2020年诺奖物理奖颁给见证黑洞存在的三位科学家

　　英语科技类阅读系列第7篇 — 2020年诺贝尔物理学奖颁给了＂见证黑洞存在＂的三位科学家
　　Category: Physics
　　Text: 654 words
　　2020 Physics Nobel goes for delving into black holes
　　2020年的诺贝尔物理学奖颁给了致力于研究黑洞的科学家们
　　The winners showed black holes could exist, and then helped demonstrate they actually
　　did.
　　获奖者展示了黑洞可能存在，然后帮助证明他们确实存在。
　　研究揭示了宇宙中最神秘的物体—黑洞。 现在帮助证明它们存在的科学家刚刚获得了科学界的最高荣誉诺贝尔奖。
　　Research that revealed the most mysterious objects in the cosmos —  black holes . Now scientists that helped prove their existence have just won the highest honor in science, a Nobel Prize.
　　研究揭示了宇宙中最神秘的物体—黑洞。 现在，帮助证明它们存在的科学家刚刚获得了科学界的最高荣誉，诺贝尔奖。
　　Black holes are massive objects. Their gravitational field is so strong that nothing can escape it, not even light. At their centers, black holes harbor a puzzling zone called a singularity. There, the laws of physics cease to make sense.
　　黑洞是巨大的物体。它们的引力场非常强大，任何东西都无法逃脱，甚至光也不行。 在它们的中心，黑洞有一个令人费解的区域，称为奇点。在那里，物理定律不再有意义。
　　No question, these objects are strange. Three scientists who helped uncover details about black holes share this year’s Nobel Prize in physics. Roger Penrose works at the University of Oxford in England. Reinhard Genzel works in Garching, Germany at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the University of California, Berkeley. Andrea Ghez is at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced their selection on October 6.
　　毫无疑问，这些物体很奇怪。帮助发现黑洞细节的三位科学家分享了今年的诺贝尔物理学奖。Roger Penrose 在英国牛津大学工作。Reinhard Genzel在德国加兴在马克斯普朗克外星物理研究所和加州大学伯克利分校工作。Andrea Ghez就读于加州大学洛杉矶分校。瑞典皇家科学院于10月6日宣布了他们的选择。
　　Black holes ＂really represent the breakdown of our physical understanding of the laws of physics,＂ says Ghez. Studying such exotic objects ＂pushes forward on our understanding of the physical world,＂ she noted in a phone call during the announcement.
　　Ghez说，黑洞＂确实代表了我们对物理定律的物理理解的崩溃＂。她在公告期间的电话中指出，研究这些奇异的物体＂推动了我们对物理世界的理解＂。
　　When black holes were first proposed, scientists were not sure that they existed. The idea for them arose out of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Penrose eventually performed mathematical calculations that showed black holes are physically possible. For his contribution, Penrose will receive half of the 10 million Swedish kronor prize (more than $1.1 million).
　　当黑洞首次被提出时，科学家们并不确定它们是否存在。 他们的想法源于阿尔伯特爱因斯坦的广义相对论。  Penrose 最终进行了数学计算，证明黑洞在物理上是可能的。 由于他的贡献， Penrose 将获得 1000 万瑞典克朗奖金（超过 110 万美元）的一半。
　　The other half will be split between Genzel and Ghez for their work showing that one of these dark objects lurks at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
　　另一半将在 Genzel 和 Ghez 之间分配，因为他们的工作表明这些黑暗物体之一潜伏在我们银河系的中心。
　　2020 年诺贝尔物理学奖授予 Roger Penrose、Reinhard Genzel 和 Andrea Ghez（从左到右）以表彰他们对黑洞的研究。No longer just a weird concept 不再只是一个奇怪的概念
　　＂For many years, physicists questioned the very idea of a black hole,＂ said David Haviland. He chaired this year’s Nobel Committee for Physics. During an announcement of the prize, he noted that it ＂celebrates … the discovery of one of the most exotic objects in our universe.＂
　　＂多年来，物理学家质疑黑洞的想法，＂大卫哈维兰说。他是今年诺贝尔物理学委员会的主席。在宣布该奖项时，他指出它＂庆祝……发现了我们宇宙中最奇特的物体之一。＂
　　Penrose invented strategies to tackle the complexities of black holes. His work revealed that black holes were not just mathematical ideas suggested by Einstein’s theory. His math showed they could form in conditions likely to exist in the universe. In 1965, he published a landmark paper in Physical Review Letters. It described how matter could collapse to form a black hole. It also would have a singularity at its center.
　　Penrose 发明了解决黑洞复杂性的策略。他的工作表明，黑洞不仅仅是爱因斯坦理论提出的数学思想。他的数学表明，它们可以在宇宙中可能存在的条件下形成。 1965年，他在《物理评论快报》上发表了具有里程碑意义的论文。它描述了物质如何坍缩形成黑洞。它的中心也会有一个奇点。
　　Some of Penrose’s insights came while walking in the woods, he said. ＂I would think about these questions as I was walking … thinking about what it would be like to be in this situation with all this material collapsing around you and what would happen.＂
　　他说， Penrose 的一些见解是在树林里散步时得出的。 ＂我边走边想这些问题……想一想在这种情况下，所有这些材料都在你周围坍塌，以及会发生什么。
　　Beginning in the 1990s, Ghez and Genzel each led teams that used telescopes to peer at the center of the Milky Way. They were measuring the orbits of stars that zip around the galaxy’s heart. Those stars move so fast, both teams found, that only an incredibly compact, massive object such as a giant black hole could explain their trajectories. That work, which has continued in the decades since, helped confirm the existence of black holes. They also helped confirm the predictions of general relativity.
　　从1990年代开始，Ghez和Genzel各自领导了使用望远镜观察银河系中心的团队。 他们正在测量环绕银河系心脏的恒星的轨道。 两个团队都发现，这些恒星移动得如此之快，以至于只有像巨大黑洞这样非常紧凑的大质量物体才能解释它们的轨迹。这项工作在此后的几十年里一直在继续，帮助证实了黑洞的存在。 他们还帮助证实了广义相对论的预测。
　　The Milky Way’s central black hole is called Sagittarius A*. It has 4 million times the mass of the sun. Scientists now think such supermassive black holes sit at the center of most large galaxies.
　　银河系的中央黑洞被称为人马座A*。 它的质量是太阳的 400 万倍。 科学家现在认为这种超大质量黑洞位于大多数大型星系的中心。
　　Ghez is only the fourth woman to win the Nobel Prize in physics. Marie Curie was the first, in 1903. After her were Maria Goeppert Mayer in 1963 and Donna Strickland in 2018.
　　Ghez 是第四位获得诺贝尔物理学奖的女性。 居里夫人是第一个，于1903 年。在她之后是 1963 年的 Maria Goeppert Mayer 和 2018 年的 Donna Strickland。
　　黑洞的存在可能会改变我们物理教科书里面的内容