| Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours. |
天文学家们发现了一个行星大小的天体，密度极高，仅用4天零6个小时就围绕其主恒星旋转一周。 |
| The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the disc overy has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet. Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that. |
该天体叫做COROT-exo-3b，属于一类被称为褐矮星的失败恒星，但是发现该天体的研究小组没有排除它就是一颗行星的可能性。褐矮星是失败的恒星，它们燃烧锂，但是质量不够大，无法产生为恒星供给能量的氢氦热核聚变。行星既没有燃烧锂，也没有氢氦热核聚变。 |
| "It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain. |
“这使我们感到困惑，我们不能够确定应该如何划分行星和褐矮星的界限，”西班牙加那利天体物理学院的天文学家汉斯·迪格说。该学院位于加那利群岛上。 |
| The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass. |
该天体的质量比木星大20倍，但大小基本相同。它不属于此前所发现的行星和恒星范畴：最大的行星拥有12个木星的质量，最小的恒星拥有70个木星的质量。 |
| If astronomers confirm the object as a planet, it would weigh in as the most massive and densest planet found so far. A full study will be detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. |
如果天文学家们证实该天体是一颗行星，那么它将作为到目前为止所发现的质量最大、密度最高的星体而加入到行星的行列。全部研究资料将详细地记录在《天文学与天体物理学》杂志上。 |
| "COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck", said Francois Bouchy, an astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris. "But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We're now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet." |
“COROT-exo-3b可能是纯粹靠运气发现的一颗稀有天体，”巴黎天体物理研究院的天文学家弗朗索瓦·布奇说，“但是，或许它只不过是新发现的一类特大行星中的一颗，这类行星所环绕的恒星比我们的太阳质量更大。我们现在开始认为恒星质量越大，其行星质量也越大。” |
| Ground-based telescopes around the world helped pinpoint the object, including observatories in France, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, Israel and Spain's Canary Islands. |
全世界的地面望远镜都来帮助确认该天体，包括坐落在法国、智利、德国、夏威夷、以色列以及西班牙加那利群岛上的望远镜。 |
| The hunt for exoplanets has intensified over recent years, with astronomers usually finding such objects indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on parent stars. Another team showcased what might be the first direct image of an exoplanet around a sun-like star in September. |
近些年来，天文学家们加强了对系外行星的搜寻工作，他们通常利用系外行星对其主恒星的引力影响而间接地发现这些天体。9月份，另外一个研究小组突出地展示了类日恒星周围一颗系外行星的图像，它可能是第一次直接拍下的系外行星图像。 |
