There’s a galaxy hurtling towards our Milky Way that could wipe out life on Earth

有一個星系向我們的銀河系沖去，可能會毀滅地球上的生命

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Researchers are warning that the collision could “knock us out of the Milky Way and into space”.

研究人員警告說，這次碰撞可能“把我們從銀河系中撞到深空”。

A nearby galaxy is set to slam into the Milky Way and the “catastrophic event” could knock our solar system into disarray, according to startling scientific calculations.
Astrophysicists at Durham University conducted a computer simulation to find out more about the movement of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy that orbits the Milky Way.

根據(jù)驚人的科學(xué)計算，附近的一個星系將闖入銀河系，“災(zāi)難性事件”可能會使我們的太陽系陷入混亂。
達(dá)勒姆大學(xué)的天體物理學(xué)家進(jìn)行了計算機(jī)模擬，以了解更多關(guān)于大麥哲倫星云（LMC）的運(yùn)動，這是一個圍繞銀河系運(yùn)行的衛(wèi)星星系。

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What they found was astonishing. It turns out that the LMC is set to smack straight into our galaxy.
Even though the galaxy is 63,000 light years from the Milky Way and currently heading away from us at a rate of 250 miles per second, it is set to eventually slow down and head back towards us.

他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)令人震驚。實驗結(jié)果是LMC將直接進(jìn)入我們的銀河系。

即使這星系距離銀河系63000光年，并且目前以每秒250英里的速度遠(yuǎn)離我們，但它最終會減速并朝我們的方向前進(jìn)。

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The collision will shake the whole Milky Way and, while it may not directly impact our Solar System, lead researcher Dr Marius Cautun warns the collision could “knock us out of the Milky Way and into space.”The collision will cause stars to move and increase the risk of stars being shifted into new gravitational pulls, which could change the orbit of planets. If there is even a small variation in the distance between Earth and our Sun, this could move us from the ‘Goldilocks zone’ and make the planet too hot or too cold for life to survive on.

這次碰撞將震動整個銀河系，雖然它可能不會直接影響我們的太陽系，但首席研究員Marius Cautun博士警告說，這次碰撞可能“將我們從銀河系中撞入深空”。碰撞將導(dǎo)致恒星移動并增加恒星轉(zhuǎn)移到新引力的風(fēng)險，這可能會改變行星的軌道。如果地球和太陽之間的距離變化很小，這可能會使我們從“金鳳花區(qū)域”移開，使地球過熱或過冷而無法生存。（譯注：金鳳花區(qū)域：使智慧生命成為可能的狹窄參數(shù)頻帶．地球和宇宙正好落在這樣一個參數(shù)頻數(shù)范圍內(nèi)，使能夠構(gòu)成智慧生命的化學(xué)物質(zhì)得以產(chǎn)生．在宇宙的物理常數(shù)和地球的特性方面已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)了幾十個這種金鳳花區(qū)域。）

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But don’t panic just yet! Luckily, this intergalactic collision isn’t set to take place for another 2.5 billion years.
On the bright side, scientists say that this scary event would actually “restore the [Milky Way] to normality.” The Milky Way is quite an unusual galaxy, with a small black hole and far less stars in its halo than other galaxies.

但是不要驚慌！幸運(yùn)的是，這次星際碰撞不會發(fā)生，得再過25億年才發(fā)生。
從好的方面來講，科學(xué)家們說，這個可怕的事件實際上會“使銀河系恢復(fù)正常。銀河系是一個非常不尋常的星系，它有一個小黑洞，其光環(huán)中的恒星遠(yuǎn)少于其他星系。

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Once the LMC smashes into it,?“the central supermassive black hole will increase in mass by up to a factor of 8,”?the team?explains.
“The Galactic stellar halo will undergo an equally impressive transformation, becoming 5 times more massive.”

研究小組解釋說，一旦LMC撞擊它，“中心超大質(zhì)量黑洞的質(zhì)量將增加8倍。”
而“銀河的恒星光環(huán)將經(jīng)歷同樣令人印象深刻的轉(zhuǎn)變，變成5倍大。”（譯注：銀河系的恒星光環(huán)增加，也就是恒星的增加。）
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