“你相信吗？我们现在看到的星光，可能来自宇宙刚出生时的‘婴儿’！”这可不是科幻电影台词，而是真实的！中国科学家研究的天文AI模型——星衍，成功突破天文观测深度极限，大幅提升詹姆斯·韦布空间望远镜探测能力。
“Can you believe it? The starlight we’re seeing now may have been emitted when the universe was just a ‘baby’!” This isn’t a line from a sci-fi movie—it’s real. Chinese scientists, using an astronomical AI model named StarWeaver, have pushed the limits of observational astronomy, dramatically enhancing the James Webb Space Telescope’s detection capabilities.
中国科学家团队利用星衍发现了超过160个宇宙早期候选星系，这些星系存在于宇宙大爆炸后2亿至5亿年，而此前国际上仅发现50余个同时期星系。
The team has already identified over 160 candidate galaxies from the early universe, dating back 200 to 500 million years after the Big Bang—far surpassing the roughly 50 galaxies from the same period discovered internationally so far.
中国科学家如何
“拍”到宇宙的“童年照”？
How Did Chinese Scientists Capture
the Universe’s “Childhood Photo”？
计算光学+AI
给望远镜装“智能大脑”
Computational Optics + AI
Giving Telescopes a “Super Brain”
中国团队开发的“星衍”AI模型，更像给望远镜装了个“超级大脑”。它结合计算光学原理(优化光线传播路径)和深度学习算法(自动识别微弱信号)，能从海量数据中“捞”出最微弱的星光——就像在暴雨中看清一根针掉进大海的位置！
The StarWeaver AI model is essentially a “super brain” for telescopes. By combining computational optics (which optimizes the paths of light) with deep learning algorithms (which automatically identify faint signals)， it can extract the faintest glimmers of starlight from massive datasets—like spotting a needle dropped into the ocean during a downpour。
突破“宇宙雾霾”
穿透130亿年的尘埃
Breaking Through the “Cosmic Haze”
Peering Through 13 Billion Years of Dust
古希腊天文学家喜帕恰斯将恒星划分为6个等级。1850年英国天文学家诺曼·普森界定，1等星要比6等星亮100倍。据此，星等被量化：星等每级之间亮度相差2.512倍。一个天体的星等取决于它离地球的距离、本身的光度(即绝对星等)、星际尘埃遮蔽等多重因素。人的肉眼能分辨的星等极限约为6.5星等。
Ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus classified stars into six magnitudes. In 1850, British astronomer Norman Pogson defined that a first-magnitude star is 100 times brighter than a sixth-magnitude star, establishing the modern magnitude scale where each step corresponds to a brightness difference of 2.512 times. A star’s apparent magnitude depends on distance, intrinsic brightness (absolute magnitude)， and interstellar dust obscuration. Human eyes can typically see up to magnitude 6.5.
“星衍”擅长分析红外光(波长更长，能穿透尘埃)，就像给宇宙开了“红外夜视仪”。成功把观测提升了1个星等，就意味着它能看到比之前暗2.512倍的天体。这次拍摄的星系，在图像中仅模糊覆盖几个像素，但AI通过对比数十万张模拟数据，硬是“猜”出了它的真实形状和成分。
StarWeaver excels in analyzing infrared light, which penetrates cosmic dust—essentially giving the universe “infrared night vision”. Improving observational depth by just one magnitude means detecting objects 2.5 times fainter than previously possible. The galaxies captured in this study span only a few pixels in the images, yet the AI reconstructed their shapes and compositions by comparing hundreds of thousands of simulated datasets.
举个例子，如果韦布空间望远镜之前能看到位于宇宙边缘一个10瓦的灯泡，现在有了“星衍”的助力，便能看到一个亮度仅为3-4瓦的灯泡。
In practical terms, if the James Webb Space Telescope could previously detect a “10-watt lightbulb” at the edge of the universe, StarWeaver now allows it to see a bulb with a brightness of only 3-4 watts。
为什么观察星空这么重要？
Why Observing the Stars Matters
你一定听说过这句话，我的梦想是星辰大海！星空一直是人类想要探索的宝藏，全世界都有关于仰望星空的传说。
You’ve probably heard someone say, “My dream is to reach for the stars!” The night sky has always been humanity’s treasure trove, inspiring stories and legends across cultures。
而站在科学家的角度，观察星空就像给宇宙“翻家底儿”——科学家通过看星星的位置、亮度和颜色，能算出地球在宇宙中的“坐标”，还能发现行星、恒星甚至星系是怎么“出生长大”的。
简单说，看星星就是在读宇宙的“成长日记”，每发现一颗新星、一个新规律，都可能改写人类对世界的认知！
From a scientific perspective, observing the cosmos is like “taking inventory” of the universe. By studying the positions, brightness, and colors of stars, scientists can map Earth’s place in the cosmos and trace how planets, stars, and galaxies are born and evolve. In essence, watching the stars is reading the universe’s diary. Every new star or discovery of a cosmic law could reshape our understanding of the universe.
依托“星衍”，研究人员成功绘制出目前人类所能观测到的最深邃、最暗弱的早期极致深空星系图像——这些星系距离地球超过130亿光年，承载着宇宙诞生初期的原始数据与影像。它们将为人类探索宇宙黎明时代的星系起源提供全新的关键数据支撑。
Thanks to StarWeaver, researchers have created the deepest, faintest images of early extreme deep-space galaxies ever captured by humanity—galaxies over 13 billion light-years away, preserving the primordial data and imagery of the universe’s infancy. These observations will provide critical insights into the formation of galaxies during the cosmic dawn。
从古代用肉眼观星，到如今用AI“穿越”时空，人类对宇宙的探索从未停止。下次当你抬头看星空时，不妨想象：那些闪烁的光点中，是否有一束来自宇宙的“童年”？而中国科学家，正在用代码和算法，帮我们读懂这本130亿岁的“宇宙日记”。
From ancient stargazing with the naked eye to AI-assisted “time travel”， humanity’s exploration of the cosmos never stops. The next time you gaze at the night sky, imagine: among those twinkling lights, could some be the “childhood glow” of the universe? Chinese scientists are using code and algorithms to help us read the 13-billion-year-old diary of the cosmos.
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编辑：谢梦圆
