正在膨脹的宇宙（組圖）

Our planet Earth, together with other planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto revolve around our Sun in what is called our Solar system. There are other systems also in our galaxy, which is called the Milky Way. [A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter.] Milky Way may be seen as a bright band in the sky consisting of trillions of stars during some periods of the year. It is similar to the galaxy Andromeda (Photo 1 ) which is the galaxy closest to us.

我們的地球和其他行星——水星、金星、火星、木星、土星、天王星、海王星、冥王星一起圍繞著太陽旋轉，構成所謂的太陽系。我們的星系被稱為銀河系，其中還存在其他的恆星系統。星系是靠引力束縛在一起的天體系統，由恆星、恆星殘骸、氣體和塵埃構成的星際介質、以及一種重要但知之不多的成分構成，其中的這種重要成分暫時被稱為暗物質。在一年中的某些時段里，銀河系在天空中可以呈現出明亮的帶狀結構，由幾萬億顆恆星組成。銀河系類似於仙女座星系（見圖1），仙女座星系是距離我們最近的星系。

But most of the stars in the sky are far away galaxies or nebula. [ A nebula an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and plasma.]

然而，天空中的多數恆星位於遙遠的星系或星雲中。星雲是由塵埃、氫氣、氦氣和等離子體構成的星際雲團。

When the great renaissance astronomer Galileo constructed his first telescope in the early years of the 17th century, it allowed him to record the phases of Venus, to pick out spots on the surface of the Sun, and to discover the 4 moons of Jupiter.

文藝復興時期，偉大的天文學家伽利略於十七世紀初製造了自己的第一架望遠鏡，藉助於該望遠鏡，伽利略記錄下金星的相位，發現了太陽表面的黑子和木星的4顆衛星。

But no astronomer could have foreseen what we see today since NASA launched with its shuttle Discovery the Hubble space telescope in 1990 (Photo 2) - named after the great astronomer Edwin Hubble who died in 1953, 37 years before the launching of the telescope. The Hubble telescope, free of the turbulence of the earth』s atmosphere, is able to see fantastic fascinating details of far away galaxies and nebula ( photos 3-9) and make measurements of the speeds of expanding supernova in our universe.

但是，以前的天文學家們不可能預見我們當今所觀察到的情況。1990年，自從美國國家航空航天管理局利用「發現」號太空梭發射了哈勃太空望遠鏡（見圖2）之後，情況大有改觀。哈勃太空望遠鏡是根據偉大的天文學家埃德溫·哈勃而命名的，哈勃於1953年去世，比這架太空望遠鏡的發射早了37年。哈勃太空望遠鏡不受地球大氣的干擾，可以觀察到遠處星系和星雲奇妙而迷人的詳細情況（見圖3至圖9），還可以測量宇宙中超新星膨脹的速度。

For example, The Eagle Nebula, seen in photo 4, is 6500 light years away from earth, 9.5 light years high, an equivalent of 95 trillion km. [1 light year is the distance light travels in one year. Approximately equal to 10 trillion km]. The color is a presentation of the surface temperature. The Eskimo Nebula for example has a surface temperature of 200,000 degrees C ( 35 times hotter than our Sun and is 3500 light years away)

例如：圖4中的鷹狀星雲距地球6500光年，它的高度有9.5光年，大約相當於95萬億公里。1光年就是光在一年中所穿行的距離，大約相當於10萬億公里。星雲的顏色可以說明其表面的溫度。例如：愛斯基摩星雲在3500光年之外，它的表面溫度有20萬攝氏度，比太陽高出35倍。

The greatest contribution of Hubble telescope is it proved that these galaxies are moving away from each other and that the universe is expanding as the great astronomer Hubble and other astronomers had predicted.

哈勃太空望遠鏡最大的貢獻是：它證實了星系與星系之間正在互相遠離，還證實了宇宙正在膨脹，正象偉大的天文學家哈勃和其他天文學家們所預測的那樣。

Four times astronauts have had to walk outside the space shuttle to repair the Hubble telescope, the last time in 2009. As a result it has been decided that it will be possible for it to continue serving up wonders until 2014, when it will be replaced by its hi-tech successor, the James Webb telescope.

為了修理哈勃太空望遠鏡，宇航員們不得不走出太空飛船四次，最後一次修理是在2009年。結果，研究人員下了定論：哈勃太空望遠鏡可以繼續提供奇妙的觀測服務，一直到2014年，到那時它的工作將由包含高科技的詹姆斯·韋伯太空望遠鏡接替。