万物简史 第46期:埃文斯牧师的宇宙(10)

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　　寻找超新星的工作大多一无所获。从1980年到1996年，他平均每年有两次发现--那要花几百个夜晚来观测呀观测呀，真不划算。有一回他15天里有3次发现，但另一回3年里也没有发现1次。

　　"There is actually a certain value in not finding anything," he said. "It helps cosmologists to work out the rate at which galaxies¹ are evolving. It's one of those rare areas where the absence of evidenceis evidence.""实际上，一无所获也有一定价值，"他说，"它有利于宇宙学家计算出星系演变的速度。在那种极少有所发现的区域，没有迹象就是迹象。"On a table beside the telescope were stacks of photos and papers relevant to his pursuits, and he showed me some of them now. If you have ever looked through popular astronomical² publications, and at some time you must have, you will know that they are generally full of richly luminous³ color photos of distant nebulae and the like—fairy-lit clouds of celestial⁴ light of the most delicate and moving splendor⁵.

　　在望远镜旁边的一张桌子上，堆放着跟他的研究有关的照片和文献。现在，他把其中一些拿给我看。要是你翻阅过天文学的通俗出版物，你就会知道，上面大多是远处星云之类的色彩鲜艳的照片--那是由天光形成的彩色云团，华美动人，异常壮观。

　　Evans's working images are nothing like that. They are just blurry⁶ black-and-white photos with little points of haloed brightness. One he showed me depicted⁷ a swarm⁸ of stars with a trifling⁹ flare¹⁰ that I had to put close to my face to see. This, Evans told me, was a star in a constellation¹¹ called Fornax from a galaxy¹² known to astronomy as NGC1365. (NGC stands for New General Catalogue, where these things are recorded.

　　埃文斯拍下的形象根本无法与之相比。它们只是模模糊糊的黑白照片，上面有带有光环的小亮点。他让我看一幅照片，它描述了一大群恒星，上面有一点儿光焰，我不得不凑近了才看得清楚。埃文斯对我说，这是天炉星座的一颗恒星，天文学上称之为NGC1365。（NGC代表"新编总目录"，上面记录着这些材料。

　　Once it was a heavy book on someone's desk in Dublin; today, needless to say, it's a database.) For sixty million silent years, the light from the star's spectacular demise¹³ traveled unceasingly through space until one night in August of 2001 it arrived at Earth in the form of a puff¹⁴ of radiance, the tiniest brightening, in the night sky. It was of course Robert Evans on his eucalypt-scented hillside who spotted¹⁵ it.

　　过去是都柏林某人书桌上的一本笨重的书；不用说，如今是一个数据库。）在6000万年时间里，这颗恒星的壮丽死亡时所发出的光，不停地越过太空，最后在2001年8月的一天夜里以一点微光的形式抵达了地球。当然是身处桉树芬芳的山坡上的罗伯特?埃文斯发现了它。

 

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