外星人来了？加拿大发现15亿光年外重复无线电波

加拿大的一架望远镜在两个月内，捕获到13个快速射电暴，其中有一个很不同寻常的重复电波，这个电波来自15亿光年外。科学家表示，不能排除这一电波是来自外星宇宙飞船的可能性。

Astronomers have revealed details of mysterious signals emanating from a distant galaxy, picked up by a telescope in Canada.

加拿大的一架望远镜捕获到来自遥远星系的神秘信号，近日天文学家揭秘了这些信号的细节。

emanate ['eməneɪt]：vt.vi.发出，散发

The precise nature and origin of the blasts of radio waves is unknown.

这些快速射电暴的性质和来源尚不得而知。

Among the 13 fast radio bursts, known as FRBs, was a very unusual repeating signal, coming from the same source about 1.5 billion light years away.

在这13个快速射电暴（FRB）中，有一个电波很不同寻常，它来自15亿光年外，并且是重复电波。

light year：光年

[小知识：什么是“快速射电暴”？]

宇宙中有一种快速发生，辐射能量极高又迅速消失的神秘现象，叫做“快速射电暴”（FRBs），这种爆发持续时间极短，通常只有几毫秒，是一种物理起源尚不明确的河外射电束，却能够释放出相当于太阳在一整天内释放的能量，以至于可以在数十亿光年之外的距离被观察到，但它们具体的产生机制究竟是什么，仍然存在争论。甚至有人认为这是外星人发出的信号。

Such an event has only been reported once before, by a different telescope.

此前研究者用不同的望远镜也捕捉到过同样的电波。

"Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there," said Ingrid Stairs, an astrophysicist from the University of British Columbia (UBC).

“第二次捕捉到重复电波，意味着我们还可能捕捉到更多，”不列颠哥伦比亚大学的天体物理学家英格丽·斯泰尔斯称。

astrophysicist：[,æstrəʊ'fiːzɪsɪst]：n.天体物理学家

"And with more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles - where they're from and what causes them."

“有了更多重复电波和更多可供研究的资源，我们也许能够解开这些宇宙的谜题：这些电波是从何而来，又是什么原因造成的。”

The CHIME observatory, located in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, consists of four 100-metre-long, semi-cylindrical antennas, which scan the entire northern sky each day.

捕捉到这一电波的是加拿大氢强度测绘实验射电望远镜。它位于不列颠哥伦比亚省奥卡诺根山谷，由4个100米长的半圆柱天线组成，每天都会对整个北部天空进行扫描。

The telescope only got up and running last year, detecting 13 of the radio bursts almost immediately, including the repeater.

这台望远镜于去年启用，并在启用后不久就检测到13次射电爆，包括这个重复电波。

The research has now been published in the journal Nature.

这一研究发表在《自然》杂志上。

"We have discovered a second repeater and its properties are very similar to the first repeater," said Shriharsh Tendulkar of McGill University, Canada.

加拿大麦基尔大学的斯里哈什·滕杜卡尔说：“我们发现了重复的电波，它的属性与上一次发现的电波非常相似。”

"This tells us more about the properties of repeaters as a population."

“这使我们获得了更多关于这些电波整体特性的信息。”

There are a number of theories about what could be causing them.

目前存在多种理论解释这些宇宙电波的来源。

They include a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field that is spinning very rapidly, two neutron stars merging together, and, among a minority of observers, some form of alien spaceship.

例如，这些电波可能来自一颗具有强磁场的快速旋转的中子星，可能是两颗中子星合并在了一起等。此外，有少数观察者认为，这些电波其实是来自某种外星宇宙飞船。