天文学家将在星际天体上探寻外星科技的痕迹 [英国媒体]

Astronomers to check interstellar body forsigns of alien technology

天文学家将在星际天体上探寻外星科技的痕迹

Green Bank telescope in West Virginia willlisten for radio signals from ‘Oumuamua, an object from another solar system

位于西弗吉尼亚的绿岸望远镜将收听“奥陌陌”——一颗来自其他恒星系的天体——的无线电信号


 
‘Oumuamua. Scientists will monitorthe asteroid to see if it is transmitting anything. Photograph: ESO/M.Kornmesser/PA

“奥陌陌”。科学家将监视这颗天体，以便确认它是否向外传输任何信号。图片：ESO/M.Kornmesser/PA

Astronomers are to use one of the world’slargest telescopes to check a mysteriousobject that is speeding through the solar system for signs of alientechnology.

天文学家将使用世界上最大望远镜之一的绿岸望远镜观察一颗快速穿过太阳系的神秘天体，以确认其是否有任何外星科技的痕迹。

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginiawill listen for radio signals being broadcast from a cigar-shapedbody which was first spotted in the solar system in October. The bodyarrived from interstellar space and reached a peak speed of 196,000 mph as itswept past the sun.

位于西弗吉尼亚的绿岸望远镜将收听这个雪茄形的天体发出的无线电信号。这颗天体于今年十月被发现。这颗天体从其他恒星系飞抵太阳系，当它飞过太阳时，其最高速度达到了19.6万英里/小时。

Scientists on the Breakthrough Listenproject, which searches for evidence of alien civilisations, said the GreenBank telescope would monitor the object, named ‘Oumuamua, from Wednesday. Thefirst phase of observations is expected to last 10 hours and will tune in tofour different radio transmission bands.

突破探听计划的科学家们一直在寻找外星文明的证据。他们说绿岸望远镜将从本周三开始监听这颗叫“奥陌陌”的天体。第一阶段的监听有望持续十个小时，并收听四个不同的无线电传输频道。

“Most likely it is of natural origin, butbecause it is so peculiar, we would like to check if it has any sign ofartificial origin, such as radio emissions,” said Avi Loeb, professor ofastronomy at Harvard University and an adviser to the Breakthrough Listenproject. “If we do detect a signal that appears artificial in origin, we’llknow immediately.”

“这颗天体很有可能是自然形成的，但它太奇怪了，我们想检查一下它是否有任何人工痕迹，比如发射无线电，”艾维·鲁伯，哈佛大学的天文学教授，同时也是突破监听计划的一名顾问。“如果我们检测到任何人工痕迹，我们马上就会知道。”

The interstellar body, the first to be seenin the solar system, was initially spotted by researchers on the Pan-Starrstelescope, which the University of Hawaii uses to scan the heavens for killerasteroids. Named after the Hawaiian word for “messenger”, the body was pickedup as it swept past Earth at 85 times the distance to the moon.

这颗在太阳系首次被观测到的星际天体是由泛星计划望远镜的研究者们发现的。这台望远镜是夏威夷大学用以寻找太空中对地球有威胁的小行星的。这颗天体被用夏威夷语言命名为“信使”，它在距地球约85倍地月距离飞过时被发现。

While many astronomers believe the objectis an interstellar asteroid, its elongated shape is unlike anything seen in theasteroid belt in our own solar system. Early observations of ‘Oumuamua showthat it is about 400m long but only one tenth as wide. “It’s curious that thefirst object we see from outside the solar system looks like that,” said Loeb.

虽然很多天文学家都相信这个天体是一颗跨星际小行星，其细长的形状跟我们在太阳系小行星带中观察到的小行星的形状都截然不同。对“奥陌陌”的早期观察发现其长度约为400米，而宽度仅为长度的十分之一。“很奇怪，我们观测到的第一颗太阳系外天体是这个样子的，”鲁伯说。

The body is now about twice as far fromEarth as the sun, but from that distance the Green Bank telescope can stilldetect transmissions as weak as those produced by a mobile phone. Loeb saidthat while he did not expect Green Bank to detect an alien transmission, it wasworth checking.

现在这颗天体距地球的距离大约是两倍日地距离，但即使在这个距离上绿岸望远镜也能检测到一个手机发出的无线电信号。鲁伯说尽管他并不期望绿岸望远镜能探测到任何外星信号，但仍然值得尝试一下。

“The chances that we’ll hear something arevery small, but if we do, we will report it immediately and then try tointerpret it,” Loeb said. “It would be prudent just to check and look forsignals. Even if we find an artefact that was left over and there are no signsof life on it, that would be the greatest thrill I can imagine having in mylifetime. It’s really one of the fundamental questions in science, perhaps themost fundamental: are we alone?”

“我们能收听到什么东西的机会微乎其微，但如果我们真的听到了，我们会马上报告并试着翻译这个信号，”鲁伯说。“我们会很小心地检查这个天体并寻找信号。即使我们发现这是一个人工制造物体的残骸，并且没有任何生命迹象存在，这也会变成我生命中能想象到的最令人兴奋的事。这是一个基本的科学问题，或许是最基本的：我们是否是宇宙中唯一的文明？”

The BreakthroughListen projectwas launched at the Royal Society in London in 2015,when the Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking announced the effort to listenfor signs of life on planets that orbit the million stars closest to Earth. The$100m project is funded by the internet billionaire YuriMilner, and has secured time on telescopes in the US and Australia tosearch for alien civilisations.

突破探听计划发起于2015年在伦敦的皇家学会，剑桥大学的宇宙论学者斯蒂芬·霍金宣布该计划将寻找距地球最近的上百万颗恒星的行星上的生命信号。这个一百万美元的项目由互联网富豪尤里·米尔纳资助，并预订了美国和澳大利亚的望远镜使用时间以寻找外星文明。

Astronomers do not have good ideas abouthow such elongated objects could be created in asteroid belts. By studying‘Oumuamua more closely, they hope to learn how they might form and whetherthere are others in the solar system that have so far gone unnoticed. “If it’sof natural origin, there should be many more of them,” Loeb said.

天文学家并不清楚为什么小行星带会产生这么个细长的形状的天体。随着对“奥陌陌”的深入研究，他们希望能够弄清楚该形状产生的原因，并进一步了解在那个到目前为止都没有被注意到的恒星系中是否还有其他这种形状的天体。“如果它是自然产生的，那应该还有更多这样的小行星，”鲁伯说。

Previous work on the body found it to beextremely dark red, absorbing about 96% of light that falls on it. The colouris associated with carbon-based molecules on comets and asteroids.

对这颗天体之前的研究发现其颜色为极暗的红色，大概吸收96%辐射到其上的可见光。这种颜色跟彗星和小行星上的碳基分子有关。

If, as expected, the telescope fails topick up any intelligent broadcasts from ‘Oumuamua, the observations are stillexpected to aid scientists in understanding the body. Other signals detected bythe Green Bank telescope could shed light on whether the object is shrouded ina comet-like cloud of gas, and reveal whether it is carrying water and icethrough the solar system.

如果，和人们猜想的一样，望远镜没有收听到任何来自“奥陌陌”的智慧生命信号，这个观察仍将有望帮助科学家了解这个天体。绿岸望远镜探听到的其他信号将弄清楚这个天体是否被笼罩在类似彗星云一样的气体中，以及它是否带着水和冰穿越太阳系。