猎户座中巨大的“参宿四”恒星即将爆炸成为超新星

Orion is one of the most well-known constellations across the universe — but the mythical warrior may be missing his right shoulder before long.

猎户座是宇宙中最著名的星座之一，但神话中的勇士可能不久就会失去右肩。

The giant red star known as Betelgeuse, situated almost perpendicular to Orion’s belt, has rapidly dimmed since October. By mid-December, the once shining star, usually among the top 10 brightest stars in the sky, had plummeted out of the top 20, reported Villanova University’s Edward Guinan in an Astronomer’s Telegram.

这颗被称为参宿四的巨大红星几乎垂直于猎户座的腰带，自去年10月以来迅速变暗。维拉诺瓦大学(Villanova University)的爱德华·吉南(Edward Guinan)在一份天文学家的电报中称，到12月中旬，这颗曾经闪亮的恒星(通常是天空中最亮的10颗恒星之一)突然从前20名中坠落。

“Now the outline of Orion is noticeably different with Betelgeuse so faint,” said Guinan.

“现在猎户座的轮廓明显不同了，参宿四很模糊，”吉南说。

Astronomers have pointed out that the light of Betelgeuse, what astronomers call a “semi-regular variable star,” is known for fluctuating brightness. Yet, the rapid dimming as of late is unusual, they say, prompting them to wonder if the star’s spectacular demise is approaching. The explosive death of a star, also called a supernova, would cause Betelgeuse to suddenly burn even brighter before vanishing forever.

天文学家指出，被天文学家称为“半规则变星”的参宿四的光，以其波动的亮度而闻名。然而，他们说，最近的快速变暗是不寻常的，这促使他们怀疑这颗恒星壮观的死亡是否即将来临。一颗恒星的爆炸死亡，也被称为超新星，会导致参宿四突然燃烧得更亮，然后永远消失。

“The biggest question now is when it will explode in a supernova,” said Sarafina Nance, a UC Berkeley astrophysics researcher, on Twitter. The 8.5 million-year-old star probably “isn’t exploding any time soon,” she added in the tweet thread, “but will be a gorgeous spectacle” when it does.

“现在最大的问题是，它什么时候会变成超新星，”加州大学伯克利分校(UC Berkeley)天体物理学研究员萨拉菲娜·南斯(Sarafina Nance)在Twitter上说。她在推特中补充道，这位有着850万年历史的明星可能“不会很快爆发”，“但当它爆发时，将会是一个华丽的奇观”。

The massive Betelgeuse is 20 times the mass of our sun, and would engross Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt and possibly even Jupiter if we were to supplant that star into our own solar system. It’s also one of the Milky Way’s closest neighbors at just 600 light-years away. But the explosion associated with the star’s demise won’t have any effect over life on Earth — aside from a good show — before fading into eternity.

这个巨大的参宿四的质量是我们太阳的20倍，如果我们取代水星，金星，地球，火星，小行星带，甚至木星进入我们的太阳系，它将占据水星，金星，地球，火星，甚至木星。它也是银河系最近的邻居之一，离我们只有600光年。但是，与恒星死亡相关的爆炸不会对地球上的生命产生任何影响——除了一场精彩的演出——直到消失于永恒。

Betelgeuse’s supernova “would be so incredibly cool!” Nance told National Geographic. “By far and away the most incredible thing to happen in my life.”

参宿四的超新星“会非常酷!”南斯告诉《国家地理》杂志。“这是我一生中最不可思议的事情。”

Unfortunately, we have no idea when the main event will go down. If the star continues to fade for another couple of weeks, “then all bets are off,” Guinan also told NatGeo. Recent studies have predicted that it will happen within the next million years, and as soon as 100,000 years from now. And there’s the possibility that it already exploded, possibly hundreds of years ago. We just haven’t waited long enough to see its impacts on the night sky.

不幸的是，我们不知道主事件什么时候结束。吉南还对国家地理频道说，如果这颗恒星继续退色几周，“那么所有的希望都破灭了。”最近的研究预测，它将在未来100万年内发生，最快将在10万年后发生。有可能它已经爆炸了，可能是几百年前。我们只是没有等足够长的时间来观察它对夜空的影响。

“It’s actually quite rare to study a star this well pre-explosion, whenever that happens,” said Nance. “This will inevitably yield cool and interesting ideas for what happens to stars right before they explode.”

南斯说:“事实上，在爆炸之前研究恒星是非常罕见的。”“这将不可避免地为恒星爆炸前的情况提供一些很酷很有趣的想法。”