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Astronomers¹ Discover Most Distant Star on Record

Space scientists say they have identified the most distant star ever recorded.

太空科学家表示，他们已经发现了有记录以来最遥远的恒星。

Astronomers made the discovery with the Hubble Space Telescope, operated by the American space agency NASA.

天文学家通过由美国航空航天局运营的哈勃太空望远镜发现了它。

Researchers estimated the star was 50 to 100 times the mass of our sun, and millions of times brighter.

研究人员估计，这颗恒星的质量是太阳的50到100倍，亮度是太阳的数百万倍。

It takes billions of years for light from distant stars to reach Earth.

遥远恒星发出的光要花数十亿年才能到达地球。

The team said the star's light is believed to have traveled for 12.9 billion years before reaching our planet.

该团队表示，这颗恒星的光被认为在到达地球之前已经传播了129亿年。

This means the star would have existed when the universe was about seven percent of its current age.

这意味着这颗恒星在宇宙大约是目前年龄的7%的时候就已经存在了。

A member of the research team, Brian Welch, named the extremely hot and bright star Earendel.

该研究小组的成员布莱恩·韦尔奇将这颗极热、极亮的恒星命名为厄伦德尔。

That is an Old English name that means morning star or rising light.

这是一个古英文名字，意思是晨星或升起的光芒。

"We're seeing the star as it was about 12.8 billion years ago, which puts it about 900 million years after the Big Bang," Welch said.

韦尔奇说：“我们看到的这颗恒星大约是它128亿年前的样子，也就是大爆炸之后的9亿年。”

He is a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University in the state of Maryland.

他是马里兰州约翰斯·霍普金斯大学的博士生。

He was the lead writer of a study describing the finding in the publication Nature.

他是发表在《自然》杂志上描述这一发现的一项研究的主要作者。

The Big Bang is the explosion that many scientists believe created the universe.

大爆炸是许多科学家认为创造了宇宙的爆炸。

"We definitely just got lucky," Welch said of the discovery.

韦尔奇在谈到这一发现时说：“我们绝对是幸运的。”

Although scientists on Earth can now see its light, Earendel itself surely no longer exists, Welch said.

韦尔奇说，尽管地球上的科学家现在可以看到它的光，但厄伦德尔本身肯定已经不存在了。

This is because such huge stars have short lives.

这是因为如此巨大的恒星的寿命很短。

The star probably existed for a few hundred million years before dying in a supernova explosion, Welch added.

韦尔奇还说，这颗恒星可能存在了数亿年，然后在一次超新星爆炸中死亡。

The previous record-holder is named Icarus.

之前的纪录保持者名叫伊卡洛斯。

It is a similar, huge star observed by Hubble.

这是哈勃望远镜观测到的一颗类似的巨大恒星。

It is believed to have formed 9.4 billion years ago.

据信，它形成于94亿年前。

In both cases, astronomers were able to see the light from the star because of an effect known as gravitational lensing.

在这两种情况下，天文学家都能够看到恒星发出的光，是因为一种被称为引力透镜的效应。

It is the result of gravity from groups of closer galaxies² between Earth and the star.

它是地球和恒星之间距离较近的星系群引力作用下的结果。

The gravity acts like a lens to magnify distant objects in the background.

引力的作用就像透镜一样，可以放大背景中远处的物体。

Hubble has observed the light from galaxies that date to about 400 years after the Big Bang.

哈勃望远镜观测到了大爆炸后约400年的星系发出的光。

But individual stars at such great distances are not possible to identify.

但是，距离如此遥远的单个恒星是不可能被识别的。

"Usually they're all smooshed together," said NASA astrophysicist Jane Rigby, who took part in the study.

参与这项研究的美国航空航天局天体物理学家简·里格比说：“通常情况下，它们都混在一起。”

She said, "Here, nature has given us this one star--highly, highly magnified, magnified by factors of thousands--so that we can study it."

她说：“在这里，大自然给了我们这颗恒星——高度放大，放大了数千倍——这样我们就可以研究它。”

"It's such a gift really from the universe," Rigby added.

里格比还说：“它真的是宇宙赐予的礼物。”

Welch said that Earendel may have been the main star in a two-star system, or possibly even a triple-or quadruple-star system.

韦尔奇说，厄伦德尔可能是双星系统中的主星，甚至可能是三星或四星系统中的主星。

He noted³ that there is a small chance it could be a black hole.

他指出，它是一个黑洞的可能性很小。

But he added that observations gathered in 2016 and 2019 suggest that is not the case.

但他还说，2016年和2019年收集的观察结果表明，情况并非如此。

The researchers said NASA's James Webb telescope should help them learn more about the star and its parent galaxy⁴.

研究人员表示，美国航空航天局的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜应该可以帮助他们了解更多有关这颗恒星及其母星系的信息。

The Webb telescope is 100 times more powerful than Hubble.

韦伯太空望远镜的灵敏度是哈勃太空望远镜的100倍。

Rigby said that by studying stars: "We are literally⁵ understanding where we came from because we're made up of some of that stardust."

里格比说，通过研究恒星：“我们确实了解了我们从哪里来，因为我们是由一些星尘组成的。”