難以解釋的巨型行星（圖）
05-30
難以解釋的巨型行星（圖）
此圖顯示了太陽、天體COROT-exo-3b和木星的相對大小。天體COROT-exo-3b的質量是木星的21.6倍。
Huge Planet Defies Explanation
| Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours. | 天文學家們發現了一個行星大小的天體，密度極高，僅用4天零6個小時就圍繞其主恆星旋轉一周。 |
| The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the disc overy has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet. Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that. | 該天體叫做COROT-exo-3b，屬於一類被稱為褐矮星的失敗恆星，但是發現該天體的研究小組沒有排除它就是一顆行星的可能性。褐矮星是失敗的恆星，它們燃燒鋰，但是質量不夠大，無法產生為恆星供給能量的氫氦熱核聚變。行星既沒有燃燒鋰，也沒有氫氦熱核聚變。 |
| "It has puzzled us; we"re not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain. | 「這使我們感到困惑，我們不能夠確定應該如何劃分行星和褐矮星的界限，」西班牙加那利天體物理學院的天文學家漢斯·迪格說。該學院位於加那利群島上。 |
| The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass. | 該天體的質量比木星大20倍，但大小基本相同。它不屬於此前所發現的行星和恆星範疇：最大的行星擁有12個木星的質量，最小的恆星擁有70個木星的質量。 |
| If astronomers confirm the object as a planet, it would weigh in as the most massive and densest planet found so far. A full study will be detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. | 如果天文學家們證實該天體是一顆行星，那麼它將作為到目前為止所發現的質量最大、密度最高的星體而加入到行星的行列。全部研究資料將詳細地記錄在《天文學與天體物理學》雜誌上。 |
| "COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck", said Francois Bouchy, an astronomer at the Institut d"Astrophysique in Paris. "But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We"re now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet." | 「COROT-exo-3b可能是純粹靠運氣發現的一顆稀有天體，」巴黎天體物理研究院的天文學家弗朗索瓦·布奇說，「但是，或許它只不過是新發現的一類特大行星中的一顆，這類行星所環繞的恆星比我們的太陽質量更大。我們現在開始認為恆星質量越大，其行星質量也越大。」 |
| Ground-based telescopes around the world helped pinpoint the object, including observatories in France, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, Israel and Spain"s Canary Islands. | 全世界的地面望遠鏡都來幫助確認該天體，包括坐落在法國、智利、德國、夏威夷、以色列以及西班牙加那利群島上的望遠鏡。 |
| The hunt for exoplanets has intensified over recent years, with astronomers usually finding such objects indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on parent stars. Another team showcased what might be the first direct image of an exoplanet around a sun-like star in September. | 近些年來，天文學家們加強了對系外行星的搜尋工作，他們通常利用系外行星對其主恆星的引力影響而間接地發現這些天體。9月份，另外一個研究小組突出地展示了類日恆星周圍一顆系外行星的圖像，它可能是第一次直接拍下的系外行星圖像。 |
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