I mean, is Pluto a planet?

我是說，冥王星是一顆行星嗎？

Is this a new species or subspecies?

這是一個新種還是亞種？

Man or woman?

男人還是女人？

Green or blue or teal?

綠色、藍色還是茶色？

However, sometimes nature gives us a helping hand and provides a hard, physical line distinguishing

然而，有時候，大自然給了我們幫助，提供了一條堅硬的、物理的線來區分

two things, like the line between white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes.

兩件事情，比如白矮星、中子星和黑洞之間的界限。

These are the different possible kinds of corpses of dead stars, and what distinguishes

這些都是死星可能的不同種類的屍體，而它們的區別是什麼呢？

them is how they hold themselves up against the inexorable attraction of gravity.

它們是如何在重力的無情吸引下支撐起自己。

Let's begin, though, with what makes something a star in the first place: fusion of hydrogen.

不過，我們還是先從什麼東西成為恆星說起：氫的聚變。

Below about 8% of the mass of the sun, a gas ball isn't hot and high pressure enough

在太陽品質的8%以下，氣球的溫度和壓力都不夠高。

for hydrogen to fuse and you get a failed star , essentially a really heavy version

氫的融合，你會得到一個失敗的恆星，本質上是一個真正的重版本。

of Jupiter or Saturn.

木星或土星的。

Above this dividing line are stars like red dwarfs, our sun, and so on , which use hydrogen

在這條分界線之上的是紅矮星，我們的太陽等恆星，它們使用的是氫氣

fusion to keep themselves hot enough to stave off gravitational collapse.

核聚變，使自己保持足夠的熱量，以避免引力崩潰。

But eventually stars run out of fuel for nuclear fusion, and die.

但最終恆星的核聚變燃料耗盡，而死亡。

And when a star dies, it will turn into one of three very different and physically-distinct

當一顆恆星死亡時，它會變成三種不同的、物理上有區別的恆星之一。

things . If the star is small its core will turn into a white dwarf, which is an object

的東西 。如果恆星很小，它的核心就會變成白矮星，這是一個天體。

about the size of the earth, almost as massive as the sun, and is held up against gravity

和地球差不多大，幾乎和太陽一樣大，在引力的作用下，被托住了。

not by heat but by electrons repelling each other due to the “Pauli exclusion principle”

保利排除原理導致電子相互排斥，而不是受熱

. This effect is essentially a star-sized version of how electrons fill subsequently

.這種效應本質上是一個星體大小的版本，電子如何填充隨後的

bigger orbitals around an atom, because of a fundamental law of the universe that no

圍繞原子的更大的軌道，因為宇宙的基本法則，沒有任何一個原子的軌道。

two electrons can share the exact same state.

兩個電子可以共享完全相同的狀態。

If the star is bigger , its core will be too heavy for this kind of electron repulsion

如果恆星比較大，它的核心就太重了，不可能有這樣的電子斥力。

to hold it up against gravity, and instead it'll collapse even more until it's around

以此來抵禦地心引力，反而會更加塌陷，直到它的周圍。

10 kilometers in size , all of its electrons and protons fuse together into neutrons, and

10公里大小，其所有電子和質子都融合成中子，並將其轉化為中子。

it's held up instead by the nuclear repulsion between neutrons, as well as the neutron version

它是由中子之間的核斥力以及中子版本來支撐的

of the pauli exclusion principle.

保利排除原則的規定。

Aka, a neutron star.

也就是中子星。

If the dying star is yet bigger still (or if two neutron stars collide and merge), its

如果這顆垂死的恆星仍然更大（或者兩顆中子星碰撞合併），其

core will be too heavy for either the strong nuclear force or pauli exclusion principle

核心將太重，無論是強核力還是保利排除原則都無法實現。

to hold it up against gravity, and it will collapse until it's held up by – well,

在重力的作用下，它就會倒塌，直到被... ..,

as far as we know there's not anything left to hold up stuff this dense , and it'll

據我們所知，沒有任何東西可以支撐這麼密集的東西，而且它將會

collapse into a black hole.

坍塌成黑洞。

So when a star dies, what it turns into depends on its mass, and what distinguishes these

所以，當一顆恆星死亡時，它變成什麼取決於它的品質，而這些品質的區別是什麼？

star corpses from each other is what they're made of and how they hold themselves up against

星屍彼此之間的關係是什麼，他們是如何抵禦的？

gravity (or don't).

重力（或不）。

But enough about space objects that have nice, clean, easy definitions.

但是，關於空間對象有漂亮、乾淨、簡單的定義就夠了。

There's also a lot of stuff out there that doesn't fit nicely into boxes.

還有很多東西都不能很好的裝進盒子裡。

Kate (interjects): Like moons.

凱特（插話）：像月亮。

We supposedly have a good definition for what a moon is but our solar system is full of

按理說，我們對月球有一個很好的定義，但我們的太陽系充滿了

objects that fall into a weird grey area between moon and not moon.

屬於月球和非月球之間的奇怪灰色區域的物體。

Come over to MinuteEarth to find out why our definition of "moon" might be broken!

快來MinuteEarth看看為什麼我們對 "月亮 "的定義可能會被打破!