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In May 2009, astronomers were watching M82, a galaxy about 10-million light-years away known for its ability to churn out new stars at a very rapid clip. Suddenly they spied an intensely bright light, which they thought at first was a new supernova, the explosive death of a giant star. But unlike a supernova, the light didn't dim. Even now, nearly a year later, the light shines just as brilliantly. What could it be? Tomorrow at a meeting of the Royal Astronomy Society in Glasgow, United Kingdom, a team proposes that the new phenomenon is something they're calling a micro-quasar, a pint-sized version of the brightest light in the universe. Quasars are caused by the close encounter of two supermassive black holes, each with billions of solar masses and crammed into tight quarters at the center of a galaxy. But because the phenomenon in M82 is much smaller, astronomers think its source objects must be more garden-variety black holes with masses on the order of dozens of suns. |
2009年5月，天文学家们正在观察1000万光年以外的一个星系——M82，该星系以快速产出恒星而著称。突然，他们发现了一道强烈的光线，起初他们以为那是一颗新产生的超新星——巨星恒星爆炸死亡之后的产物。但是跟超新星不同，其光线并没有变暗。即使是将近一年之后的现在，那道光线仍然明亮如初。那会是什么呢？明天，一个研究小组将要在英国格拉斯哥举行的皇家天文学会会议上提出，这种新现象被称为“微型类星体”，是宇宙中最亮的一种小型发光体。类星体是由两个超大型黑洞发生近距离冲突后形成的，每个超大型黑洞的质量都相当于几十亿个太阳的质量，位于星系中心的致密区域内。但是，由于星系M82中的类星体要小得多，天文学家们认为其源物体一定是更为普通的黑洞，质量大约为太阳的数十倍。 |
