elliptical galaxies are shaped as their name suggests.

椭圆星系的形状正如它们的名字所述。

astronomers don「t know if this is an exceptional case or if most massive elliptical galaxies actually formed so early in the universe」s history.

天文学家目前尚不清楚，出现这样巨大的椭圆形星系是个特例还是宇宙早期的遍现象。

elliptical galaxies look like eggs of light a central, solid nest of stars.

椭圆状星系看上去就像一个个蛋形的光斑，实际上是由许多恒星围绕一个中心像一个鸟巢一样构成。

elliptical galaxies contain many older stars, up to one trillion, but little dust and other interstellar matter.

椭圆星系中有多达万亿颗古老的恒星，但几乎没有灰尘和其他星际物质。

eventually, the elliptical galaxies should merge, creating one single super-galaxy many times larger than our milky way.

最终，椭圆星系将融合，创造出一个比我们银河系大很多倍的超级星系。

they found faint signatures of these red dwarf stars in eight massive elliptical galaxies relatively close to us—between 50 million and 300 million light-years away.

他们在8个的大型椭圆星系中发现了红矮星发出的微弱信号，这些星系离我们相对较近——它们的距离都在5千万到3亿光年之间。

one caveat, says richard ellis of caltech, is that the researchers assumed that red dwarfs in the elliptical galaxies have the same chemical composition as red dwarfs in the milky way.

但是且慢，加州理工学院的理查德·埃利斯说，问题是研究者们假设椭圆星系中的红矮星与银河系中的红矮星有相同的化学成分。

still, elliptical galaxies can be very large.

但椭圆星系可以非常巨大。

the observations suggest that elliptical galaxies like this still have some youthful vigor left, thanks to encounters with smaller galaxies.

这项观察意味着像这样的椭圆星系还有一些旺盛的「繁殖力」残余，多亏那些和较小星系的撞击。

observations by hubble’s advanced camera for surveys spotted 29 dwarf elliptical galaxies in the perseus cluster located 250 million light-years away and one of the closest galaxy clusters to earth.

哈勃使用先进的观测镜头对英仙座中29个椭圆状矮星系进行了观察，这些星系属于距离地球最近的星系团之一，约2.5亿光年远。

although many elliptical galaxies are in clusters of galaxies, ngc 1132 appears as a large, isolated galaxy toward the constellation of the river (eridanus).

虽然有许多椭圆星系是存在于星系团之中，但位于波江座的ngc1132似乎是一个巨大的孤立星系。

the discovery that elliptical galaxies have many more red dwarf stars than the milky way means that the universe might have three times as many total stars as previously thought.

最近发现椭圆星系里拥有比银河系更多的红矮星，说明宇宙里所有恒星的数量可能是原先预想的三倍。

「we may be witnessing, for the first time, the formation of one of the most massive elliptical galaxies in the universe, 」 said study co-author nick scoville of caltech.

「或许，我们这是首次看到宇宙中最为庞大的椭圆星系之一正在形成，」该研究的发起人之一、加州理工大学的尼克·斯科维尔说。

but elliptical galaxies seem to be simpler.

但椭圆星系似乎更简单。

the strength of the absorption features indicates that red dwarfs account for 80 percent of the number of stars in elliptical galaxies and 60 percent of the total stellar mass in those galaxies.

吸收特性的力度显示，红矮星数量约占椭圆星系星量的百分之八十，质量则是那些星系总质量的百分之六十。

elliptical galaxies may also be small, in which case they are dubbed dwarf elliptical galaxies.

椭圆星系也可能很小，在这种情况下它们被称为矮椭圆星系。