茫茫银河系中离我们最近的邻居，长得原来那么美！ OUR CLOSEST GALACTIC NEIGHBORS

抬头望向夜空，你是否幻想过天空中的那些星星其实都是什么样子的呢？虽然远在亿万光年之外，但是科学家们还是捕捉到了其中一些星星的倩影。准备好和我一起看星星了吗？

Astronomers have released stunning new images from one our closest galactic neighbors, the Small Magellanic Cloud—a dwarf galaxy located ‘just’ 200,000 light years from Earth.

天文学家近日发布了一组令人震撼的照片，这些照片来自银河系中离我们最近的邻居——小麦哲伦星云——这个矮星系与地球相距20万光年。

The pictures—which were taken using the MUSE instrument on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, as well as others—have helped researchers to identify an elusive object known as an isolated neutron star outside our own galaxy for the first time.

欧洲南方天文台在智利建造了名为甚大望远镜的大型光学望远镜，这些照片就是用这台望远镜上的多元光谱探测仪拍摄到的，辅助拍摄的还有其他仪器。这些照片帮助研究人员首次辨认出这个在银河系之外被称为孤立中子星的神秘天体。

This neutron star is essentially a stellar corpse buried among clouds of gas left over from a 2,000-year-old supernova—the titanic explosion that occurs at the end of a massive star's life.

这颗中子星实际上是恒星的残骸。2000多年前一颗超新星发生了巨大的爆炸，它遗留下来的气体云层将这些残骸掩盖了起来。

These stars are typically just 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) across yet weigh more than our Sun because they are so dense. They are thought to be abundant across the Universe, although they are very difficult to find because they only emit light at X-ray wavelengths.

这些恒星的直径通常只有10千米（6.2英里），但却比太阳还要重，因为它们的密度非常大。它们存在于整个宇宙当中，但却很难被发现，因为只有在X射线的波长下才能看见它们发光。

The images show a spectacular ring of gas surrounding the isolated neutron star in a star system known as 1E 0102.2-7219.

这些图像显示，在被称为1E 0102.2-7219的星系中，这颗孤立中子星由壮观的气体环围绕着。

The scientists, led by ESO fellow Frédéric Vogt, noticed that this ring was centered on a well-known X-ray source which had long puzzled astronomers. Upon further examination with the Chandra X-ray Observatory they were able to identify the object at the center as an isolated neutron star. The fact that the star was identified with the help of optical observations is particularly exciting, the astronomers said.

在欧洲南方天文台研究员弗雷德里克·沃格特的带领下，科学家们发现，该气体环的中心是一个X射线源，而这一X射线源曾长期困扰着天文学家。 经过钱德拉X射线天文台的进一步检查，他们辨认出，位于气体环中心的物体是一颗孤立的中子星。天文学家说，让他们感到格外兴奋的是，这颗恒星是通过光学观测而识别出来的。

“If you look for a point source, it doesn't get much better than when the Universe quite literally draws a circle around it to show you where to look,” Vogt said in a statement.

沃格特表示：“当你在寻找一个特定的光源点时，最好的运气莫过于宇宙直接在这个点周围画了一个圈，指引你该往哪儿看。”

好啦好啦~本译知道这篇文章里出现了一些让大家读起来云里雾里的专业名词。但是想想只能对着星夜幻想一个个神话故事的古人，能借助科学技术一探太空究竟的我们，真是太幸运了，不是吗？