张双南.空间时代的天文学研究——从空间天文观测到诺贝尔物理学奖[J].中国科学院院刊,2014,29(5):590-602.

空间时代的天文学研究——从空间天文观测到诺贝尔物理学奖

Astronomy in the space era: from space astronomical observations to Nobel Prizes in physics

张双南
中国科学院高能物理研究所 北京 100049,zhangsn@ihep.ac.cn
张双南
Institute of High Energy Physics，Chinese Academy of Sciences，Beijing 100049，China

         空间天文，诺贝尔物理学奖，X射线，宇宙微波辐射

        space astronomy, Nobel prize in physics, X-ray, cosmic microwave background

        首届诺贝尔物理学奖授予了揭开了现代物理学序幕的X射线的发现，随后的20 多年中与X射线密切相关的诺贝尔物理学奖层出不尽。而一个世纪之后空间天文领域的第一个诺贝尔物理学奖于2002 年授予了空间X射线天文的突破，由此打开了人类观测宇宙的新窗口。从1962 年发现第一个宇宙X射线源至今半个世纪以来，已经有约70 个携带天文仪器的空间飞行器（以专用卫星为主）发射运行，极大地促进了人类对于宇宙和基本物理规律的认识。随后2006 年的诺贝尔物理学奖授予了“宇宙背景探索者”（COBE）卫星对宇宙微波背景黑体辐射谱的精确测量和观测到空间分布的各向异性。2011 年诺贝尔物理学奖授予了宇宙加速膨胀的发现，著名的哈勃空间望远镜对此做出了关键贡献。这样在新世纪空间天文的研究就直接产生了两个诺贝尔物理学奖，并且对第三个起了重要作用，非常类似20 世纪初X射线对于诺贝尔物理学奖的作用。文章通过分析这三个以及天文学研究所获得的所有其他诺贝尔物理学奖，发现除了2006 年的诺贝尔物理学奖之外，其他所有的获奖成果都和项目最初的科学目标没有关系或者完全相反。与此同时，探讨了重大天文发现的偶然性和必然性，这对于处于快速发展初期的中国空间天文具有很好的借鉴作用。

        The first Nobel prize in physics was awarded to the discovery of X-rays that heralded the modern physics, following which abundant Nobel prizes were awarded to discoveries related to X-rays. One century later, the first Nobel prize in physics from space astronomy was awarded in 2002 to the breakthroughs in space X-ray astronomy, which opened a new windows in the observing the universe. For about half century since the discovery of the first cosmic X-ray source in 1962, about 70 spacecrafts carrying astronomy instruments have been launched and operated, which have tremendously improved our understanding of the universe and fundamental laws of physics. Then in 2006, the Nobel prize in physics was awarded to the precise measurement of the blackbody spectrum of cosmic microwave background radiation and the discovery of its space anisotropy made with the COBE satellite. In 2011, the Nobel prize in physics was awarded to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe, for which the famous Hubble Space Telescope made some important contributions. Therefore, in the beginning of the new century the two Nobel prizes in physics have been awarded to the discoveries of space astronomy observations, which also contributed significantly to the third one; this situation is quite similar to the contributions of the discovery of X-rays to the Nobel prizes in physics in the beginning of the 20th century. Through the analysis of the three Nobel prizes and all other Nobel prizes in physics awarded to discoveries of astronomy observations, we find that essentially all these discoveries were either not the original scientific goals of those projects, or even just opposite to that, except the COBE case. Finally, we discussed the serendipity and predictability of major astronomy discoveries, which are useful for China’s space astronomy in the rapid, however, initial stage of development.