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The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute has its eyes -- and soon possibly one of the United States' top telescopes -- focused on an anomaly that some astronomers can't quite explain. |
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地外文明探索計劃將其望遠鏡──可能很快就會成為美國最先進的其中一具望遠鏡──專注觀察一個天文學家們無法解釋的異象。 |
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Users on the online astronomy crowdsourcing interface, Planet Hunters, discovered a peculiar light pattern between the Cygnus and Lyra constellations a few years ago. |
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線上星象集體編輯界面「行星獵人」中的部份用戶，幾年前在天鵝座和天琴座之間發現了一個獨特的光帶。 |
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The group uses publicly available data gathered by NASA's Kepler Telescope, which has been tasked with finding Earth-like planets by searching for the periodic dimming of stars that might suggest such a planet is passing by. |
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該團體使用的是由美國太空總署克卜勒望遠鏡蒐集得來的公開數據，克卜勒望遠鏡的任務是藉由搜尋發生間歇性亮度減弱的星體來尋找類地球行星，因為光度減弱可能代表有類地球行星正在通過。 |
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After a number of users noticed the peculiarity, it was sent to the group's advisory science team that includes Yale postdoctoral astronomy student Tabetha Boyajian. |
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在一些用戶注意到其中的獨特性後，這項觀察被送往該團體的科學顧問團隊處，團隊成員包括耶魯大學博士後天文學研究員塔貝薩．博亞吉安。 |
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"It did definitely spark some lively discussions on the talk boards. |
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We scrolled through the discussion boards and super users, and they let us know that there's something we should be watching out for," Boyajian says. |
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「這件事的確在討論區上引發了熱烈的討論。我們看過了一頁頁的留言區和重量級用戶的內容，他們告訴我們有件事我們應該要注意，」博亞吉安表示。 |
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So what's the explanation for the dimming? |
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Could it be from a swarm of comets or some sort of intergalactic phenomenon that earthbound scientists haven't discovered yet? |
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Or could it be an effect of planet-sized structures built by some sort of alien civilization? |
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The latter possibility has sparked a wave of interest and speculation online. |
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那麼亮度減弱的現象要怎麼解釋呢？可能是來自一大群彗星嗎？或是在地球上的科學家迄今尚未發現的某種跨銀河現象呢？或者那是由某種外星文明所建造、大小如行星般的結構所製造出的一種效果呢？後者這個可能性已在網路上引發一波波興趣和臆測。 |
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Boyajian herself stressed "the necessity of future observations to help interpret the system," which is why she and her cohorts took the paper to the head of the University of California-Berkeley's SETI Group. |
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They wanted answers, and they said top-notch telescopes were needed to get them. |
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博亞吉安本人強調：「有必要進行進一步觀察以協助了解該體系」，正因如此，她和她的同伴們才會帶著論文去找加州伯克萊大學地外文明探索計劃小組的負責人。他們想找出答案，還說必須要有最先進的望遠鏡才能看得到它們。 |
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"Information will allow us to confirm something or rule something out," she said. |
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"We're excited to learn all about this system -- we want to figure it out." |
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「資訊將可以讓我們確認某些事，或將某些事給排除，」她表示。「我們很興奮能學習有關這個體系的一切知識，我們想要找出解答。」 |
