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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
探索世界奥秘之Supermassive Black Holes(超大质量黑洞) Unit15
In January 2000, John Dubinski set out to calculate the final fate of our galaxy1, the Milky2 Way, and that of our nearest neighbor, Andromeda.
The Andromeda galaxy is actually falling towards the Milky Way, which means there probably have some close encounter at some point in the future.
At the moment, Andromeda is moving towards us at 400,000 kilometers per hour and scientists think one day it will hit us. So Dubinski decided3 to work out what will happen to us in three billion years when the two galaxies4 finally collide. After a long and complex calculation, the result was a vivid picture of the impending5 collision. A detailed6 prediction of how the Milky Way will end.
The clouds of gas hit each other at these huge velocities7, hundreds of kilometers per second, and that basically creates great shockwaves which move through the gas and heat it to great temperature.
At the heart of this maelstrom8, the boiling gases hurl9 towards the two converging10 black holes. This kick-starts a violent dual11 feeding frenzy12 as the two monsters spiral towards each other.
And eventually those two independent black holes with their accretion13 discs will spiral together and merge14 themselves and form an even more massive black hole.
Two possible fates await us. If we are on one side of the galaxy when this clash happens, we could be thrown out into the emptiness of space- if we are lucky.
The second possibility is that we're on the other side of the galaxy at the time of the collision in which case we could be thrown right into the center of this chaos15.
In the active center of the merging16 galaxy, the huge feeding black hole will trigger a giant stellar explosions and supernovae. This is bad news for Earth.
There could be a horrible catastrophe17. The wave of radiation from the blast wave of the supernova would hit the atmosphere and boil it off in an instant. So the atmosphere would be gone, the seas would boil off into space and the Earth would be toast.
1 galaxy | |
n.星系;银河系;一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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2 milky | |
adj.牛奶的,多奶的;乳白色的 | |
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3 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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4 galaxies | |
星系( galaxy的名词复数 ); 银河系; 一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
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5 impending | |
a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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6 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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7 velocities | |
n.速度( velocity的名词复数 );高速,快速 | |
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8 maelstrom | |
n.大乱动;大漩涡 | |
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9 hurl | |
vt.猛投,力掷,声叫骂 | |
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10 converging | |
adj.收敛[缩]的,会聚的,趋同的v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的现在分词 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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11 dual | |
adj.双的;二重的,二元的 | |
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12 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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13 accretion | |
n.自然的增长,增加物 | |
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14 merge | |
v.(使)结合,(使)合并,(使)合为一体 | |
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15 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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16 merging | |
合并(分类) | |
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17 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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