Astronomers have made a surprising discovery about the first brown dwarf ever identified.

天文学家对有史以来第一颗发现的褐矮星有了令人惊讶的发现。

New observations suggest the object is actually two brown dwarfs orbiting each other.

新的观察表明，该物体实际上是两颗相互绕着彼此运行的褐矮星。

The American space agency NASA describes a brown dwarf as an object that "straddles the dividing line between stars and planets."

美国航天局NASA将褐矮星描述为“跨越恒星和行星之间分界线的物体。”

Brown dwarfs form like stars.

褐矮星的形成就像恒星一样。

This means they can grow dense and hot enough to collapse under their own gravity.

这意味着它们可以变得足够密集和高温，在自身重力作用下坍塌。

But they never grow dense or hot enough to begin the process of nuclear fusion needed to turn into a star, NASA said.

但NASA表示，它们的密度或温度永远不会达到足以开始变成恒星所需的核聚变过程。

Because of this, brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars.

正因为如此，褐矮星有时被称为失败恒星。

Many brown dwarfs are similar to gas giant planets and weigh just a few times more than the mass of Jupiter.

许多褐矮星类似于气态巨行星，重量仅为木星质量的几倍。

Others can be much larger.

其他的可以大得多。

The first brown dwarf was discovered in 1995 by researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

第一颗褐矮星是由加州理工学院（Caltech）的研究人员于1995年发现的。

The discovery was made with the help of the institute's Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California.

这一发现是在加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥附近的帕洛玛天文台的帮助下发现的。

But after many years of studying the object, known as Gliese 229B, scientists wondered why its brightness was less than expected for an object of its size.

但经过多年对这颗名为Gliese 229B的天体的研究，科学家们想知道为什么它的亮度低于预期的大小。

New research now shows that the brown dwarf is actually two objects.

现在的新研究表明，褐矮星实际上是两个物体。

The observations came from the Very Large Telescope, which sits in a desert area of northern Chile.

这些观测来自位于智利北部沙漠地区的甚大望远镜。

Those observations showed that one of the brown dwarfs is about 38 times the mass of Jupiter, while the other is 34 times Jupiter's mass.

这些观察表明，其中一颗褐矮星的质量约为木星质量的38倍，而另一颗则是木星质量的34倍。

In a statement, the researchers said data collected by the telescope suggests the two objects orbit each other every 12 days.

研究人员在一份声明中表示，望远镜收集的数据表明，这两个物体每12天绕对方运行一圈。

That is less than half the time it takes for the moon to orbit the Earth.

这还不到月球绕地球运行时间的一半。

"The observed brightness levels of the pair match what is expected for two small dim brown dwarfs in this mass range," the statement added.

声明补充道：“观测到的这对恒星的亮度水平与这个质量范围内两颗昏暗的小褐矮星的预期相符。”

The two brown dwarfs are gravitationally linked to each other in what is known as a binary system.

这两颗褐矮星在所谓的二元系统中相互引力联系。

Such a situation is commonly observed among stars but is rare for brown dwarfs.

这种情况在恒星中常见，但在褐矮星中却很少见。

After the new discovery, the two objects were given new names – Gliese 229Ba and Gliese 229Bb.

新发现后，这两个物体被赋予了新名称——Gliese 229BA和Gliese 229Bb。

The brown dwarfs are believed to orbit a star called a red dwarf.

据说，褐矮星围绕一颗名为红矮星的恒星运行。

The two sit about 19 light-years away from our solar system.

两者距离太阳系约19光年。

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year – about 9.5 trillion kilometers.

光年是光一年传播的距离，约9.5万亿公里。

The research was co-led by Jerry Xuan, a graduate student at Caltech.

该研究由加州理工学院研究生杰瑞·宣共同领导。

He said in a statement that Gliese 229B was always considered "the poster child" for a brown dwarf.

他在一份声明中表示，Gliese 229B一直被认为是褐矮星的“典型代表”。

"And now we know we were wrong all along about the nature of the object," he added.

“现在我们知道我们对物体性质的看法一直是错误的，”他补充道。

"It's not one but two.

“这不是一个，而是两个。

We just weren't able to probe separations this close until now."

直到现在，我们还无法探测如此接近的分离。”

Astronomers had identified brown dwarf pairs before, but never any that orbited each other so closely.

天文学家之前已经发现了褐矮星对，但从未发现过如此紧密地相互绕行的褐矮星对。

The research results recently appeared in a study in the publication Nature.

该研究结果最近发表在《自然》杂志上的一项研究中。

The team that discovered Gliese 229B in 1995 included Rebecca Oppenheimer.

丽贝卡·奥本海默在1995年发现Gliese 229B的团队中。

At the time, she was a Caltech graduate student.

当时，她是加州理工学院的一名研究生。

She is now an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

她现在是纽约市美国自然历史博物馆的天体物理学家。

She was also a member of the latest research team.

她也是最新研究团队的成员。

Oppenheimer said, "It shows you how weird the universe is, and how different solar systems are from our own."!

奥本海默说：“它向你展示了宇宙是多么奇怪，以及太阳系与我们的太阳系有多么不同。”

She added that she sees the new finding as "the most exciting and fascinating discovery" in this area of astrophysics in many years.

她补充说，她认为这一新发现是多年来天体物理学领域“最令人兴奋和最迷人的发现”。

Caltech's Jerry Xuan said the discovery suggests there might be other brown dwarfs closely orbiting each other.

加州理工学院的杰瑞·宣表示，这一发现表明，可能还有其他褐矮星围绕彼此运行。

He added that he hopes the latest finding can lead to a greater understanding of brown dwarf development.

他补充说，他希望最新的发现能够加深人们对褐矮星发育的了解。

"We still don't really know how different brown dwarfs form, and what the transition between a giant planet and a brown dwarf is," Xuan said.

“我们仍然不知道不同的褐矮星是如何形成的，以及巨型行星和褐矮星之间的转变是什么，”宣说。

He added, "This goes to show how complex and messy the star formation process is.

他补充道：“这表明恒星形成过程是多么复杂和混乱。

We should always be open to surprises."

我们应该始终对惊喜持开放态度。”

I'm Bryan Lynn.

布莱恩·林恩为您播报。