科學家宣佈再次探測到引力波

Four months after the historic first-ever detection of gravitational waves, scientists said they have directly detected another gravitational wave washing over the Earth.

在引力波歷史性的首次檢測到四個月之後，科學家們近日表示，他們直接探測到另一個引力波正在席捲全球。

The gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime, were observed for a second time on Dec. 26, 2015, at 03:38:53 UTC, scientists said at a press conference during the American Astronomical Society conference in San Diego, California.

科學家在加利福尼亞州聖地亞哥舉行的美國天文學會會議的新聞發佈會商表示，他們於2015年12月26日再次探測到了“時空結構中的漣漪”--引力波。

Scientists said that the incredibly faint ripple that eventually reached Earth was the result of the spinning dance of a binary black hole pair on the brink of merging, although this duo weighed only 8 and 14 solar masses.

科學家表示，此次最終到達地球的引力波非常微弱，它是由兩個二進制黑洞相互繞轉邊緣併合引起的，儘管這兩個黑洞的質量分別僅相當於8個和14個太陽質量。

Their merger produced a single, more massive spinning black hole that is 21 times the mass of the sun, and transformed an additional sun's worth of mass into gravitational energy, they said.

它們的併合產生了一個總質量爲21個太陽質量、更加巨大的旋轉黑洞，並將額外的1個太陽質量的能量轉化成引力能。

The scientists detected the gravitational waves using the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) interferometers, located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington.

科學家通過激光干涉引力波天文臺在路易斯安那州和華盛頓州的兩個干涉儀探測到了此次的引力波。

In contrast, LIGO's historic first detection on Sept. 14, 2015 resulted from a merger of two black holes 36 and 29 times the mass of the sun.

相比之下，於2015年9月14日首次探測到的引力波，是由兩個29倍及36倍太陽質量的黑洞合併形成的。

It confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and marked the beginning of the new field of gravitational wave astronomy.

引力波的發現，證實了阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦1915年提出的個廣義相對論的重大預測，標誌着引力波天文學新領域的開端。