Hello there! Welcome to another episode of News Bites!
I'm Paz Bueno.
And I'm Nancy Sun.
In today's news:
Taiwan is working with NASA to study aerosols, and the furthest black hole on record.
And in today's Tasty Tidbit…a vegetable that's also a flower!
Stay tuned to learn more about these, coming up next.
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台灣與美國太空總署攜手研究空氣污染
Taiwan and NASA Team Up to Study Air Pollution
Aerosols are tiny particles that float around in the air we breathe.
氣溶膠是空氣中飄浮的微小粒子。
They can come from dust, smoke, and even sea spray (海水噴霧).
Some aerosols are natural, but others come from cars, factories, and even wildfires.
These tiny particles can make the air dirty and affect our health, the weather, and even the temperature of our planet.
Understanding aerosols is really important for keeping our air clean.
And Taiwan and NASA are teaming up to learn more about these invisible particles and their big impact (影響) on air quality!
Together, they have created the first-ever Asia Pacific AERONET Center.
It's at the Lulin Atmospheric Background Station (鹿林山空氣品質背景測站).
This center's job is to study aerosols.
Lulin Station is now the first station in Asia that's certified by NASA, to check on air quality.
鹿林站現在是亞洲第一個獲得美國太空總署認證的站點，用來檢查空氣品質。
Before this, only two other places had this honor (獲得了這個榮譽)-one in Hawaii, and one in Spain.
Taiwan has been working with NASA since 2002.
This new center is going to help lots of countries around Asia Pacific (亞太地區) understand more about aerosols.
The Lulin Station is high up in the mountains, on the edge of Chiayi and Nantou (介於嘉義和南投的邊緣).
Since 2006, it has been looking out for greenhouse gasses (溫室氣體) and other air pollutants (空氣污染物).
With NASA's help, it uses a tool called AERONET to see how much sunlight aerosols block from reaching the ground.
太空總署協助鹿林站使用一個名叫AERONET的工具，來看氣溶膠阻擋了多少陽光到達地面。
This information helps satellites (衛星) all over the world.
With new tools at the station, scientists will soon know even more about where these aerosols come from and what they're made of.
It's a big step for keeping our air clean and understanding our environment better!
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太空總署發現創紀錄的黑洞
NASA Discovers Record-Breaking Black Hole
Black holes are one of the most mysterious things in space.
They are like space vacuums (宇宙中的吸塵器) that suck in everything, even light!
Black holes are made when a big star dies and collapses (坍塌) into a tiny spot.
This spot has so much pull (吸引力) that not even light can escape from it.
That's why we call it a black hole - you can't see it because no light can get out.
But scientists can still find them by the effects they have on things around them.
Scientists have recently found a super old black hole in space…
And it's the farthest one (最遠的一個) they've ever seen!
NASA used two space telescopes (太空望遠鏡) to find this black hole.
They saw it because it was shining brightly in X-rays.
They think this black hole was formed only 470 million years after the universe started with a big bang.
他們認為這個黑洞是在宇宙大爆炸後，僅僅4億7千萬年形成的。
The black hole is in a galaxy (星系) called UHZ1.
This galaxy is super far away, 13.2 billion light-years from Earth.
That means the galaxy and the black hole are from a time when the universe was very young.
Scientists used a trick called gravitational lensing (重力透鏡效應) to see the black hole better.
This is when gravity from something big, like a cluster of galaxies, makes light from far away bend and look brighter.
像星系團這樣龐大天體的重力，會讓來自遙遠地方的光線彎曲，看起來更亮，這就是重力透鏡效應。
This discovery helps scientists understand how the first giant black holes started.
They're not sure if these black holes came from huge clouds of gas or from big stars that exploded a long time ago.
科學家不確定這些黑洞是來自巨大的氣體雲，還是很久以前爆炸的巨型恆星。
This black hole was already big to begin with, so it got even bigger quickly.
They think the black hole has a mass of 10 to 100 million Suns.
他們認為黑洞的質量相當於一千萬到一億個太陽。
Scientists are excited because they can learn more about the early universe from this black hole.
This discovery helps us learn about planets around other stars and the history of the universe.
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So, in today's News Bites:
Taiwan and NASA are teaming up to learn more about aerosols and their big impact on air quality!
The Lulin Atmospheric Background Station is in the mountains of Chiayi and Nantou.
And it's now the first station in Asia that's certified by NASA, to check on air pollution.
Understanding aerosols is really important for keeping our air clean.
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And,
NASA scientists have recently found a super old black hole in space…
And it's the farthest one they've ever seen!
They think this black hole was formed only 470 million years after the universe started with a big bang.
This discovery helps scientists understand how the first giant black holes started.
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit
Broccoli is a vegetable that many people eat, but did you know it's also a flower?
The green parts we eat are actually the buds of the flower before they bloom.
If left to grow, the broccoli would blossom into a bunch of yellow flowers.
So, the next time you munch on broccoli, remember, you're eating a flower in disguise!
Do you know any other interesting facts about vegetables?
If you have a fun fact, a joke, or interesting news you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to newsbites@icrt.com.tw, and you might hear it at the end of an episode!
We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!