gre阅读练习每日一篇(五十二)_GRE阅读

gre阅读练习每日一篇(五十二)

　　Evidence supporting this view comes from observations of IRC+10216, a pulsating giant star located 700 light-years away from Earth. A huge rate of mass loss has been deduced from infrared observations of ammonia molecules located in the circumstellar cloud around IRC+10216. Recent microwave observations of carbon monoxide molecules indicate a similar rate of mass loss and demonstrate that the escaping material extends outward from the star for a distance of at least one light-year. Because we know the size of the cloud around IRC+10216 and can use our observations of either NH3 or CO to measure the outflow velocity, we can calculate an age for the circumstellar cloud. IRC+10216 has apparently expelled, in the form of molecules and dust grains, a mass equal to that of our entire Sun within the past ten thousand years. This implies that some stars can shed huge amounts of matter very quickly and thus may never expire as supernovas. Theoretical models as well as statistics on supernovas and planetary nebulas suggest that stars that begin their lives with masses around 6 M⊙ shed sufficient material to drop below the critical value of 1.4 M⊙. IRC+10216, for example, should do this in a mere 50,000 years from its birth, only an instant in the life of a star.

　　But what place does IRC+10216 have in stellar evolution? Astronomers suggest that stars like IRC+10216 are actually protoplanetary nebulasold giant stars whose dense cores have almost but not quite rid themselves of the fluffy envelopes of gas around them. Once the star has lost the entire envelope, its exposed core becomes the central star of the planetary nebula and heats and ionizes the last vestiges of the envelope as it flows away into space. This configuration is a full-fledged planetary nebula, long familiar to optical astronomers.