译自: Top 10 Strangest Things in the Univers
宇宙中最奇怪的10件事情
The more we look among the stars and galaxies, the weirder things seem to get. Even space itself is puzzling, for example. Recent studies suggest that the fabric of the universe stretches more than 150 billion light-years across — in spite of the fact that the cosmos is 13.7 billion years old. From super-fast stars to the nature of matter, here we cover other strange and mysterious elements of the universe.
我们越是观测恒星与星系，好像越能得到一些不可思议的事情。例如空间本身都是令人迷惑的。最近的研究显示宇宙展开的结构有150亿光年宽，尽管宇宙本身只有137亿年。从超快恒星到自然物质，我们这里列举了其它宇宙中奇怪与神秘的元素。
10. Hypervelocity Stars
If you’ve ever gazed at the night sky, you’ve probably wished upon a shooting star (which are really meteors).But shooting stars do exist, and they’re as rare as one in 100 million. In 2005, astronomers discovered the first “hypervelocity” star careening out of a galaxy at nearly 530 miles per second (10 times faster than ordinary star movement).We have ideas about what flings these rare stars into deep space, but aren’t certain; anything from off-kilter supernova explosions to supermassive black holes might be responsible.
10.超速恒星
如果你曾经仰望星空，你很可能希望出现一颗流星（这是真正的流星）。流星虽然存在但是就像1亿分之一那样稀有。在2005年，天文学家 发现第一个超高速恒星以将尽530英里每秒（比一般的恒星移动速度快10倍）的速度冲出银河。我们已经知道是什么把这些稀有恒星抛入了外层空间，但是还有确定；从不正常超新星爆炸到超级黑洞的任何事情都可能是值得信赖的。
9. Black Holes
Speaking of black holes, what could be stranger?Beyond a black hole’s gravitational border — or event horizon — neither matter nor light can escape. Astrophysicists think dying stars about three to 20 times the mass of the sun can form these strange objects. At the center of galaxies, black holes about 10,000 to 18 billion times heavier than the sun are thought to exist, enlarged by gobbling up gas, dust, stars and small black holes. What about mid-sized types? Perhaps surprisingly, evidence is both scarce and questionable for their existence.
9.黑洞
说到黑洞，还有什么更奇怪的呢？在一个黑洞的引力边界或者黑洞表面物质和光都不能逃离。天体物理学家认为比太阳大3到20倍的垂直恒星才会形成这些奇怪的物体。在星系的中心，比太阳重1万到180亿倍的黑洞是存在的，通过吞食气体，尘埃，恒星，和小黑洞来扩大自身。中型黑洞怎么样呢？也许会令你惊奇，对于它们存在的证据既稀缺又靠不住。
8. Magnetars
The sun spins about once every 25 days, gradually deforming its magnetic field. Well, imagine a dying star heavier than the sun collapsing into a wad of matter just a dozen miles in diameter. Like a spinning ballerina pulling his or her arms inward, this change in size spins the neutron star — and its magnetic field — out of control. Calculations show these objects possess temporary magnetic fields about one million billion times stronger than the Earth’s. That’s powerful enough to destroy your credit card from hundreds of thousands of miles away, and deform atoms into ultra-thin cylinders.
8.磁星
太阳每50天自转一周，逐渐使它的磁场变形。那么，想象一个垂死的恒星比太阳折叠成只有一个十英里的直径小块的物质还要重。就像一个旋转的芭蕾舞演员把他或者她的胳膊向内拉，在大小方面的改变将中子星和它的磁场旋转的失去控制。计算显示这些物质产生的暂时磁场比地球强一千万亿。这个磁场足以在数十万里之外毁坏你的信用卡，使原子变形成为超薄的圆柱体。
7. Neutrinos
Pull out a dime from your pocket and hold it up for a second… guess what? About 150 billion tiny, nearly massless particles called neutrinos just passed through it as though it didn’t even exist. Scientists have found that they originate in stars (living or exploding), nuclear material and from the Big Bang. The elementary particles come in three “flavors” and, stranger still, seem to disappear on a whim. Because neutrinos occasionally do interact with “normal” matter such as water and mineral oil, scientists hope they can use them as a revolutionary telescope to see beyond parts of the universe obscured by dust and gas.
7.中微子
从你的口袋中拿出一枚一角硬币举上几秒种…猜猜发生了什么？大约1500亿微小的几乎无质量的中子刚刚通过它就好像它根本不存在。科学家们发现它们起源于恒星（现存的或者爆炸了的），核材料以及大爆炸。在基本粒子中有三个“口味” ，并仍然陌生，似乎消失的心血来潮。因为中微子偶然与正常的物质地例如水和矿物油相互作用，科学家们希望他们能够运用它们做为一个革命性的望远镜去观测被尘埃和气体湮没的部分宇宙。
6. Dark Matter
If you put all of the energy and matter of the cosmos into a pie and divvy it up, the result is shocking. All of the galaxies, stars, planets, comets, asteroids, dust, gas and particles account for just 4 percent of the known universe. Most of what we call “matter” — about 23 percent of the universe — is invisible to human eyes and instruments. For now. Scientists can see dark matter’s gravitational tug on stars and galaxies, but are searching feverishly for ways to detect it first-hand. They think particles similar to neutrinos yet far more massive could be the mysterious, unseen stuff.
6.暗物质
如果你将宇宙中所有的能量和物质当作一个馅饼然后瓜分它的话，结果是令人震惊的。所有的星系，恒星，行星，彗星，小行星，尘埃，气体和微粒只占到已知宇宙的4%。大多数我们称作的“物质”–大约占宇宙的23%–是肉眼看和利用仪器都看不到的。到目前。科学家们可以看见在恒星和星系上暗物质的重力牵引，但是正在狂热地的寻找可以直接探测它的方法。他们认为类似于中微子的大量微粒会是神秘也不可见的物质。
5. Dark Energy
What really has everyone on the planet confused — including scientists — is dark energy. To continue with the pie analogy, dark energy is a Garfield-sized portion at 73 percent of the known universe. It seems to pervade all of space and push galaxies farther and farther away from one another at increasingly faster speeds. Some cosmologists think this expansion will leave the Milky Way galaxy as an “island universe” in a few trillion years with no other galaxies visible. Others think the rate of expansion will become so great that it will result in a “Big Rip.” In this scenario, the force of dark energy overcomes gravity to disassemble stars and planets, the forces keeping particles sticking together, the molecules in those particles, and eventually the atoms and subatomic particles. Thankfully, humankind probably won’t be around to witness to cataclysm.
5.暗能量
真正使得行星上的每一个人包括科学家们迷惑的是什么–是暗能量。继续用饼状图来类比，暗能量是一个很大的部分–占已知宇宙能量密度中的73%。它好像弥漫在所有的空间而且以一个越来越快的速度将星系推的越来越远。一些宇宙学家认为这种膨胀将使得银河系在接下来的几万亿年里变成一个宇宙岛并且将没有其它可见的星系。其它的宇宙学家认为膨胀的比率将变得很大以至于它最终将导致一个“大撕裂”。在这种情况下，暗能量的力将克服重力去撕裂行星和恒星，这种力使得微粒粘在一起，这些微粒中的分子，最终是原子和亚原子粒子。幸运的是人类很可能将不会见证这场灾难。
4. Planets
It might sound strange because we live on one, but planets are some of the more mysterious members of the universe. So far, no theory can fully explain how disks of gas and dust around stars form planets — particularly rocky ones. Not making matters easier is the fact that most of a planet is concealed beneath its surface. Advanced gadgetry can offer clues of what lies beneath, but we have heavily explored only a few planets in the solar system. Only in 1999 was the first planet outside of our celestial neighborhood detected and in November 2008 the first bona fide explanted images taken.
4.行星
它可能听上去很奇怪因为我们就生活在一个行星上，但是行星是宇宙中更神秘的一些成员。到目前为止，没有理论能够全面的解释来自行星的气体和尘埃，特别是多岩石的行星。使得事情更复杂的是一个事实：大多数行星都隐藏在它的表面。高级设备可以提供关于底下存在什么的线索，但是我们现在只探测到了太阳系里很少的一些行星。只是在1999年才在我们的天体附近发现了第一颗行星，在2008年12月才拍摄到第一张真实的外部行星图片。
3. Gravity
The force that helps stars ignite, planets stay together and objects orbit is one of the most pervasive yet weakest in the cosmos. Scientists have fine-tuned just about every equation and model to describe and predict gravity, yet its source within matter remains a complete and utter mystery.Some think infinitesimal particles called gravitons exude the force in all matter, but whether or not they could ever be detected is questionable. Still, a massive hunt is on for major shake-ups in the universe called gravitational waves. If detected (perhaps from a merger of black holes), Albert Einstein’s concept that the universe has a “fabric” of spacetime would be on solid ground.
3.重力
帮助恒星发光，行星呆在一起，和物质绕轨道运行的力是宇宙中最普通却最弱的力。科学家们已经微调了每一个方程式和模型来描述和预测重力，然而它的来源和物质依然是完全是一个迷。一些科学家认为被称作重力子的极小微粒对所有的物质施加一个力，但是这些微粒曾经是否被发现是值得怀疑的。然而，一大部分科学家支持在宇宙中被称作重力波的观点。如果被察觉（可能来自一个合并的黑洞），阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的理论–宇宙有一个时空的交织将被做为一个坚实的基础。
2. Life
Matter and energy abound in the universe, but only in a few places is the roll of the cosmic dice perfect enough to result in life.The basic ingredients and conditions necessary for this strange phenomenon are better understood than ever before, thanks to abundant access to life here on Earth. But the exact recipe — or recipes — to go from the basic elements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur to an organism is a prevailing mystery. Scientists seek out new areas in the solar system where life could have thrived (or still may, such as below the surface of watery moons), in hopes of arriving at a compelling theory for life’s origins.
2.生命
物质和能量在宇宙中大量存在，但是只有在少数一些地方是足够的完美，能够产生生命。由于在地球上对于生命的充足接触使得对于这一奇怪现象所必要的基本成份和环境比之前有了更好的理解。但是从基本元素碳，氢，氮，磷，硫磺到有机体的演变的确切方法还是一个流行的秘密。科学家们搜寻太阳系中曾经有过生命繁荣的地方（或者可能有，例如含水的月球表面的底部），希望得到一个生命起源的令人信服的理论。
1. The Universe
The source of energy, matter and the universe itself is the ultimate mystery of, well, the universe. Based on a widespread afterglow called the cosmic microwave background (and other evidence), scientists think that the cosmos formed from a “Big Bang” — an incomprehensible expansion of energy from an ultra-hot, ultra-dense state. Describing time before the event, however, may be impossible. Still, atom smasher searches for particles that formed shortly after the Big Bang could shed new light on the universe’s mysterious existence — and make it a bit less strange than it is today.
1.宇宙
作为能量物质来源的宇宙本身就是宇宙中最神秘的事情。依据一个被称作宇宙微波背景的余晖（以及其它一些证据），科学家们认为宇宙形成于一次大爆炸–一次来自一个超热超密星球的不可思议的能量膨胀。但是，描述这一事件之前的时间是也许是不可能的。然而，原子加速器搜寻在大爆炸之后迅速形成的粒子可以对宇宙神秘存在有一个新的了解–并可以使得它不至于比今天这样的奇怪。