Space Telescope Moves on with One Detector
太空望遠鏡用一個探測器繼續進行任務
Mission engineers and scientists with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space telescope that has been beaming back pictures of galaxies for three times its design lifespan, are no longer planning science observations around one of its two ultraviolet detectors.
NASA銀河進化探險者號的工程師和科學家們已經不再計畫使用它剩下的一個紫外線探測器作任何的科學觀測。銀河進化探險者號是一個太空望遠鏡，已經傳回了預計觀測到的銀河圖片大小3倍的圖片。
"The remaining, near-ultraviolet detector is still busy probing galaxies both nearby and distant," said Kerry Erickson, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "We've got lots of science data coming down from space."
「剩下的近紫外光探測器依然相當忙碌的探測近的和遠的星系」Kerry Erickson這樣說到，他是巴沙迪那市NASA噴射推進實驗室的任務計畫經理。「我們從宇宙那兒收到了許多的科學檔案。」
The Galaxy Evolution Explorer rocketed into space from a jet aircraft in 2003. For four years of its primary mission, it mapped tens of millions of galaxies across the sky in ultraviolet light, some as far back as 10 billion years in cosmic time. Its extended mission began in 2008, allowing it to probe deeper into more parts of the sky, and pluck out more galaxies.
星系進化探測者號2003年在一台噴射太空梭上飛進了太空。在它最初任務的4年，它用紫外光波段定位了全天的好幾千萬個星系。有些甚至是百億年前的星系。他的延伸任務在2008年開始，讓它可以探測天空更深的地方，並挖掘出更多的星系。
Last May, the spacecraft's far-ultraviolet detector experienced an over-current condition, or essentially "shorted out," via a process called electron field emission. This detector sees higher-energy ultraviolet light, and thus hotter and younger stars within galaxies, than the telescope's other, near-ultraviolet detector. (The far-ultraviolet detector sees light with wavelengths between 135 and 180 nanometers, while the near-ultraviolet detector sees wavelengths between 180 and 280 nanometers.)
去年五月，太空船的遠紫外線探測器出現了電流溢流的現象，也就是實質上的"短路"，因為電場的放射。這個探測器可以看到較高能量的紫外光(也就是星系中較熱、較年輕的星星)，相較之下，另一個只接收近紫外線。(遠紫外光波長介於135~180nm，而近紫外光波長介於180~280nm。)
The far-ultraviolet detector has contributed significantly to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's quest to understand how galaxies, including those like our own spiral Milky Way galaxy, blossom into maturity. It specializes in studies of star formation in nearby and distant galaxies. Perhaps the most significant discovery in this area is the identification of a transitional phase of galaxies, the teenagers of the galactic world. Astronomers long knew of young galaxies churning out stars, in addition to older, or dead, galaxies. But they did not know for certain whether the young ones mature into the older ones until the Galaxy Evolution Explorer found the missing links - the transitional galaxies (see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/galex-20071114r.html).
遠紫外光探測器已經為星系發展探險者的任務提供了相當顯著的貢獻，他讓我們了解了一個星系如何發展到成熟(包含像我們銀河系的那些螺旋星系)。它更專長於研究鄰近和遙遠星系的星星形成過程。也許在這之中最大的發現是確定了星系的"過渡期"，也就是星系的青少年期。天文學家們都知道年輕的星系會攪拌製造新的星星，而老的或逝去的星系卻不會。但天文學家們並不確切知道從年輕變成成熟的過程，直到星系發展探險號找到那散落的片段--過渡期星系。
In addition, one of the far-ultraviolet detector's most stunning finds is the humungous comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira. (See picture and article at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/galex-20070815.html).
除此之外，遠紫外線探測器的其中一個最驚人的發現是發現米拉星的一個巨大的、彗星一般的尾巴。
While the discovery of Mira's tail required the now-offline detector, almost all of the mission's targets could be seen by both detectors. Astronomers used the detectors' observations at different wavelengths to get an idea of a star or galaxy's temperature, age and mass. Much of this research can now be done by comparing near-ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer with catalogued visible-light data from other telescopes. In addition, the wealth of far-ultraviolet observations to date will continue to be mined for decades to come.
雖然發現米拉的尾巴需要那顆現在已失效的探測器，但幾乎所有的任務目標都可以被兩顆探測器探測到。天文學家利用探測器在不同波長下的觀測資料來得知一顆星星或一個星系的溫度、年齡、和質量。現在這些大部分可以利用比較近紫外光和其他望遠鏡存檔的可見光資料來獲得。除此之外，那豐富的遠紫外光資料也會在未來幾十年中不斷被挖掘利用。
The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. JPL manages the mission and assembled the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. ?
Graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are online at http://www.nasa.gov/galex and http://www.galex.caltech.edu.?
Whitney Clavin
(818) 354-4673
Whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov
2010-123
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