Supermassive Black Holes 超大质量黑洞 - 14

It means that Silk and Ree's theory may be right and if it is also right that supermassive black holes helped trigger star formation, then it must mean that all giant black holes and their galaxies¹ are connected from birth. It means the answer to the mystery of galaxy² formation may lie in the creation of the supermassive black holes at their heart.

The real implication of the relation is that whatever controlled the formation of the galaxy and whatever controlled the formation of the supermassive black hole is basically the same thing. There is only one thing behind everything.

So a supermassive black hole, a force of terrible destruction, could also be fundamental in the creation of our galaxy. Nevertheless, its latent destructive power should not be underestimated.

Back in Hawaii, Andrea Ghez has made a new discovery. She's discovered a new source of light in the center of our galaxy. The black hole may be starting to feed again.

All of a sudden, we saw something that looks like a star, but maybe it isn't a star, but it's definitely a new object in our map and the interesting thing is that it located where we think the black hole is.

Ghez thinks this spot of light could be something amazing.

One idea that I'm particularly intrigued³ by at the moment is the idea that perhaps the black hole is, is feeding more right now.

Andrea thinks that the light she sees is coming from hot gas being sucked into the vortex of the black hole. So if our black hole has started feeding again, could this affect the Earth, even though we're 24,000 light years away?

We're in absolutely no danger of being eaten by the supermassive black hole. And in fact if we do think the black hole is going through a slightly large feeding at the moment, it's tiny, it's tiny compared to what other galaxy, galaxies are doing, so in fact still this is a very quiet black hole. In spite of the fact that there might be new emission⁴ from it, it's still extremely low.

Our black hole is merely having the equivalent of a small snack feeding on a wisp of gas that's strayed too close. The black hole stopped growing billions of years ago. Only a major catastrophe⁵ could make it fire up again, something violent enough to hurl⁶ stars from the safety of our galaxy's edge into its deadly heart. And we now know that one day this catastrophe could happen.

1 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。

2 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。

3 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

4 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

5 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

6 hurl   

vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂

参考例句：

• The best cure for unhappiness is to hurl yourself into your work.医治愁苦的最好办法就是全身心地投入工作。
• To hurl abuse is no way to fight.谩骂决不是战斗。