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There’s a galaxy hurtling towards our Milky Way that could wipe out life on Earth
有一个星系向我们的银河系冲去，可能会毁灭地球上的生命
Researchers are warning that the collision could “knock us out of the Milky Way and into space”.
研究人员警告说，这次碰撞可能“把我们从银河系中撞到深空”。
A nearby galaxy is set to slam into the Milky Way and the “catastrophic event” could knock our solar system into disarray, according to startling scientific calculations.
Astrophysicists at Durham University conducted a computer simulation to find out more about the movement of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.
根据惊人的科学计算，附近的一个星系将闯入银河系，“灾难性事件”可能会使我们的太阳系陷入混乱。
达勒姆大学的天体物理学家进行了计算机模拟，以了解更多关于大麦哲伦星云（LMC）的运动，这是一个围绕银河系运行的卫星星系。
What they found was astonishing. It turns out that the LMC is set to smack straight into our galaxy.
Even though the galaxy is 63,000 light years from the Milky Way and currently heading away from us at a rate of 250 miles per second, it is set to eventually slow down and head back towards us.
他们的发现令人震惊。实验结果是LMC将直接进入我们的银河系。 即使这星系距离银河系63000光年，并且目前以每秒250英里的速度远离我们，但它最终会减速并朝我们的方向前进。 
The collision will shake the whole Milky Way and, while it may not directly impact our Solar System, lead researcher Dr Marius Cautun warns the collision could “knock us out of the Milky Way and into space.”The collision will cause stars to move and increase the risk of stars being shifted into new gravitational pulls, which could change the orbit of planets. If there is even a small variation in the distance between Earth and our Sun, this could move us from the ‘Goldilocks zone’ and make the planet too hot or too cold for life to survive on.
这次碰撞将震动整个银河系，虽然它可能不会直接影响我们的太阳系，但首席研究员Marius Cautun博士警告说，这次碰撞可能“将我们从银河系中撞入深空”。碰撞将导致恒星移动并增加恒星转移到新引力的风险，这可能会改变行星的轨道。如果地球和太阳之间的距离变化很小，这可能会使我们从“金凤花区域”移开，使地球过热或过冷而无法生存。（译注：金凤花区域：使智慧生命成为可能的狭窄参数频带．地球和宇宙正好落在这样一个参数频数范围内，使能够构成智慧生命的化学物质得以产生．在宇宙的物理常数和地球的特性方面已经发现了几十个这种金凤花区域。） 
But don’t panic just yet! Luckily, this intergalactic collision isn’t set to take place for another 2.5 billion years.
On the bright side, scientists say that this scary event would actually “restore the [Milky Way] to normality.” The Milky Way is quite an unusual galaxy, with a small black hole and far less stars in its halo than other galaxies.
但是不要惊慌！幸运的是，这次星际碰撞不会发生，得再过25亿年才发生。
从好的方面来讲，科学家们说，这个可怕的事件实际上会“使银河系恢复正常。银河系是一个非常不寻常的星系，它有一个小黑洞，其光环中的恒星远少于其他星系。
Once the LMC smashes into it, “the central supermassive black hole will increase in mass by up to a factor of 8,” the team explains.
“The Galactic stellar halo will undergo an equally impressive transformation, becoming 5 times more massive.”
研究小组解释说，一旦LMC撞击它，“中心超大质量黑洞的质量将增加8倍。”
而“银河的恒星光环将经历同样令人印象深刻的转变，变成5倍大。”（译注：银河系的恒星光环增加，也就是恒星的增加。）
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