wednesday announced that they have detected a strong and organized magnetic field twisted in a spiral pattern around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, revealing previously unknown qualities of the immensely powerful object lurking at the center of our galaxy.
天文學家宣布偵測到強烈且有序的磁場,以扭曲的螺旋狀型態環繞在銀河系的超大質量黑洞周邊。這項發現揭露了這個潛伏在銀河系中心的強大天體此前未知的特質。
The structure of the magnetic field emanating from the edge of the black hole called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, closely resembles one surrounding the only other black hole ever imaged, a larger one residing at the center of a nearby galaxy called Messier 87, or M87, the researchers said. This indicates that strong magnetic fields may be a feature common to black holes, they added.
研究員表示,這股磁場結構顯現在名為「人馬座A*」黑洞的邊緣,與圍繞在迄今唯一拍攝到的黑洞的磁場相似,後者是一個較大的黑洞,位於鄰近的「室女A星系」中心。這表明強大磁場或許是黑洞的一項共通特點。
Sgr A* possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years - the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion km - from Earth.
人馬座A*具有的質量為太陽400萬倍,坐落在距地球2.6萬光年處。光年為光行進一年的距離,約9.5兆公里。
新聞辭典
lurk:動詞,潛伏、潛藏。例句:The man who was caught by the police lurked around John’s house last week.(被警察逮捕的那個人上週潛伏在約翰家附近。)
emanate:動詞,表現、顯示、發散。例句:When the game begins, her face emanates confidence and calmness.(當比賽開始,她的臉上展現出自信和冷靜)