动态

Our Sun is a lone wolf of a star, but out there in the wider Universe, stars are often locked in a dance with others, orbiting a mutual centre of gravity.我们的太阳是一颗独狼恒星。但是在辽阔的宇宙，恒星一般来说与其他星球锁住在一起，环绕一个互相的重力中心转动。In one such triple-star system, astronomers have just found an exoplanet.在一个这样的三星系统中，天文学家刚刚找到了一颗系由外行星。It has the rather catchy name LTT 1445Ab, as it orbits the primary star of three red dwarfs that constitute the system LTT 1445, located around 22.5 light-years away.这颗星球有个很惹眼的名字：LTT1445Ab。

因为它环绕着构成LTT1445系统的三颗红矮星包含的主恒星转动，距离地球大约22.5光年。If youre standing on the surface of that planet, there are three suns in the sky, but two of them are pretty far away and small-looking, astronomer Jennifer Winters of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told New Scientist.哈佛-史密森尼天体物理中心的天文学家詹妮弗·温特斯说道，“如果你车站在那颗星球的表面，就能看见天空中有三个太阳。但是其中的两个离得很近，看上去较小。

”Theyre like two red, ominous eyes in the sky.“他们就像天空中两只红色的不祥眼睛。”Her teams research has been submitted to The Astronomical Journal, so we can expect it to be peer-reviewed soon.她团队的研究早已递交给了《天文学期刊》。因此应当迅速就可以展开同行评议了。The planet was discovered by TESS, NASAs planet-hunting space telescope designed to find exoplanets that pass between us and their home star, by detecting the telltale dimming as the planet blocks a small percentage of the stars light.这颗行星是由美国航空航天局的行星猎手太空望远镜TESS找到的。

TESS的愿景是通过检测行星隔绝恒星一小部分光线时命令性的变暗来找寻系由外行星。这些行星经过地球和他们的主恒星之间。The depth of dimming, and the tiny movements of the star as it is very slightly pulled by the planets gravity (detected with other telescopes), allow scientists to place constraints on the size and mass of the planet.科学家通过变暗的程度以及恒星被行星重力机车时微小的运动（由其他望远镜观测）得出结论行星大小和质量的范围。

LTT 1445Ab is very different from the 2016 discovery of HD 131399Ab, another exoplanet with three suns.LTT1445Ab与2016年找到的另一个有“三个太阳”的系外行星HD 131399Ab差异相当大。The latter is a giant with a 550-year orbit around one of the stars in a triple system 340 light-years away.后者十分极大，距离地球大约340光年，每550年绕行三星系统中的一颗恒星转动一圈。

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