#太平洋电脑网#什么鬼:我们已知的最怪异恒星的故事( 九 )


这一点都不出乎意料 。 一篇发表于2015年关于塔比星的论文已经论断该干扰的发生:“一个更有力的预测是未来的变暗事件应该每隔约750天发生一次 , 一次在2015年4月发生”——因开普勒望远镜发生故障而没有观测到——“另一次在2017年5月 。 ”
But what was really unexpected was that thestar’s brightness returned to normal in a few days, dimming again by almost 2%on June 13 and 14 and bouncing back yet again in days. On July 4, itsbrightness dipped by 0.5% before returning to normal. At the time this articlewas published, the star dimmed by another 3%.
但真正让人始料未及的是该星的亮度在几天后恢复正常 , 然后在6月13日和14日又减弱了大概2% , 在之后几天内再次恢复正常 。 在7月4日 , 该星亮度减少了0.5% , 随后恢复正常 。 在本文发表的时间 , 该星亮度又减少了3% 。
The next major dimming event is expected tooccur in mid-2019. Hopefully that’s enough time for astronomers to think upmore plausible explanations.
下一次亮度干扰时间预计在2019年中期 。 希望这段时间足够天文学家思考出令人信服的解释 。
To complicate things further, Tabby’s starhas been showing signs of long-term dimming. It’s slowly fading away. BradleySchaefer, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, decided to dig aroundfor older records of Tabby’s Star from sky surveys. He found out that the starhad been photographed over 1,200 times between 1890 and 1989. Going throughthis 100 years’ worth of data, he discovered thatthe star has dropped in its overall brightness by nearly 20%. There have beenmore studies about this phenomenon and all seem to confirm it. This long term dimming isn’tsteady either. There have been times when Tabby’s star decided to perk up andbe bright… before starting to fade again.
让情况更加复杂的是 , 塔比星已显示出长期变暗的迹象 。 它正在逐渐淡去 。 BradleySchaefer , 路易斯安那州立大学的一名天文学家 , 决定在天空研究中深挖塔比星的旧资料 。 他发现在1890年到1989年间塔比星被拍摄超过1200次 。 在这100年间的资料中 , 他发现该恒星的整体亮度已经减弱了将近20% 。 更多对此现象的研究似乎都证实了这一点 。 塔比星的长期变暗并不稳定 。 在再次变暗前 , 曾经有段时间它的亮度增加过 。
Astronomer Huan Meng from the University ofArizona recently led a study in conjunction with Boyajian where Tabby’s starwas observed two new telescopes: Swift (which observes in the X-ray andultraviolet wavelengths) and Spitzer (infrared). They found that allwavelengths showed consistent dimming. However, the rate of dimming wasdifferent in different wavelengths. Meng concludes that the most likelyexplanation for this is microscopic particles orbiting the star (i.e. acircumstellar disc). This accounts for both the star’s long-term fading and itsdrastic dimming events – but a solid conclusion still needs more research,accurate prediction and observing what’s actually happening. Only then can wefully understand this unique star.
亚利桑那大学的天文学家Huan Meng最近正与Boyajian联合带领一项研究 , 依靠两座最新加入塔比星观测的望远镜:斯威夫特望远镜(主要观测X射线和紫外线)和斯皮策望远镜(红外线) 。 他们发现所有波长的电磁波都发生了持续的减弱 。 然而 , 不同波长的电磁波减弱的程度也不同 。 Meng总结说 , 最有可能的原因是有微小粒子围绕该星旋转(例如星周圆盘) 。 这些微小粒子造成了该星的长期变暗和急剧变暗事件——但是得出更有说服力的结论仍需要进行更多研究、准确预测和对当前发生事件的观测 。 只有那时我们才能完全理解这颗特异的恒星 。


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