一塊小隕石撞擊月球

景一

On January 21， 2019， something smacked1 into the moon， creating a flash of light. Things hit the moon all the time. But this time one thing was different. Thousands of people were watching. The impact took place during a total lunar eclipse2. And there are pictures to prove it.

2019年1月21日，有東西撞上了月球，形成了一道閃光?？偸怯形矬w撞擊到月球上，但這次有一件事是不同的。有成千上萬的人正在看著。這次的撞擊發(fā)生在月全食期間。還有一些照片可以證明這一點(diǎn)。

Astronomers3 are using the pictures to gauge4 the size of the rock that hit the moon. Jorge Zuluaga is one of them. He works at the University of Antioquia in Medellín， Colombia. He and his colleagues gathered images from amateur5 astronomers in Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Those two countries are in South America and the Caribbean. There was also a video livestreamed6 on TimeAndDate.com from an observatory7 in Morocco.

天文學(xué)家正在利用這些圖片來估算撞擊月球的隕石的大小。豪爾赫·蘇盧阿加就是其中之一。他在哥倫比亞梅德倫的安提奧奎亞大學(xué)工作。他和他的同事從哥倫比亞和多米尼加共和國(guó)的業(yè)余天文學(xué)家那里收集圖像。這兩個(gè)國(guó)家分別在南美洲和加勒比地區(qū)。摩洛哥的一個(gè)天文臺(tái)也在TimeAndDate.com上直播了一段視頻。

With these data， Zuluagas team calculated characteristics of the impact. For instance， it likely released the energy equivalent of about half a ton of TNT. That means the rock that hit the moon was somewhere between the size of a softball and a basketball. It probably had the mass of a few cans of paint—7 to 40 kilograms. The astronomers also calculate that the object smacked into the moon at 13.8 kilometers per second.

有了這些數(shù)據(jù)，蘇盧阿加的團(tuán)隊(duì)計(jì)算出了撞擊的特征。例如，它可能釋放出相當(dāng)于約半噸TNT的能量。這意味著撞擊月球的隕石大小介于壘球和籃球之間。它的質(zhì)量可能只有幾罐油漆的重量——7到40公斤。天文學(xué)家們還計(jì)算出這個(gè)物體以每秒13.8公里的速度撞擊了月球。

Their results appear in a paper posted January 28 at arXiv.org.

他們的研究結(jié)果于1月28日發(fā)表在了arxiv.org上。

Heres how Zuluaga remembers the story. He couldnt see the eclipse because it was cloudy. But the next day， he saw reports on Twitter. Some observers had reported a bright flash. People assumed it was a meteorite8 strike. Zuluaga contacted amateur astronomers he had worked with before and found several who had photographed the impact.

以下是蘇盧阿加對(duì)故事的回憶。那天他看不到月食，因?yàn)樘礻帯５诙?，他在推特上看到了?bào)道。一些觀察者說有一道明亮的閃光。人們認(rèn)為那是一次隕石撞擊。蘇盧阿加聯(lián)系了他以前合作過的業(yè)余天文學(xué)家，找到了幾個(gè)拍攝到撞擊的人。

The researchers then estimated that the impact probably left a crater on the moon between 5 and 10 meters wide. That scar could be spotted9 with a current or future lunar orbiter10.

研究人員隨后估計(jì)，撞擊可能會(huì)在月球上留下一個(gè)5到10米寬的隕石坑。這個(gè)疤痕可能會(huì)被目前或未來的月球軌道飛行器發(fā)現(xiàn)。

That the impact happened during a lunar eclipse is important， Zuluaga says. It supports the idea that the moon is hit with meteorites almost constantly. Scientists estimate something hits the moon once an hour， on average.

蘇盧阿加說，月食期間發(fā)生的撞擊很重要。它證明了月球幾乎總是被隕石撞擊的觀點(diǎn)?？茖W(xué)家估計(jì)平均每小時(shí)就有一個(gè)物體撞上月球。

The event also highlights the potential for discovery when amateur and professional astronomers work together. “A lunar eclipse is not as interesting for professionals as for amateur astronomers，” Zuluaga says. “But when you have these kinds of surprises， it is a blessing to have amateurs as friends.”

這件事也同樣突出了當(dāng)業(yè)余天文學(xué)家和專業(yè)天文學(xué)家一起合作時(shí)能夠有所發(fā)現(xiàn)的潛力。蘇盧阿加說：“對(duì)于專業(yè)人士來說，月食不像業(yè)余天文學(xué)家認(rèn)為的那么有趣。但是當(dāng)有這樣的驚喜時(shí)，有業(yè)余愛好者做朋友是件好事?！?/p>