雙語科技百科(天文) 第5期:新星和超新星
Novas and Supernovas
Novas and supernovas are all variable stars created by nova ng a nova outburst, the brightness may increase over the course of a few days by several thousand or even dozens of thousands of it will gradually dim, eventually returning to its originai brightness after several or dozens of years.
新星和超新星都是由新星的爆發而產生的變星。新星的爆發有時能在幾天時間內將這顆星的亮度增強幾千到幾萬倍，隨後它又會漸漸暗弱下去，幾年或十幾年之後最終回到原來的亮度。The outbursts of supernovas are even more spectacular, increasing their brightness by up to hundreds of millions of times. The ancient Chinese people named such celestial bodies "guest stars". The earliest record on guest stars in China dates back to as early as in the 14th century BC, about a nova near the a Star on the Scorpio Constellation.
超新星的爆發更加壯觀，可以將這顆星的亮度增強到幾百萬倍，中國古人稱這類天體爲“客星”。中國最早的客星記載是大約公元前14世紀出現於天蠍座（心宿二）附近的一顆新星。
During the period between the Shang Dynasty and the end of the 17th century,78 novas and especially 12 supernovas were recorded in China's historic a rich and systematic record of supernovas is unique in the world.
自商代至17世紀末，中國史書共記載了78顆新星、12顆超新星，這麼豐富而又系統的超新星紀事，在世界上是獨一無二的。Of all the recorded novas and supernovas, the most brilliant was the superno-va near the Tianguan Star in the Taurus constellation, which lasted two years after its outburst.
在中國史書中所記載的新星、超新星中，最精彩的要算宋至和元年（1054年）出現在金牛座天關星附近的超新星，這顆超新星爆發後達兩年之久才變暗。After the birth of the radio telescope in the 1930s, many scholars in the world,in an effort to search for the correspondence beiween the radio source in the Milky Way galaxy and the supernova, carried out detailed research on the ancient re-cords on novas and supernovas. It turned out seven of the twelve supernovas re-corded by ancient Chinese astronomers correspond to the radio source, whichshows the importance of China's records on guest stars to modern astronomic re-search.
20世紀30年代射電望遠鏡問世後，世界上許多學者爲了尋找銀河系中射電源和超新星的對應關係，無不對中國古代的新星、超新星記錄做詳細研究。研究證明，在中國古代的12次超新星記錄中，有7顆以上對應着射電源。這充分說明中國古代的客星紀事對現代天文學的研究所起的重要作用。
