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Interstellar gatecrasher 2I/Borisov is no ordinary comet

Interstellar gatecrasher 2I/Borisov is no ordinary comet

星際門2I/波里so夫不是普通星
Reuters ·  2020/04/20 23:00

By Will Dunham

由威爾·鄧納姆

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered that a comet called 2I/Borisov - only the second interstellar object ever detected passing through the solar system - is surprisingly different in its composition from comets hailing from our celestial neighborhood.

華盛頓,4 月 20 日(路透社)-科學家發現了一顆名為 2 的彗星/Borisov-只有第二個穿過太陽系的星際物體-與來自我們天體鄰里的彗星的成分令人驚訝的不同。

Gas coming off 2I/Borisov contained high amounts of carbon monoxide - far more than comets formed in our solar system - indicating the object had large concentrations of carbon monoxide ice, researchers said on Monday.

研究人員週一表示,來自 2I/Borisov 的氣體含有大量的一氧化碳-遠遠超過我們太陽系中形成的彗星-表明該物體含有大量的一氧化碳冰。

Carbon monoxide, poisonous to humans, is common as a gas in space and forms as ice only in the most frigid locations. The presence of so much carbon monoxide, the researchers said, suggests 2I/Borisov formed in a different manner than comets in our solar system - in a very cold outer region of its home star system or around a star cooler than the sun.

一氧化碳對人類有毒,常見於太空中的氣體,只有在最寒冷的地方才會形成冰。研究人員說,存在如此之多的一氧化碳建議 2I/Borisov 形成的方式與我們太陽系中的彗星不同-在其家庭恆星系的非常寒冷的外部區域或比太陽涼爽的恆星周圍。

Comets essentially are dirty snowballs composed of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit stars.

彗星本質上是骯髒的雪球,由冰凍氣體,岩石和灰塵組成的軌道 明星

"We like to refer to 2I/Borisov as a snowman from a dark and cold place," said planetary scientist Dennis Bodewits of Auburn University in Alabama, lead author of one of two 2I/Borisov studies published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

「我們喜歡將 2I/Borisov 稱為來自黑暗和寒冷地方的雪人,」阿拉巴馬州奧本大學的行星科學家丹尼斯·博德威特(Dennis Bodewits)說,該雜誌上發表的兩項 2I/Borisov 研究之一的主要作者自然天文學。

"Comets are left-over building blocks from the time of planet formation. For the first time, we have been able to measure the chemical composition of such a building block from another planetary system while it flew through our own solar system," Bodewits added.

「彗星是行星形成時剩下的積木。這是我們第一次能夠在飛越我們自己的太陽系時,從另一個行星系統測量這種構建基塊的化學成分,」Bodewits 補充說。

The comet, detected in August 2019 by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov and estimated to be about six-tenths of a mile (1-km) wide, has zoomed through interstellar space after being ejected from its original star system.

業餘天文學家 Gennady 鮑里索夫(Gennady Borisov)於 2019 年 8 月檢測到該彗星,估計寬度約為十分之六英里(1 公里),從其原始恆星系統中彈出後已經放大了星際空間。

It was born long ago in a rotating disc of gas and dust surrounding a newly formed star in a place that must have been rich in carbon monoxide, Bodewits said. That star may have been what is called an M-dwarf, far smaller and cooler than the sun and the smallest type of star that is known, Bodewits said.

Bodewits 說,它很久以前誕生在一個氣體和塵埃的旋轉盤中,圍繞著一顆新形成的恆星,在一個必須富含一氧化碳的地方。Bodewits 說,這顆恆星可能是所謂的 M 矮星,比太陽小得多,涼爽,也是已知最小的恆星類型。

Scientists initially concluded last year that 2I/Borisov was similar to comets from our solar system, but data from the Hubble Space Telescope and an observatory in Chile revealed its differences.

科學家最初得出的結論是,去年 2I/Borisov 與我們太陽系的彗星類似,但來自哈勃太空望遠鏡和智利天文台的數據顯示了它的差異。

The researchers also found an abundance of hydrogen cyanide at levels similar to comets from our solar system.

研究人員還發現了豐富的氰化氫,其水平類似於我們的太陽系彗星。

"This shows that 2I/Borisov is not a completely alien object, and confirms some similarity with our &aposnormal&apos comets, so the processes that shaped it are comparable to the way our own comets formed," said Martin Cordiner, an astrobiologist working at NASA&aposs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and lead author of the other study.

「這表明 2I/Borisov 不是一個完全陌生的物體,並證實了與我們的 Aaposnormal&apos 彗星有些相似性,因此塑造它的過程與我們自己彗星形成的方式相似,」馬里蘭州 NASA&Aposs 戈達德太空飛行中心和其他研究的主要作者馬丁·科德納(Martin Cordiner)說。

The only other interstellar visitor discovered in our solar system was a cigar-shaped rocky object called &aposOumuamua spotted in 2017.

我們太陽系中唯一發現的其他星際遊客是 2017 年發現的一個名為 &Aposomuamua 的雪茄形岩石物體。

譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。


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