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An 'unusual' radio wave sent from the middle of the Milky Way has experts confused
来自银河系中心的“异常”无线电波让专家们感到困惑
Astronomy experts have detected "unusual signals" coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, leading experts to believe an undiscovered stellar object could be behind the strange radio waves. Objects throughout the galaxy have changing magnetic fields that produce radio waves, according to NASA. During its life cycle, a star emits light across the electromagnetic spectrum, including some waves invisible to the human eye. The amount of light a star gives off depends on where it is in its cycle.
天文学专家们探测到了来自银河系中心的“异常信号”,使得专家们认为在这些异常无线电波信号的背后可能存在一个不为人知的星体。据美国国家航空航天局称,银河系的物体都无法逃离在银河系范围内的磁场干扰,磁场不断变化且放射着无线电波。在恒星的生命周期中,它通过电磁光谱发射光,其中包括一些肉眼观测不到的波。一颗恒星发出光的多少取决于它在其周期的位置。
But the radio waves picked up by a team of international researchers are unusual for a variety of reasons. Ziteng Wang, lead author of a study on the findings published in The Astrophysical Journal and a doctoral candidate at the University of Sydney's school of physics, said the object's brightness varies dramatically, and it will randomly switch on and off.
不过出于各种原因,国际研究小组探测到了异常的无线电波。该项研究发表在《天体物理学杂志》上,其主要作者、悉尼大学物理学院的博士研究生王子腾表示,这个物体的亮度变化很大,明暗毫无规律。
"The strangest property of this new signal is that it is has a very high polarisation. This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time," Wang said in a statement. "We’ve never seen anything like it." Wang added his team originally thought the signal came from a pulsar, a heavily dense, rapidly spinning star that has collapsed and as a result, gives off solar flares. Solar flares can go on for minutes to hours, making them in, a sense, random.
王同学在一份声明中说:“这种新信号最奇怪的地方在于它的高频偏振。这意味着信号光朝一个方向振荡,但这个方向会随时间的推移出现偏差。”“我们以前从未遇到过这种情况。”他还补充说,他的团队最初认为新信号来自脉冲星,一颗高密度、快速旋转的恒星经坍缩后释放耀斑。耀斑(这种信号)可以持续几分钟到数小时,某种意义上来说,它们是不定期出现的。