位于这个主星系中心圈内的图像，是在这里发现的超新星之一。该星系中不变的光线被剔除，显示出这颗超新星。
艺术家的转绘：这里发现的超新星近看可能就是这个样子。可以看到，超新星的猛烈爆炸冲击到不稳定的恒星先前所释放的物质之中。
Faraway Star Explosions Shatter Distance Record
| The remnants of two massive stars that exploded about 11 billion years ago have shattered the record for the most distant supernovas in the known universe. | 大约110亿年前爆炸的两颗巨型恒星的残骸，超过了已知宇宙中最远超新星的距离，打破了记录。 |
| The faraway explosive remnants, found using a new method, could help researchers learn more about the evolution of the universe, how the elements in it formed and how they were distributed in later generations of stars and planets. | 研究人员利用一种新方法发现了这些遥远的恒星爆炸后的残骸，该发现有助于他们对宇宙的演化、宇宙中元素的形成以及这些元素在新一代恒星和行星中的分布拥有更多的了解。 |
| "When stars explode, they spew matter into space. Eventually, gravity collapses the matter into a new star, which could have planets such as Earth around it," said study leader Jeff Cooke of the University of California, Irvine. | “当恒星爆炸的时候，将物质喷射到太空。最终，引力会使这些物质塌缩，形成一颗新恒星，这样的新恒星周围可能拥有类似地球的行星，”该研究的主持人、加州大学尔湾分校的杰夫·库克说。 |
| Before the discovery of these distant supernovas, which belong to a category known as Type IIn, the most distant known supernovas of the same type were 6 billion light-years away, and the most distant of any supernova type were 9 billion light-years away. | 这些遥远的超新星属于一类被称为IIn型的超新星。在发现它们之前，最远的、同一类型的已知超新星位于60亿光年以外；在所有类型的超新星中，最远的一颗在90亿光年以外。 |
| A supernova occurs when a massive star (more than eight times the mass of the sun) dies in a powerful explosion. Type IIn supernovas result from the explosive death of stars that are 50 to 100 times the mass of the sun. These stars shed most of their material before they die, and when they finally explode the remaining material is spewed out into space, plowing through the previously expelled gas. The collisions between the gas clouds make the entire stellar remnant gleam brightly for several years after the star's demise. | 相当于太阳质量8倍以上的巨型恒星在猛烈的爆炸中死亡后，超新星就诞生了。IIn型超新星是由50至100倍于太阳质量的恒星爆炸死亡后而产生的。这些恒星在死亡之前流散了大部分物质材料，当最终爆炸时，将剩余的物质材料喷射到太空，从先前排出的气体中穿过。这种气团之间的碰撞使得整个恒星残骸发出明亮的光，这种光在恒星死亡之后可以持续好几年。 |
| To find supernovas, astronomers compare images of the same area of the sky taken at different times. A new pinprick of light that appears in on | 为了发现超新星，天文学家们将不同时间拍下的同一天区的图像作比较。一张图像上出现针孔大小的新亮点，并随着时间的推移好象在渐渐变暗，这可以表明恒星爆炸时的明暗变化。 |
| Cooke and his colleagues used a variation on this traditional method: They examined combined data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey for the same patch of sky for four different years. By comparing the images, Cooke's team identified four very distant objects that appeared to brighten and fade over time. | 库克及同事在这一传统方法的基础上做了变更：他们的研究结合了加-法-夏望远镜资料概览中在四个不同的年份里对同一片天区的记录资料。通过对比这些图像资料，库克的研究小组发现了四个非常遥远的天体，它们起初看起来明亮并且随着时间的推移而变暗。 |
| The data showed that the light from the supernovas had traveled nearly 11 billion light-years to reach Earth. That means the explosions happened 11 billion years ago, and the light is just now reaching us. | 资料表明来自这些超新星的光线穿行了将近110亿年才到达地球，这意味着爆炸是110亿年前发生的，而爆炸之光却刚刚到达我们这里。 |
| "The universe is about 13.7 billion years old, so really we are seeing some of the first stars ever formed," Cooke said. | “宇宙大约137亿岁了，因此我们正在观察的实际上是最初形成的一些恒星，”库克说。 |
| Cooke's technique is "powerful and reliable," said astronomer Alicia Soderberg of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Soderberg was not involved in the new study, which is detailed in the July 9 issue of the journal Nature. | 马萨诸塞州剑桥市哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的天文学家艾丽西娅·索德伯格说，库克利用的技术是“有效而可靠的”。索德伯格没有参与这项新研究。该研究的详细情况记录在7月9日出版的《自然》杂志上。 |
| The new method should make it possible to identify even more distant supernovas, possibly even some of the very first stars that blew apart. Other efforts already planned, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, could identify thousands of candidate supernovas. | 利用这个新方法来发现更多遥远的超新星应该是有可能的，甚至可能会发现最初发生爆炸的恒星。研究人员已经计划做出其他的努力，例如：利用大型巡天望远镜，可能会发现成千上万的候选超新星。 |
| "This new method could not have been published at a better time," Soderberg said. | “这个新方法公布的时机再好不过了，”索德伯格说。 |
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