正在膨胀的宇宙（组图）   

1.仙女座星系

2.哈勃太空望远镜

3.马头星云

4.鹰状星云

5.船底座星云

6.锥状星云

7.蟹状星云

8.球状星云

9.剑鱼座星云

OUR EXPANDING UNIVERSE

Our planet Earth, together with other planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto revolve around our Sun in what is called our Solar system.   There are other systems also in  our galaxy, which is called the Milky Way.  [A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter.]   Milky Way may be seen as a bright band in the sky consisting of trillions of stars  during some periods of the year.   It is similar to the galaxy Andromeda  (Photo 1 ) which is the galaxy closest to us.	我们的地球和其他行星——水星、金星、火星、木星、土星、天王星、海王星、冥王星一起围绕着太阳旋转，构成所谓的太阳系。我们的星系被称为银河系，其中还存在其他的恒星系统。星系是靠引力束缚在一起的天体系统，由恒星、恒星残骸、气体和尘埃构成的星际介质、以及一种重要但知之不多的成分构成，其中的这种重要成分暂时被称为暗物质。在一年中的某些时段里，银河系在天空中可以呈现出明亮的带状结构，由几万亿颗恒星组成。银河系类似于仙女座星系（见图1），仙女座星系是距离我们最近的星系。
But most of the stars in the sky are far away galaxies or nebula. [ A nebula  an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and plasma.]	然而，天空中的多数恒星位于遥远的星系或星云中。星云是由尘埃、氢气、氦气和等离子体构成的星际云团。
When the great renaissance astronomer Galileo constructed his first telescope in the early years of the 17th century, it allowed him to record the phases of Venus, to pick out spots on the surface of the Sun, and to discover the 4 moons of Jupiter.	文艺复兴时期，伟大的天文学家伽利略于十七世纪初制造了自己的第一架望远镜，借助于该望远镜，伽利略记录下金星的相位，发现了太阳表面的黑子和木星的4颗卫星。
But no astronomer could have foreseen what we see today since NASA launched with its shuttle Discovery the  Hubble space telescope in 1990 (Photo 2) -  named after the great astronomer Edwin Hubble who died in 1953, 37 years before the launching of the  telescope.  The Hubble telescope, free of the turbulence of the earth’s atmosphere, is able to see fantastic fascinating details  of far away galaxies and nebula  ( photos 3-9)   and make measurements of the speeds of expanding supernova in our universe.	但是，以前的天文学家们不可能预见我们当今所观察到的情况。1990年，自从美国国家航空航天管理局利用“发现”号航天飞机发射了哈勃太空望远镜（见图2）之后，情况大有改观。哈勃太空望远镜是根据伟大的天文学家埃德温·哈勃而命名的，哈勃于1953年去世，比这架太空望远镜的发射早了37年。哈勃太空望远镜不受地球大气的干扰，可以观察到远处星系和星云奇妙而迷人的详细情况（见图3至图9），还可以测量宇宙中超新星膨胀的速度。
For example,  The Eagle Nebula, seen in  photo 4,  is 6500 light years away from earth, 9.5 light years high, an equivalent of 95 trillion km.  [1 light year is the distance light travels in one year. Approximately equal to 10 trillion km].  The color is a presentation of the surface temperature.  The Eskimo Nebula for example  has a surface temperature of 200,000 degrees C ( 35 times hotter than our Sun and is 3500 light years away)	例如：图4中的鹰状星云距地球6500光年，它的高度有9.5光年，大约相当于95万亿公里。1光年就是光在一年中所穿行的距离，大约相当于10万亿公里。星云的颜色可以说明其表面的温度。例如：爱斯基摩星云在3500光年之外，它的表面温度有20万摄氏度，比太阳高出35倍。
The greatest contribution of Hubble telescope is it proved that these galaxies are moving away from each other and that the universe is expanding as the great astronomer Hubble and other astronomers had predicted.	哈勃太空望远镜最大的贡献是：它证实了星系与星系之间正在互相远离，还证实了宇宙正在膨胀，正象伟大的天文学家哈勃和其他天文学家们所预测的那样。
Four times astronauts have had to walk outside the space shuttle to repair the Hubble telescope, the last time in 2009.  As a result it has been decided that it will be possible for it to continue serving up wonders until 2014, when it will be replaced by its hi-tech successor, the James Webb telescope.	为了修理哈勃太空望远镜，宇航员们不得不走出太空飞船四次，最后一次修理是在2009年。结果，研究人员下了定论：哈勃太空望远镜可以继续提供奇妙的观测服务，一直到2014年，到那时它的工作将由包含高科技的詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜接替。