Once all the dishes were properly configured, the astronomers calculated they required ten days of clear weather in all the locations to collect the data that were needed. When they began their search in April 2017 the weather behaved, and they got five petabytes of data in seven days. These data were transported to the Haystack Observatory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, on half a tonne of hard drives.

在所有的碟形望遠鏡配置好后，宇航員們推算出他們需要10個晴天在全方位去收集他們所需的數(shù)據(jù)。在2017年的四月份，天氣良好，他們在7天內(nèi)收集了5個拍子節(jié)的數(shù)據(jù)。這些數(shù)據(jù)通過半噸的硬盤驅(qū)動器被送往美國麻省理工學(xué)院的海斯塔克天文臺以及德國波恩的馬克斯·普朗克射電天文研究所。

詞匯

Configured\使…成形；按特定形式裝配

Petabytes\拍字節(jié)

These many numbers underwent much crunching. On April 10th the result was revealed. The first real picture of a black hole, which looks satisfyingly black and blobby, consists of radiation emitted by hot gases on the far side of the black hole and then bent by its gravity into a tube of light with darkness in its central cavity. The brighter yellow at the base of the circle indicates gases moving particularly quickly, hinting at a something of a slingshot e?ect taking place as the vortex of gases travel in a clockwise direction, much like water pouring down a plug hole.

這些數(shù)據(jù)經(jīng)歷了無數(shù)次的推敲演算。4月10日，結(jié)果被揭曉。第一張真實的黑洞圖片，看起來有著令人滿意的黑色和斑點狀，這些斑斑點點由黑洞遠側(cè)的熱氣體釋放的輻射組成，然后在重力作用下彎曲成一管光，在中心腔中有黑暗。圓圈底部較亮的黃色表示氣體運動特別快，暗示著當(dāng)氣體漩渦沿順時針方向運動時，就會產(chǎn)生某種彈弓效應(yīng)，就像水從塞孔中倒流一樣。

詞匯

Crunching/咬碎，咬碎聲；扎扎地踏

Vortex/ 渦流；漩渦；（動亂，爭論等的）中心；旋風(fēng)

Blobby/滿是滴狀斑點的

Plug/插頭；塞子；栓

In time, the same approach should be able to track changes in the environment around this black hole and others, helping to show, among other things, how the vast jets of energy it emits get their oomph and structure. In the meantime, there are two important take away messages. One is that black holes are round, as Einstein’s theory of relativity predicted they would be. The world is used to Einstein being proved right; but each test that might contradict him and doesn’t is an event.

同時，同樣的方法理論上能夠跟蹤這個黑洞和其他黑洞周圍環(huán)境的變化，這也有助于揭示，在眾多物質(zhì)之中，這些浩瀚的能量噴射潮是怎樣獲得他們的吸引力和他們的構(gòu)造。與此同時，有兩個重要的帶走信息。其一是黑洞是圓的，正如愛因斯坦的相對論預(yù)測的那樣。世界習(xí)慣了愛因斯坦被證明是正確的;但每一次證明他的理論正確與否的測試都會得到全世界的關(guān)注。

詞匯

Vast/浩瀚；廣闊無垠的空間

Oomph/吸引力

Contradict/反駁；否定；與…矛盾；與…抵觸

The other is that if they see a possibility fascinating and spectacular enough, astronomers will be remarkably dogged in its pursuit, even using the whole moving Earth to plumb the heavens.

換而言之，如果天文學(xué)家們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種足夠迷人，壯觀的可能觀察到的事物，他們將會竭盡全力探索這個可能性的存在，甚至利用整個不斷移動的地球來探測天空。

詞匯

Plumb/使垂直；探測，探索