Scientists have made the first radio-telescope detection of a huge free-floating planet beyond our solar system, a new study said.
一新研究称,科学家们已对太阳系外的一颗巨大自由浮动的行星进行了首次射电望远镜探测。
The planetary-mass object, called SIMP J01365663+0933473, is about a dozen times more massive than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and has surprisingly strong magnetic fields, according to the study published in The Astrophysical Journal earlier this week.
本周早时于《天体物理期刊》上发表的研究表明,这颗名为SIMP J01365663+0933473的行星,质量比太阳系中最大的行星木星大上十几倍,且拥有惊人的强磁场。
Scientists detected the enormous planet from the US-based Very Large Array observatory1.
科学家们从美国的超长基线阵列天文台探测到了这颗巨大的行星。
Wandering some 20 light years away from the sun, the 200-million-year-old planet has been dubbed2 "rogue3 planet" as it is traveling through space without orbiting any parent star.
由于它运行于太空,却又未有围绕任何母星运行,这颗在离太阳约20光年的地方游荡、有2亿年历史的行星被称为“流浪行星”。
This object is right at the boundary between a planet and a brown dwarf4, or ’failed star,’ and is giving us some surprises that can potentially help us understand magnetic processes on both stars and planets, Melodie Kao, leader of the study and Hubble postdoctoral fellow at Arizona State University, said in a press release.
这项研究的负责人,亚利桑那州立大学 的哈勃大学 博士后Kao于一份新闻稿中称:“这个物体就在一颗行星和一颗棕矮星之间,或者说是失败的恒星,它给我们带来了一些惊喜,可以帮助我们理解恒星和行星上的磁化过程。”
According to the study, the huge planet possesses a powerful magnetic field over 200 times stronger than that of Jupiter and can generate dazzling auroras outshining Earth’s polar lights.
根据这项研究,这颗巨大的行星拥有比木星强200倍的强大磁场,能产生比地球极光更耀眼的极光。
On Earth, auroras are generated by interactions between its magnetic field and solar winds. But the fact that the rogue planet is not in the vicinity of any stellar winds makes its auroras something of a puzzle.
在地球上,极光是由磁场和太阳风相互作用产生的。但是,没有任何星风在这颗无赖行星的附近。所以说,它的极光的产生让人有些费解。
This particular object is exciting because studying its magnetic dynamo mechanisms5 can give us new insights on how the same type of mechanisms can operate in extrasolar planets - planets beyond our Solar System, Kao said.
Kao亦表示,这个特殊的物体实在令人兴奋,因为研究它的磁发电机机制,可以为我们关于如何在太阳系以外的太阳系外行星中运行相同类型的研究提供新发现
Despite its weight, the newly discovered planet has a radius6 only 1.2 times that of Jupiter, the study said. It has a surface temperature of about 825 degrees Celsius7. By comparison, the sun’s surface temperature is about 5,500 degrees Celsius.
该研究表示,尽管这个新发现的行星的重量很大,它的半径却仅有木星的1.2倍,它的表面温度约为825℃。相比之下,太阳的表面温度约为5500℃。
1 observatory [əbˈzɜ:vətri] 第8级 | |
n.天文台,气象台,瞭望台,观测台 | |
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2 dubbed ['dʌbd] 第8级 | |
v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 );把…称为;配音;复制 | |
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3 rogue [rəʊg] 第12级 | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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4 dwarf [dwɔ:f] 第7级 | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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5 mechanisms ['mekənɪzəmz] 第7级 | |
n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 );机械装置;[生物学] 机制;机械作用 | |
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