哈勃生日快乐:太空望远镜庆祝在轨30周年
Today, April 24, 2020, the Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 30th birthday in orbit, and what an incredible 30 years they have been. The observatory has peered into space like no other mission before, providing data that has changed our understanding of the universe and dazzled us with the beauty of the cosmos.
今天，2020年4月24日，哈勃太空望远镜在轨道上庆祝它的30岁生日，这是多么不可思议的30年啊。在此之前，天文台从未像现在这样深入太空，它提供的数据改变了我们对宇宙的理解，让我们为宇宙之美而倾倒。
The achievements of Hubble cannot be overstated. Its first image, snapped on May 20, 1990, was a photo of a binary star, HD96755, in the open cluster NGC 3532, also known as the Pincushion Cluster, about 1,300 light-years away from us. Over the following three decades, the telescope has delivered over 1 million observations, from planets in the Solar System to galaxies in the first billion years of the universe.
哈勃的成就怎么说都不为过。它的第一张照片拍摄于1990年5月20日，是一颗名为HD96755的双星，位于离我们约1300光年远的NGC 3532开放星团，也被称为平尾星团。在接下来的30年里，该望远镜已经完成了100多万次观测，从太阳系的行星到宇宙最初10亿年的星系。
Alfredo Carpineti
Many facts we now take for granted were only discovered or confirmed thanks to the keen eye of Hubble and the incredible work of scientists across the world. The telescope confirmed the existence of supermassive black holes at the core of every galaxy and its observations of a particular type of supernova proved that the universe continues to expand faster and faster.
我们现在认为理所当然的许多事实，多亏了哈勃敏锐的眼睛和世界各地科学家令人难以置信的工作，才得以发现或证实。该望远镜证实了在每个星系的中心存在超大质量黑洞，它对一种特定类型超新星的观测证明了宇宙继续以越来越快的速度膨胀。
The Bubble Nebula, also known as NGC 7635, is an emission nebula located 8 000 light-years away. NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team
Hubble was also instrumental in estimating crucial properties of the Milky Way, such as its mass and size. The data collected, combined with the observations of the European Space Agency’s Gaia, puts the mass of the Milky Way at about 1.5 trillion Suns and 129,000 light-years in diameter. Hubble's observations are not just about the wider mysteries of the cosmos, it has also discovered plenty within our Solar System; from observations of aurorae on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede to the discovery of the fifth moon of Pluto. It even discovered Arrokoth, the most distant world ever explored by humanity.
哈勃还帮助估算了银河系的重要性质，比如它的质量和大小。根据收集到的数据，再加上欧洲航天局的盖亚观测结果，银河系的质量约为1.5万亿个太阳，直径为12.9万光年。哈勃的观测不仅仅是关于宇宙的更广泛的奥秘，它还在我们的太阳系中发现了很多;从观察木星的卫星Ganymede的极光到发现冥王星的第五颗卫星。它甚至发现了Arrokoth，人类探索过的最遥远的世界。
The Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation. NASA, ESA/Hubble and the Hubble Heritage Team
Much of science is about predicting phenomena and making observations to see if the predictions are correct. A notable prediction that was proven to be true was the Refsdal supernova. This event took place in a galaxy over 10 billion light-years away with a large cluster of galaxies between us and this object (a crucial fact). The clusters warp space-time to such a degree that multiple images of the more distant galaxy that hosts of Refsdal supernova were captured. Since those images were not from the same time, astronomers saw the explosion several times. The last image of it taken on December 11, 2015, was snapped by Hubble. These observations allowed us to test models of how space-time is warped by gravity.
许多科学都是通过预测现象和观察，以确定判断是否正确。一个被证明是正确的著名预测是Refsdal超新星。这个事件发生在一个距离我们100亿光年的星系中，在我们和这个物体之间有一个巨大的星系团(一个重要的事实)。星系团扭曲时空的程度如此之深，以至于拍摄到许多遥远星系的图像，这些星系是超新星的宿主。由于这些图像不是来自同一时间，天文学家看到了几次爆炸。它的最后一张照片由哈勃拍摄于2015年12月11日。这些观测让我们测试时空是如何被引力扭曲的一种模型。
Hubble’s most recent refurbishment was in 2009 and since then it has developed some problems due to its impressive age. However, thanks to the work of the Hubble team it continues to perform well, and will hopefully help us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos for a long time to come.
哈勃最近的一次翻新是在2009年，从那以后，由于它令人印象深刻的年龄，它出现了一些问题。然而，由于哈勃团队的工作，它继续表现良好，并有望帮助我们在未来很长一段时间内解开宇宙之谜。
If you want to join in the celebrations, check out this tool to find out what Hubble photographed on your birthday.
如果你想参加庆祝活动，通过这个工具，找出哈勃在生日当天拍摄了什么。
This is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, this galaxy-studded view represents a "deep" core sample of the universe, cutting across billions of light-years. NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on 20 June 2019 as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 1.36 billion kilometres away. NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)
