宇宙星戰(zhàn)在太空中形成的壯觀的“彩虹云”

宇宙星戰(zhàn)在太空中形成的壯觀的“彩虹云”

A stunning rainbow-colored cloud of gas surrounds two stars that battled in deep space several hundred years ago.

幾百年前，兩顆恒星在深空中奮戰(zhàn)，周圍環(huán)繞著一團彩虹色的氣體云。

Astronomers were able to observe the binary star system known as HD101584 by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and saw a strange gas cloud that they think resulted from the two stars doing battle, according to a European Southern Observatory (ESO) statement.

根據(jù)歐洲南方天文臺(ESO)的一份聲明，天文學家通過使用Atacama大型毫米/亞毫米陣列(ALMA)，觀測到了被稱為HD101584的雙星系統(tǒng)，并看到了一個奇怪的氣體云，他們認為這是由于兩顆恒星在戰(zhàn)斗中產(chǎn)生的。

The new observations from ALMA have shown scientists that what happened with HD101584 was something like a stellar confrontation.

來自ALMA的最新觀測顯示，科學家們發(fā)現(xiàn)HD101584發(fā)生了類似恒星對峙的事情。

The main star grew large enough to swallow its lower-mass partner. In response, the ESO explains, the smaller star zoomed towards the giant’s core but didn’t collide with it. Instead, the larger star was triggered into an outburst, scattering its gas layers and exposing its core.

主恒星變得足夠大，可以吞下它的小質(zhì)量伴星。ESO解釋說，作為回應，這顆較小的恒星迅速移向巨星的核心，但沒有與它相撞。相反，較大的恒星被觸發(fā)爆發(fā)，它的氣體層被散射，核心暴露出來。

“This stunning image of the circumstellar environment of HD101584 would not have been possible without the exquisite sensitivity and angular resolution provided by ALMA,” co-author Elizabeth Humphreys, from ESO in Chile, said in the statement.

來自智利ESO的合著者Elizabeth Humphreys在聲明中說:“如果沒有ALMA提供的細膩的靈敏度和角度分辨率，HD101584環(huán)繞恒星環(huán)境的這張令人震驚的圖片是不可能的。

Researchers hope to gain more insights into the final evolution of stars like our sun.

研究人員希望對像太陽這樣的恒星的最終演化有更多的了解。

“Currently, we can describe the death processes common to many Sun-like stars, but we cannot explain why or exactly how they happen. HD101584 gives us important clues to solve this puzzle since it is currently in a short transitional phase between better studied evolutionary stages. With detailed images of the environment of HD101584 we can make the connection between the giant star it was before, and the stellar remnant it will soon become,” said co-author Sofia Ramstedt, from Sweden’s Uppsala University, in the statement.

“目前，我們可以描述許多類太陽恒星的死亡過程，但我們無法解釋它們?yōu)槭裁椿虼_切是如何發(fā)生的。HD101584為我們解開這個謎題提供了重要的線索，因為它目前正處于較好研究的進化階段之間的短暫過渡階段。來自瑞典烏普薩拉大學的合著者索菲亞·拉姆斯泰特在聲明中說:“通過HD101584周圍環(huán)境的詳細圖像，我們可以將這顆巨星與它之前的樣子聯(lián)系起來，它的殘骸不久就會成為恒星。”

Their research was published in the March issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

他們的研究發(fā)表在3月份的《天文學與天體物理學》雜志上。