美宇航局宣布發(fā)現(xiàn)地球附近最年輕黑洞
    The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration （NASA） announced on Monday that it has discovered the youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood. The 30-year-old black hole， known as Supernova 1979C （SN 1979C）， is about 51 million light years from Earth and occurred in galaxy M-100.
    NASA‘s Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a bright source of X-rays that has remained steady during observation from 1995 to 2007. This data suggests that the object is a black hole being fed either by material falling into it from the supernova or a binary companion.
    “If our interpretation is correct， this is the nearest example where the birth of a black hole has been observed，” said Daniel Patnaude of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge， who led the study.
    “This may be the first time the common way of making a black hole has been observed，” said co-author Abraham Loeb， also of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
    There is one other possible explanation for what scientists have seen： They could be watching the birth instead of a pulsar wind nebula. But Alex Filippenko of the University of California at Berkeley said the discovery is most likely a black hole.
    美國“紅色軌道”網(wǎng)站15日?qǐng)?bào)道稱，美國宇航局日前發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)地球附近最為年輕的黑洞。據(jù)了解，該黑洞年僅30歲，系距離地球約5100萬光年的M100星系中的超新星“SN1979C”的余燼。
    根據(jù)美國宇航局錢德拉X射線望遠(yuǎn)鏡獲得的數(shù)據(jù)，一個(gè)明亮的X射線源在1995年到2007年這段觀測期內(nèi)保持穩(wěn)定?？茖W(xué)家據(jù)此推斷該射線源是一個(gè)黑洞，其正在吞噬超新星“SN1979C”及其伴星落下的物質(zhì)。
    “如果我們的解釋沒錯(cuò)的話，這應(yīng)該是已被觀測到的時(shí)間最近的一個(gè)黑洞誕生的實(shí)例，”領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這項(xiàng)研究的美國馬薩諸塞州劍橋哈佛-史密森天體物理學(xué)中心的丹尼爾-帕特諾德說道。
    “能觀察到黑洞正常的形成過程，這對(duì)人類來說可能是第一次，”該研究論文的撰稿人之一、同樣來自哈佛-史密森天體物理學(xué)中心的亞伯拉罕-羅伯說。
    對(duì)于科學(xué)家的最新觀察結(jié)果，還有其他解釋：他們所看到的或許只是一個(gè)“脈沖星風(fēng)星云”的誕生。但加利福尼亞大學(xué)伯克利分校的亞歷克斯稱該射線源更有可能是黑洞。