By Amir Alexander
5 October, 2006
Amir Alexander 2006 10月5日

A team of scientists studying the most massive and energetic stars in the universe stumbled upon a cosmic "crime" in the making: the destruction of a potential planetary system. Led by Zoltan Balog of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, the astronomers were using the Spitzer Space Telescope to observe O-type stars, the largest and most powerful stars in the universe. With a mass of up to 100 times that of the Sun -- the radiation from O-type stars is one million times as powerful.
一个研究那些宇宙中最重、充满能量的恒星的科学家小组偶然发现了一个正在进行的“宇宙犯罪”：毁灭一个潜在的行星系统。在亚利桑那大学 Steward 天文台的 Zoltan Balog 领导下，天文学家使用斯必泽空间望远镜观察O型恒星——宇宙中最重、最强大的恒星。由于质量达到100倍太阳质量，O型恒星发出的辐射比太阳强大一百万倍。



Too close for comfort
The Sun-like star on the left wandered to close to the giant O-type star on the right, and is having its protoplanetary disk blown off. The comet-like tail shows that ongoing process of "photoevaporation" in this image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Z. Balog (Univ. of Ariz./Univ. of Szeged)
太靠近并不好受
左侧类太阳的恒星徘徊接近右边巨大的O型星，同时它的原行星盘正在被吹散。在斯必泽空间远镜的这幅图像中，彗星状的尾巴显示出正在进行中的“光蒸发”。感谢：NASA/JPL-Caltech/Z. Balog (Univ. of Ariz./Univ. of Szeged)


According to prevailing theories, the radiation from O-type stars is so strong, that it affects smaller stars that stray into the giant's neighborhood. In particular, O-type stars would burn away the disk of gas and dust that commonly surrounds young Sun-like stars. These clouds, known as protoplanetary disks, are the stuff from which planets are formed, and without them no planetary system can evolve. As a result, Balog and his colleagues expected to see nothing by bare stars in the neighborhood of the giant O-type, bereft of planets or of protoplanetary disks that form them.
根据主流的理论，O-型星发出的辐射太强大会影响那些偶然进入其附近的较小恒星。特别是O-型星会烧掉通常环绕在年轻的类太阳恒星周围的气体和尘埃。这些云就是原行星盘，行星诞生的材料来源，没有它们行星系统就不能演化。因此，Balog 和他的同事期望看到暴露在巨大的O-型星周围的恒星会发生什么，丧失行星或形成它们的原行星盘。

What they actually saw was far more dramatic: A group of Sun-like stars in star-forming cloud IC 1396, 2450 light years away, had strayed close by a giant and violent O-star, and at least one of them was clearly in the process of losing its protoplanetary disk. "Unfortunately these Sun-like stars just got a little too close to the fire" observed University of Arizona Regents Professor George Rieke ruefully. It was like observing a crime as it happened.
实际上他们看到的更富有戏剧性：在2450光年远的恒星形成星云 IC 1396 中一群太阳型恒星被一个巨大、狂暴的O-型星吸引，至少其中一个已经毫无疑问的正处在丧失其原行星盘的过程中。“很不幸这些太阳型恒星离火太近了一点。”亚利桑那大学校董、George Rieke 教授悲伤的评论道。就像是在观察一场犯罪的发生。

The process captured by Spitzer is known as "photoevaporation." The enormous energy output from the O-star heats up the disks surrounding smaller neighboring stars to such a degree that the gas and dust literally boil off. When the disk can no longer hold together, photon (or light) blasts from the O-star blow the evaporated material into interstellar space. That was precisely the dramatic image that Balog and his group witnessed in the Spitzer images.
斯必泽捕捉到的这个过程就是所谓的“光蒸发”。O-型星所输出的巨大能量将临近恒星周围的盘加热到相当的程度以至于气体和尘埃差不多蒸发掉了。当盘体不能再保持在一起时，从O-型星喷射出的光子（或者说光）将剩余物质吹入星际空间。这就是 Balog 和他的小组从斯必泽拍到的图片中所目击到的戏剧性画面。


名词解释：
Small Star with Evaporating Disk 带有正在蒸发中的盘的小恒星
Tail 尾状物
Hot Massive Star 热的大质量恒星
0.5 light year 0.5光年

这个有意思~~~

痛苦啊……又一次发现生命的希望破灭了……

惨！被扼杀在萌芽中！

给斯必泽颁个一级警员奖

O型恒星的星风如此强烈，而且还是在1光年之外。。。

楼上的要注意驱散星盘的不是星风。星风是恒星散发数的物质流，如电子、质子、氦以及尘埃微粒。这里在起作用的是光，它有两个作用：一、加热、使气体和尘埃运动加剧更容易脱离恒星引力；二、推动、光照产生微弱的推力（光压）驱动物质离开恒星。

引文:
真希望人类快点发展，充当宇宙110的角色。

谈不上犯罪吧？当父母的不希望自己还在孕育中的孩子来到人世而已。