2006年VOA标准英语-Astronomers Detect Earliest Galaxies

By David McAlary
Washington
14 September 2006

Astronomers¹ have found that the universe began lighting² up in its infancy³. They have observed the most distant and oldest galaxies⁴ ever seen, small galaxies that helped lift the cosmos⁵ out of its dark ages.

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		zooming6 in on Galaxy7 IOK-1, the reddish object in the center of the last panel, currently the most distant known galaxy about 12.88 billion light years away" src="/upimg/allimg/070419/0946060.jpg" width="210" border="0" /> A series of images zooming in on Galaxy IOK-1, the reddish object in the center of the last panel, currently the most distant known galaxy about 12.88 billion light years away

Two studies in the journal Nature suggest that galaxies were forming when the universe was only six percent of its present age. That would be not long after the so-called Big Bang, the cataclysmic explosion nearly 14 billion years ago, thought to have created all matter from an ultra-dense mass the size of a pinhead.

In one paper, Japanese astronomers, led by Masanori Iye of the National Astronomical⁸ Observatory⁹ in Tokyo, report discovering the farthest galaxy yet seen.

"It is an object 750 million years after the Big Bang," he said.  "This is the most distant, single, identified object a human being has ever discovered."

Iye's team used the Subaru telescope in Hawaii. They confirmed the age and distance of the galaxy by its redness. The redder an object is, the farther away it is. This is because light from receding¹⁰ bodies shifts downward into these lower light frequencies, just as the sound of a passing car horn drops in pitch.

Iye told Nature magazine interviewers that few galaxies existed at that primordial¹¹ time.

"To our surprise, the actual number of distant galaxies at 750 million years after the Big Bang was only one-third to one-sixth of what we had expected," he added.  "This decrease could be due to the evolution of the galaxy itself. So, we have to study more carefully, looking into different directions of the universe, and looking also deeper into fainter population of galaxies."

Another group of astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, also found galaxies a rarity in the infant universe. They looked slightly earlier, at about 700 million years after the Big Bang.

"What we've found is that, at the very earliest epochs of the universe, there seems to be a very significant deficit¹² of luminous¹³ galaxies," said Richard Bouwens of the University of California at Santa Cruz.  "The universe is simply not old enough to have allowed these luminous massive galaxies to have formed."

When Bouwens' team peered at galaxies from a later period, when the cosmos was about 900 million years old, they found many more - hundreds of them. The results of both studies support the idea that galaxies built up from much smaller pieces, when the universe was between 700 million and 900 million years old.

"The universe wouldn't necessarily look that much different than it does today, except that the galaxies that existed would be in much smaller pieces," he added.   In the universe that we see today, there are lots of very big ones, but way back then, the galaxies would be very much smaller."

It is as if the baby universe experienced a growth spurt¹⁴ after 700 million years.

1 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

3 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

4 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

5 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

6 zooming   

adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Zooming and panning are navigational tools for exploring 2D and 3D information. 缩放和平移是浏览二维和三维信息的导航工具。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Panning and zooming, especially when paired together, create navigation difficulties for users. 对于用户来说，平移和缩放一起使用时，产生了更多的导航困难。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

7 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

8 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

9 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

10 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

11 primordial   

adj.原始的；最初的

参考例句：

• It is the primordial force that propels us forward.它是推动我们前进的原始动力。
• The Neanderthal Man is one of our primordial ancestors.的尼安德特人是我们的原始祖先之一.

12 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

13 luminous   

adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的

参考例句：

• There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
• Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。

14 spurt   

v.喷出；突然进发；突然兴隆

参考例句：

• He put in a spurt at the beginning of the eighth lap.他进入第八圈时便开始冲刺。
• After a silence, Molly let her anger spurt out.沉默了一会儿，莫莉的怒气便迸发了出来。