Astronomers Discover the Existence of a Black Hole Star
Astronomers Discover the Existence of a Black Hole Star
天文学家发现“黑洞星”的存在
When Soundgarden Wrote “Black Hole Sun,” they may have inadvertently been onto something. In a new paper in Nature, scientists have chronicled a “black hole star” that’s the size of our solar system and glows bright red in the depth of space. The findings are based on observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, which continues to change how astronomers think about the cosmos.
当 Soundgarden 乐队创作《Black Hole Sun》（黑洞太阳）这首歌时，他们可能无意中触及了某种真相。在《自然》杂志发表的一篇新论文中，科学家们记录了一颗“黑洞星”，它的大小相当于我们的太阳系，在深空中发出明亮的红光。这些发现基于詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜（JWST）的观测结果，该望远镜正不断改变天文学家对宇宙的认知。
Researchers focused on some of the most distant observable phenomena in the universe, which appear to be something like a star in disguise. Based on the light they emit, they appear to share some characteristics with giant stars, but astronomers suspect they are actually black holes shrouded in an extraordinarily dense and luminous gas.
研究人员聚焦于宇宙中一些最遥远的可观测现象，它们看起来像是伪装成恒星的天体。根据它们发出的光，这些天体似乎与巨型恒星具有某些共同特征，但天文学家怀疑它们实际上是被极其致密且明亮的气体所包裹的黑洞。
These hypothetical objects have been dubbed black hole stars, and the new research, published Wednesday, lays out the case for them.
这些假想天体被称为“黑洞星”，周三发表的这项新研究为它们的存在提供了论据。
The signal that’s at the center of the study comes from a time when the universe was just 660 million years old. (It’s now almost 14 billion years old.) In the JWST images, the object appears as one of the many bright, reddish spots that the telescope has found in the early universe.
这项研究的核心信号来自宇宙仅 6.6 亿岁的时候（现在宇宙已有近 140 亿岁）。在 JWST 的图像中，该天体表现为望远镜在早期宇宙中发现的众多明亮红点之一。
From a distance of billions of light-years, this phenomenon appears to be a gigantic star. But the object, known as MoM-BH*-1, has a few curious properties. It emits about 100 billion times more energy than any star could produce through nuclear fusion, according to the team. Even for the era in which it formed—during the early universe—it is an extremely bright object.
从数十亿光年的距离看，这种现象似乎是一颗巨大的恒星。但这个被称为 MoM-BH*-1 的天体具有一些奇特的属性。研究团队表示，它释放的能量大约是任何恒星通过核聚变所能产生能量的 1000 亿倍。即使在它形成的那个时代——早期宇宙中，它也是一个极其明亮的天体。
Furthermore, part of its light abruptly disappears. Stars can produce a similar signal when their atmospheres absorb certain wavelengths, but in MoM-BH*-1, the effect is too intense to be explained as normal star behavior. Researchers believe that an enormous amount of extremely dense gas is absorbing that light.
此外，它的一部分光会突然消失。当恒星大气吸收特定波长的光时，也会产生类似的信号，但在 MoM-BH*-1 中，这种效应过于强烈，无法用正常的恒星行为来解释。研究人员认为，是大量极其致密的气体吸收了这些光。
These clues led scientists to the black hole star hypothesis. At the center of MoM-BH*-1, there would be a black hole devouring matter and releasing enormous amounts of energy. Surrounding it, a massive gas envelope. The energy would pass through that gas before escaping into space and, in the process, would acquire some of the characteristics we would normally expect to find in starlight.
这些线索引导科学家提出了“黑洞星”假说。在 MoM-BH*-1 的中心，可能存在一个正在吞噬物质并释放巨大能量的黑洞。黑洞周围包裹着巨大的气体包层。能量在逃逸到太空之前会穿过这些气体，在此过程中，它会获得一些我们通常在星光中预期的特征。
The hypothesis could help address another mystery uncovered by the JWST. The telescope finds, with surprising frequency, small red spots in the early universe whose origins remain uncertain. They don’t fit neatly into the usual categories of objects in deep space. Scientists have put forward a number of explanations, including that they’re compact galaxies teeming with stars, black holes hidden by dust, and systems completely different from those we observe in the present-day universe.
这一假说可能有助于解决 JWST 发现的另一个谜团。该望远镜以惊人的频率在早期宇宙中发现了一些起源不明的小红点。它们无法被简单地归入深空天体的常规类别中。科学家们提出了多种解释，包括它们可能是恒星密集的紧凑星系、被尘埃遮蔽的黑洞，或者是与我们在当今宇宙中观察到的完全不同的系统。
Black hole stars are also among these possibilities. MoM-BH*-1 is particularly interesting for this area of research because, unlike other red spots, its black hole appears to almost completely obscure the surrounding galaxy.
“黑洞星”也是这些可能性之一。MoM-BH*-1 对该领域的研究尤为重要，因为与其他红点不同，它的黑洞似乎几乎完全遮蔽了周围的星系。
“Every little red dot is consistent with being a black hole star, embedded in a generic early galaxy. But what is special about MoM-BH*-1 is that the black hole star is essentially completely outshining its surrounding host galaxy, such that we’re seeing pure black hole star light,” Rohan Naidu, the study’s lead author who performed the work while at MIT, says in a press release.
“每一个小红点都有可能是嵌入在普通早期星系中的黑洞星。但 MoM-BH*-1 的特殊之处在于，这颗黑洞星的光芒基本上完全盖过了其周围的宿主星系，以至于我们看到的纯粹是黑洞星的光，”该研究的主要作者 Rohan Naidu（他在麻省理工学院工作期间完成了这项研究）在新闻稿中说道。