中英對照讀新聞》Cosmologists intrigued by signs the universe might stop expanding 宇宙學家對宇宙可能停止膨脹的跡象感到好奇

天文學家正利用美國亞利桑那州的基特峰天文台來觀測暗能量。（美聯社）

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The fate of the universe is still very much up in the air.

宇宙的命運仍然懸而未決。

Right now it is expanding, at an accelerating rate. If nothing changes, many billions or trillions of years from now the universe would presumably become cold, dark and inhospitable.

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目前，宇宙正在加速膨脹。如果一切不變，距今數十億或數兆年後，宇宙可能會變得寒冷、幽暗，不適人居。

But new data posted online Wednesday by scientists with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey suggest this process of cosmic acceleration — attributed to a mysterious energy field dubbed “dark energy” — has been weakening over the past 4 billion to 5 billion years.

但是根據「暗能量光譜儀計畫」（DESI）科學家週三在網路上刊登的新資料顯示，宇宙加速膨脹的過程—歸因於被稱為「暗能量」的神秘能量場—在過去40億到50億年間一直減弱。

One of the possibilities now is that, in some theories, the universe could stop expanding, and re-contract into a Big Crunch,” said Mustapha Ishak, a cosmologist at the University of Texas at Dallas and co-chair of the working group that analyzed the data.

分析資料小組的共同主席、德州大學達拉斯分校的宇宙學家穆斯塔法．艾沙克指出，現在其中一個可能是，在某些理論中，宇宙停止膨脹，而且反向收縮，形成一個「大擠壓」。

新聞辭典

up in the air：慣用語，懸而未決。例句：Our vacation plans are still up in the air because we haven’t decided on a destination.（我們的渡假計畫還沒決定，因為我們還沒敲定目的地。）

crunch：。動詞，咬碎使作嘎扎聲、嘎扎地踏（碾、踩、壓）過。名詞，踩踏聲、碾碎聲、金融的緊縮、危機。例句：The only sound was the crunch of tires on gravel.（唯一的聲音就是輪胎在礫石上的嘎扎聲。）

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