令人難以置信的照片：一顆恒星吞噬另一顆恒星的非凡后果

令人難以置信的照片：一顆恒星吞噬另一顆恒星的非凡后果

A dramatic encounter between two stars has strewn their remains out across their little corner of space in the most spectacular fashion - and we get to actually see it with our own eyes.

兩顆恒星之間的戲劇性相遇，以最壯觀的方式將他們的遺體撒滿了對(duì)方的小角落——我們可以親眼目睹。

Here's how it went down: As a dying star expanded into a red giant, it engulfed another, lower mass star. The latter started to spiral towards the red giant, causing it to throw off its outer layers prematurely, and bringing its evolution to a halt.

它是這樣下去的:當(dāng)一顆垂死的恒星膨脹成一顆紅巨星時(shí)，它吞沒(méi)了另一顆質(zhì)量較低的恒星。后者開(kāi)始向紅巨星旋轉(zhuǎn)，導(dǎo)致它過(guò)早地脫離其外層，并使其進(jìn)化停止。

The result? A complex cloud of gas that has perplexed astronomers for decades. Now, using the powerful capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the secrets of the star system HD 101584 have come to light.

結(jié)果呢?一團(tuán)復(fù)雜的氣體云困擾了天文學(xué)家?guī)资辍，F(xiàn)在，利用阿塔卡馬大型毫米/亞毫米陣列(ALMA)的強(qiáng)大功能，HD 101584恒星系統(tǒng)的秘密已經(jīng)曝光。

Stars that are roughly the mass of our Sun have a known evolutionary path. When they have fused all the hydrogen in their cores to helium, the nuclear fusion within ceases, and the core starts to contract. This brings more hydrogen into the region immediately around the core, forming a hydrogen shell; then, fusion starts up again, dumping helium into the core. This is called hydrogen shell burning.

與太陽(yáng)質(zhì)量相當(dāng)?shù)暮阈怯幸粭l已知的進(jìn)化路徑。當(dāng)它們將核心中的所有氫熔合成氦時(shí)，內(nèi)部的核聚變就停止了，核心開(kāi)始收縮。這使得更多的氫進(jìn)入了核心附近的區(qū)域，形成了一個(gè)氫殼層;然后，核聚變又開(kāi)始了，將氦傾倒到核中。這叫做氫燃燒。

During this time, the outer layers of the star expand by a lot. When this eventually happens to the Sun, for example, it will expand out past the orbit of Mars. This is the red giant branch of stellar evolution.

在這段時(shí)間里，恒星的外層會(huì)擴(kuò)張很多。例如，當(dāng)這最終發(fā)生在太陽(yáng)上時(shí)，它會(huì)擴(kuò)張到火星軌道之外。這是恒星演化的紅巨星分支。

When all the hydrogen has been fused, the star will start fusing helium. And when all the helium in the core has fused into oxygen and carbon, the core contracts again, and the star will start expanding again. This is the asymptotic giant branch.

當(dāng)所有的氫都融合后，恒星將開(kāi)始融合氦。當(dāng)所有的氦在核心中融合成氧和碳時(shí)，核心再次收縮，恒星將再次開(kāi)始膨脹。這是漸近的巨大分支。

The research has been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《天文學(xué)與天體物理學(xué)》雜志上。