One of the wildest exoplanets ever found in the Milky Way has just gotten even more interesting.

银河系中最狂野的系外行星之一变得更加有趣了。

In the atmosphere of KELT-9b, astronomers have detected the rare earth metal terbium swirling around in clouds of vaporized metal, the first time this extremely rare element has been found on a distant world.

在KELT-9b的大气层中，天文学家发现了稀土金属铽在蒸发的金属云中旋转，这是第一次在遥远的世界上发现这种极其罕见的元素。

The team also made new detections of vanadium, barium, strontium, nickel, and other elements, confirming previous detections and suggesting that whatever is going on with KELT-9b is very strange indeed.

该团队还对钒、钡、锶、镍和其他元素进行了新的探测，证实了之前的探测结果，并表明KELT-9b上发生的事情确实非常奇怪。

"We have developed a new method that makes it possible to obtain more detailed information. Using this, we have discovered seven elements, including the rare substance terbium, which has never before been found in any exoplanet's atmosphere," says astrophysicist Nicholas Borsato of Lund University in Sweden.

“我们已经开发出一种新方法，可以获得更详细的信息。”瑞典隆德大学的天体物理学家尼古拉斯·博尔萨托说:“通过这种方法，我们已经发现了七种元素，包括罕见的物质铽，这是以前从未在任何系外行星的大气层中发现过的。”

"Finding terbium in an exoplanet's atmosphere is very surprising."

“在系外行星的大气中发现铽是非常令人惊讶的。“

KELT-9b is located some 670 light-years away and is truly one of the most extreme exoplanets out there. It's known as a hot Jupiter, a gas giant locked into such a close orbit with its host star that it's heated to scorching temperatures.

KELT-9b距离地球约670光年，是最极端的系外行星之一。它被称为热木星，这是一颗气态巨行星，它的轨道非常接近它的母恒星，以至于被加热到灼热的温度。

On top of that, KELT-9b orbits a blue supergiant star – that's one of the hottest there is – on an extremely tight orbit of just 1.48 days.

最重要的是，KELT-9b围绕一颗蓝色超巨星运行，是那里最热的恒星之一，轨道非常接近，只有1.48天。

This proximity is pretty much vaporizing the exoplanet: On its day side, KELT-9b is heated to temperatures in excess of 4,600 Kelvin (4,327 degrees Celsius, or 7,820 degrees Fahrenheit). That's the hottest temperature we've ever seen in an exoplanet. It's hotter than at least 80 percent of all known stars.

这种接近几乎使系外行星蒸发：在白天，KELT-9b被加热到超过4600开尔文(4327摄氏度，或7820华氏度)的温度。这是我们在系外行星上见过的最高温度，比至少80%的已知恒星温度都要高。