Scientists have just spotted the biggest ever known merger between black holes which happened nine BILLION years ago科学家们刚刚发现了距离地球90亿光年的双黑洞之间有史以来的最大的一次合并
素材来源：《每日邮报》 翻译：世界播
Astronomers have discovered the largest ever collision of binary black holes happened nine billion years ago.
天文学家发现有史以来最大的黑洞合并事件，发生地距我们约90亿光年。
It was one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe and was detected from wrinkles in space and time, known as gravitational waves.
这是宇宙中最大的灾难性事件之一，它是从时空的褶皱中被探测到的，被称为引力波。
The celestial impact formed a new, supermassive black-hole about 80 times larger than the sun.
天体撞击形成了一个比太阳大80倍的新的超大质量黑洞。
It happened nine billion years ago but the ripples only made it to earth last year, and was undiscovered until this year.
它发生在90亿光年外的地方，但引力波涟漪直到去年才到达地球，直到今年才被发现。
The detection of the huge event was enabled by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
这一巨大事件的探测是由先进激光干涉仪引力波观测台(LIGO)实现的。
The collision's gravitational waves were detected after passing through Earth on July 29 last year.
这次碰撞产生的引力波是在去年7月29日经过地球后被探测到的。
Detection of the principle wave was then followed by signs of three smaller black hole mergers in August.
在探测到主波之后，8月份又出现了3个较小黑洞合并的迹象。
It brings the total number of black hole merger detections to ten, along with a neutron star collision, during the past three years.
在过去的三年里，探测到的黑洞合并的总数达到了10次，同时还有一次中子星碰撞。
An international team, led by dozens of Austrian astronomers, have detected the event and Professor Susan Scott says she has spent most of her career hoping to detect such gravitational waves
一个由数十名奥地利天文学家领导的国际研究小组已经探测到了这一事件，苏珊·斯科特教授表示，她在自己职业生涯的大部分时间都希望能探测到这样的引力波。
She said that technology advancements were finally giving scientists answers.
她指出，技术的进步终于给了科学家答案。
This event also had black holes spinning the fastest of all mergers observed so far and it is the most distant merger in the universe ever observed, Professor Scott said.
斯科特教授说，这一事件还使黑洞旋转的速度成为迄今为止观察到的所有合并中最快的，也是迄今为止观察到的宇宙中距离最遥远的合并。
'We can't see these events any other way except through gravitational waves, as they don't emit light or radio waves ... because they're black holes,' she said.
她表示：“除了引力波，我们不能以其他方式看到这些事件，因为它们不会发射光或无线电波…因为它们是黑洞。”
The binary systems, meaning two black holes orbiting each other, eventually smash together and radiate strong gravitational waves which are very faint by the time they reach earth, said Professor Scott, from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).
来自澳大利亚研究委员理事会卓越引力波发现中心的斯科特教授表示，双星系统意味着两个黑洞围绕着彼此旋转，最终一起撞击并发射出强大的引力波，当到达地球时，这些引力波会变得非常微弱。
The detections will improve scientists' understanding of how many binary black hole systems there are in the universe and the range of their masses and how fast they spin during a merger, she said.
她指出，这些探测将使科学家更好地了解宇宙中有多少个双黑洞系统，以及它们的质量范围和它们在合并过程中的旋转速度。
Researchers plan to use LIGO's technology to detect cataclysmic events even further out in space, in the hopes they can reach back to the beginning of time.
研究人员计划使用LIGO的技术来探测更远的太空中的灾难性事件，希望它们能够追溯到时间的开始。
The next observation run to collect data will begin early next year, following work to make the gravitational wave detector more sensitive.
下一次收集数据的观测工作将于明年初开始，随后的工作是提高引力波探测器的灵敏度。
Professor Scott will present the recent results at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress in Perth later this month.
斯科特教授将于本月晚些时候在珀斯举行的澳大利亚物理研究所大会上介绍最新的研究结果。
'This should be the biggest announcement at the whole congress ... it's a pinnacle of my career,' she added.
她补充道：“这应该是整个大会上最重大的一次宣布…这将成为我职业生涯的巅峰。”
Dr Karl Wette, a postdoctoral fellow in the group at ANU and a member of OzGrav, said scientists were not sure what was formed from the neutron-star merger that was detected in August last year.
该组织的博士后卡尔·韦特博士也是奥地利大学的成员之一，他说，科学家们不确定去年8月探测到的中子星合并形成了什么。
'It could have been a neutron star that collapsed to a black hole after some time or turned immediately into a black hole,' he said.
他表示，这可能是一颗中子星在一段时间后坍塌成黑洞，或者立即变成了黑洞。
'Our new project will help to provide critical information about what we get from the merger of two neutron stars.'
“我们的新项目将有助于提供有关两颗中子星合并后会得到什么的关键信息。”
The results of the discoveries will be published in Physical Review X.
这些发现的结果将发表在《物理评论X》上。
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