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原文:
It is a candidate for the brightest and most powerful explosion ever seen — what is it? The flaring spot of light was found by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASASSN) in June of last year and labelled ASASSN-15lh. Located about three billion light years distant, the source appears tremendously bright for anything so far away: roughly 200 times brighter than an average supernova, and temporarily 20 times brighter than all of the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy combined. Were light emitted by ASASSN-15lh at this rate in all directions at once, it would be the most powerful explosion yet recorded. No known stellar object was thought to create an explosion this powerful, although pushing the theoretical limits for the spin-down of highly-magnetized neutron star — a magnetar — gets close. Assuming the flare fades as expected later this year, astronomers are planning to use telescopes including Hubble to zoom in on the region to gain more clues. The above-featured artist’s illustration depicts a hypothetical night sky of a planet located across the host galaxy from the outburst.
中文翻譯:
這可能是史上最明亮、最強大的爆炸之一——ASASSN-15lh！這個明亮的光點是由全天空自動超新星巡天（All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, ASASSN）於去年六月份發現的，位於距離地球約三十億光年遠的地方。這個源頭的亮度對於這麼遙遠的距離來說異常驚人：它的亮度約為平均超新星的二百倍，且在短暫時間內比我們銀河系中所有恆星的總亮度還要明亮二十倍。如果ASASSN-15lh向各個方向發出的光線都能以這個速度發射，那麼它將成為有史以來記錄的最強爆炸。
目前還沒有已知的恆星物體能夠創造出如此強大的爆炸，儘管高速旋轉的強磁場中子星（即磁星，magnetar）接近這個理論極限。假設這個閃光如預期般逐漸消退，天文學家計劃使用包括哈勃在內的望遠鏡來深入觀測這一區域，以獲得更多線索。上面這幅藝術插圖描繪了一顆位於宿主銀河對面行星的假想夜空，正好目睹了這一爆炸。
#ASASSN15lh #宇宙奇觀 #超新星 #天文學 #Hubble望遠鏡 #強大爆炸 #星際探索 #銀河系 #宇宙奧秘
來源:NASA每日圖片
