哈勃望遠鏡實拍 支離破碎的星體
Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies sounds like a book that one might find in the library at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books – but it’s real, a book which catalogues the strangest astronomical objects found so far by man.
特殊星系中的荷頓·阿特拉斯星系聽起來像一本能在哈利波特書中描述的霍格沃茨魔法學校圖書館中找到的書，但是實際上這是一本真實的書，它將目前人類已知的最奇怪的天文學物體分類了。
This galaxy, Holmberg II, is one of its star attractions – among the oddest places in the universe.
就宇宙中最奇怪的地點來說，霍姆伯格星系是其中一個星星的聚集點。
Here, it’s captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in the act of ‘blowing bubbles’ – actually intricate glowing shells of gas created by the lifecycles of generations of stars.
這是被哈勃望遠鏡拍到的泡泡，實際上是由於日換星移而產生的錯綜複雜的發光的殼體。
High-mass stars form in dense regions of gas, and later in life expel strong stellar winds that blow away the surrounding material.
大量的星星存在於稠密的氣體中間，在接下來的日子中，強有力的恆星風將會將其周圍的物體吹走。
At the very end of their lives, they explode in as a supernova.
在每顆星星生命的末尾，他們將會爆炸成爲一顆超新星。
Shock waves rip through the less dense regions around the stars, heating the gas and forming the delicate shells we see today.
強大的波浪會闖進那些氣體密度較低的環繞在星星周圍的地區，將那些氣體加熱然後轉換成爲我們現在看到的精美的殼體。
Holmberg II is a patchwork of dense star-forming regions and extensive barren areas with less material, which can stretch across thousands of light-years – so, gravitationally speaking, it’s a gentle haven where fragile structures such as these bubbles can hold their shape.
霍姆伯格星系是由一個高密度星系的拼湊出來的，可以延伸幾千光年，所以從重力學角度講，這是一個適合那些易碎的星體保持形狀的地方。
But what earned Holmberg II its place in Halton Arp’s Atlas is what you can’t see in this image: the ultraluminous X-ray source in the middle of three gas bubbles in the top right of the image.
但是霍姆伯格星系並不是你看到的這樣。在圖片右上角的三個氣體泡泡的中心部位，有大量的X射線的存在。
There are competing theories as to what causes this powerful radiation — one intriguing possibility is an intermediate-mass black hole which is pulling in material from its surroundings.
關於是什麼引起了這種強有力的輻射，還有其他的很多理論。有一種是說在這附近有一個巨大的黑洞，以至於吸引周圍的很多物體。
Astronomers took the picture using an advanced camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. The image is a combination of visible and near-infrared exposures taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
宇航員用一個在哈勃望遠鏡上的高清相機拍下了這張圖片，它是用哈勃高級觀測攝像機的廣渠道近紅外曝光系統拍攝的。
