宇宙是所有现在是的 The cosmos is all there is,
过去有的 or ever was,
和未来会出现的 or ever will be.
跟我来 Come with me.
一代人之前 A generation ago,
天文学家卡尔·萨根站在这里 the astronomer Carl Sagan stood here
带领几亿人前往壮丽的征途 and launched hundreds of millions of us on a great adventure.
科学开启了对宇宙的探索 The exploration of the universe revealed by science.
再次启程的时间到了 It's time to get going again.
我们即将开启一段旅程 We're about to begin a journey
经历从无穷小走到无穷大 that will take us from the infinitesimal to the infinite,
从创世之初到遥远的未来 from the dawn of time to the distant future.
我们将探索星系 恒星和其他世界 We'll explore galaxies and suns and worlds,
穿梭于时空间的引力波 surf the gravity waves of space-time,
邂逅居于冰与火中的生灵 encounter beings that live in fire and ice,
探索围绕不灭恒星的行星 explore the planets of stars that never die,
发现重如太阳的原子 discover atoms as massive as suns
和小于原子的宇宙 and universes smaller than atoms.
宇宙也是关于我们的故事 Cosmos is also a story about us.
是以狩猎采集为生的人们 It's the saga of how wandering bands of hunters and gatherers
如何找到通往星星之路的传奇 found their way to the stars,
是一场英雄辈出的探险 one adventure with many heroes.
要完成这次探险 需要想象力 To make this journey, we'll need imagination.
然而单有想象力还不够 But imagination alone is not enough
因为自然的本源 because the reality of nature
比我们想象的更为奇异 is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine.
几代探索者的努力使这次探险成为可能 This adventure is made possible by generations of searchers
他们严格遵守基本规律 strictly adhering to a simple set of rules,
用实验和观察来验证想法 test ideas by experiment and observation,
以已证实的理论为基础进行探索 build on those ideas that pass the test,
摒弃禁不起验证的想法 reject the ones that fail,
在证据的引导下前行并质疑一切事物 follow the evidence wherever it leads and question everything.
接受这些条款 Accept these terms,
宇宙任你驰骋 and the cosmos is yours.
现在请跟我来 Now come with me.
■
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宇宙
时空之旅
在想象号飞船里 In this ship of the Imagination,
不受时空的束缚 free from the shackles of space and time,
我们可以去任何地方 we can go anywhere.
如果你想知道我们所处的位置 If you want to see where we are in space,
从窗户望出去就是 just look out the front window.
在时间维度上 过去位于脚下 In the dimension of time, the past lies beneath us.
这是地球两亿五千万年前的模样 Here's what Earth looked like 250 million years ago.
若你想看到未来 抬头 If you want to see the future, look up.
那许是地球两亿五千万年后的样子 And this is how it could appear 250 million years from now.
若我们想要探索 If we're going to be venturing out
最远处的宇宙 into the farthest reaches of the cosmos,
就要知道地球的宇宙地址 we need to know our cosmic address,
这是地址第一行 and this is the first line of that address.
地球
我们即将离开地球 这个所知的唯一家园 We're leaving the Earth, the only home we've ever known,
向宇宙最深处进发 for the farthest reaches of the cosmos.
我们最近的邻居 月球 Our nearest neighbor, the Moon,
没有天空 没有大洋 没有生命 has no sky, no ocean, no life...
只有天体碰撞留下的伤痕 just the scars of cosmic impacts.
我们的恒星赋予地球表面 Our star powers the wind and the waves
风浪和生命 and all the life on the surface of our world.
太阳凭借万有引力主宰着太阳系 The Sun holds all the worlds of the Solar System in its gravitational embrace,
先是水星 starting with Mercury...
接着是被云层笼罩的金星 to cloud-covered Venus,
失控的温室效应使其成为地狱 where runaway greenhouse effect has turned it into a kind of hell.
火星 Mars...
一个和地球陆地面积相当的星球 a world with as much land as Earth itself.
一条环绕太阳运转的岩石小行星带 A belt of rocky asteroids circles the Sun
横亘于火星和木星轨道之间 between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
拥有四颗大卫星和几十颗小卫星 With its four giant moons and dozens of smaller ones,
木星本身像个小型太阳系 Jupiter is like its own little Solar System.
它的质量比太阳系其他行星加起来还要大 It has more mass than all the other planets combined.
木星的大红斑 Jupiter's Great Red Spot...
三倍于地球体积的飓风 a hurricane three times the size of our whole planet
已经怒吼了几百年 that's been raging for centuries.
太阳系皇冠上的宝石 土星 The crown jewel of our Solar System, Saturn,
被数不清的行星环 ringed by freeways of countless orbiting
和缓慢翻滚的雪球所环绕 and slowly tumbling snowballs...
每个雪球都是一个小卫星 every snowball, a little moon.
天王星 Uranus
海王星 and Neptune,
太阳系最外层的行星 古人不得而知 the outermost planets, unknown to the ancients
发明望远镜后才被发现 and only discovered after the invention of the telescope.
在外行星之外 Beyond the outermost planet,
还有上万个冰封之地 there's a swarm of tens of thousands of frozen worlds.
冥王星就是其中之一 And Pluto is one them.
在所有的航天器里 Of all our spacecraft,
这是离家最远的一艘 this is the one that's traveled farthest from home...
旅行者一号 Voyager 1.
她带着发往十亿年后的信息 She bears a message to a billion years from now,
有关我们的身份 something of who we were,
我们的感受 how we felt
以及制作的音乐 and the music we made.
在浩瀚的宇宙大洋里潜得越深 The deeper waters of this vast cosmic ocean
就越会发现数不清的世界 and their numberless worlds lie ahead.
从这边看去 太阳就和其他恒星一样 From out here, the Sun may look like just another star.
但它的引力仍影响到 But it still exerts its gravitational hold
上万亿颗冰冻的彗星 on a trillion frozen comets,
那是大约五十亿年前 leftovers from the formation of the Solar System
太阳系形成时的残留物 nearly five billion years ago.
它被称作奥尔特云 It's called the Oort Cloud.
之前从未有人见过它们 也看不到 No one has ever seen it before, nor could they,
因为每个这种小天体 because each one of these little worlds
和最近邻居的距离都相当于地球到土星的距离 is as far from its nearest neighbor as Earth is from Saturn.
这个巨大的彗星星云包围住太阳系 This enormous cloud of comets encloses the Solar System,
即我们宇宙地址的第二行 which is the second line of our cosmic address.
地球
太阳系
我们能够探测到系外行星 We've only been able to detect the planets of other stars
还仅是这几十年的事 for a few decades,
但我们已经知道行星数量不菲 but we already know that planets are plentiful.
远多于恒星 They outnumber the stars.
几乎全都和地球天差地别 Almost all of them will be very different from Earth,
不适于我们所知的生命生存 and hostile to life as we know it.
但我们对生命又了解多少呢 But what do we know about life?
目前为止我们只见识过一种生命形态 We've met only one kind so far.
地球生命 Earthlife.
看到什么了吗 See anything?
空无一物是吧 Just empty space, right?
闪耀在宇宙中的光芒 人眼只能看到一小部分 Human eyes see only a sliver of the light that shines in the cosmos.
但科学让我们看到了人眼看不到的 But science gives us the power to see what our senses cannot.
红外线在夜视镜下变得可见 Infrared is the kind of light made visible by night-vision goggles.
用红外传感器扫过黑暗 Throw an infrared sensor across the darkness...
流浪行星 Rogue planet.
即没有恒星的行星 World without a sun.
我们的星系里有几十亿颗这样的星球 Our galaxy has billions of them,
在永夜里流浪 adrift in perpetual night.
它们是孤儿 在恒星系统诞生的一片混乱中 They're orphans, cast away from their mother stars
被流放到了远离母恒星之地 during the chaotic birth of their native star systems.
流浪行星中心灼热 外表冰冻 Rogue planets are molten at the core but frozen at the surface.
在这冰火两极中间也许存在 There may be oceans of liquid water
丰沛的液态水 in the zone between those extremes.
谁知道水里可能畅游着什么呢 Who knows what might be swimming there?
这是红外线下的银河 This is what the Milky Way looks like in infrared.
每一个小点 不仅是最亮的那些 Every single dot, not just the bright ones,
都是一颗恒星 is a star.
有多少恒星 How many stars?
有多少世界 How many worlds?
有多少种生命形态呢 How many ways of being alive?
地球
太阳系
银河系
在这幅图里我们又在哪里呢 Where are we in this picture?
看到那条旋臂了吗 See that trailing outer arm?
那是我们居住的地方 That's where we live...
距中心有三万光年远 about 30,000 light-years from the center.
银河系 The Milky Way Galaxy
是我们宇宙地址的下一行 is the next line of our cosmic address.
我们现在离家有十万光年远 We're now a hundred thousand light-years from home.
即使是光 已知速度最快的事物 It would take light, the fastest thing there is,
也需要十万年才能从地球到达这里 a hundred thousand years to reach us from Earth.
这是螺旋状仙女座星系 This is the Great Spiral in Andromeda,
紧邻银河系的另一个星系 the galaxy next door.
我们把这两个巨型星系 We call our two giant galaxies
和其他一些小型星系 and a smattering of smaller ones
叫做"本星系群" the "Local Group."
地球
太阳系
银河系
本星系群
从这里甚至找不到我们的母星系 Can't even find our home galaxy from out here.
这只是室女超团里的几千个星系中的一个 It's just one of thousands in the Virgo Supercluster.
室女超团
从这个尺度看 On this scale,
我们看到的所有东西 all the objects we see,
哪怕是一个极微小的点 including the tiniest dots,
都是一个星系 are galaxies.
每个星系里有数以亿计的恒星 Each galaxy contains billions of suns
和数不清的世界 and countless worlds.
然而 整个室女超团 Yet, the entire Virgo Supercluster itself
也不过是宇宙的一小部分 forms but a tiny part of our universe.
这是我们现已探知到最大尺度的宇宙 This is the cosmos on the grandest scale we know...
一个由数千亿星系组成的网络 a network of a hundred billion galaxies.
这是我们宇宙地址的最后一行 It's the last line of our cosmic address...
地球
太阳系
银河系
本星系群
室女超团
可观测宇宙
暂时的最后一行 for now.
可观测宇宙 Observable universe?!
那是什么意思 What does that mean?
即使搭乘着想象号飞船 Even for us, in our Ship of the Imagination,
我们所能见到的时空依然是有限的 there's a limit to how far we can see in space-time.
这是我们的宇宙视界 It's our cosmic horizon.
视界之外的那部分宇宙 Beyond that horizon lie parts of the universe
因太过遥远而无法探知 that are too far away.
宇宙诞生于138亿年前 There hasn't been enough time
但这时间仍不够让它们的光线 in the 13.8 billion year history of the universe
抵达我们这一边 for their light to have reached us.
许多人有这样的猜想 这一切 Many of us suspect that all of this...
所有的世界 恒星 星系和星团 all the worlds, stars, galaxies and clusters
可观测宇宙中的一切 in our observable universe...
只不过是无限宇宙海洋里的 is but one tiny bubble in an infinite ocean
一个小泡沫 of other universes...
多重宇宙 A multiverse.
宇宙叠加着宇宙 Universe upon universe.
没有尽头的世界 Worlds without end.
感觉有些渺小吗 Feeling a little small?
与宇宙相比 我们确实很渺小 Well, in the context of the cosmos, we are small.
我们可能只是居住在一粒尘埃上的小矮人 We may just be little guys living on a speck of dust,
在无限的浩瀚中漂浮 afloat in a staggering immensity,
但我们的思想并不狭隘 but we don't think small.
这种宇宙观还是比较新的 This cosmic perspective is relatively new.
仅仅四百年前 A mere four centuries ago,
我们的小世界还不曾注意到身边的大宇宙 our tiny world was oblivious to the rest of the cosmos.
那时没有望远镜 There were no telescopes.
宇宙只是我们肉眼可见的样子 The universe was only what you could see with the naked eye.
回到1599年 Back in 1599,
所有人都认为太阳 行星和恒星 everyone knew that the Sun, planets and stars
只是围绕着地球旋转的天上之光 were just lights in the sky that revolved around the Earth,
我们是这个小宇宙的中心 and that we were the center of a little universe,
这是一个为我们而生的宇宙 a universe made for us.
整个星球上只有一个人 There was only one man on the whole planet
预见了一个更宏大的无限宇宙 who envisioned an infinitely grander cosmos.
他是如何度过1600年的 And how was he spending New Year's Eve
新年前夜的呢 of the year 1600?
有什么好问的 当然是在监狱里度过的 Why? In prison, of course.
每个人都会经历这样一段时光 There comes a time in our lives
我们开始意识到自己并不是宇宙的中心 when we first realize we're not the center of the universe,
而是更宏大世界的一部分 that we belong to something much greater than ourselves.
这是成长的一部分 It's part of growing up.
正如每个人都会经历一样 And as it happens to each of us,
我们的文明也开始经历这一过程 so it began to happen to our civilization
一切始于十六世纪 in the 16th century.
想象一下一个还没有望远镜的世界 Imagine a world before telescopes,
宇宙不过是你肉眼能够 when the universe was only what you could see
看到的样子 with the naked eye.
很显然地球是静止不动的 It was obvious that Earth was motionless,
在天堂里的一切 and that everything in the heavens...
太阳 月亮 恒星和行星们 the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the planets...
都围绕我们旋转 直到 revolved around us... and then...
一位名叫哥白尼的波兰天文学家和牧师 a Polish astronomer and priest named Copernicus
提出了一个大胆的假设 地球并不是中心 made a radical proposal. The Earth was not the center.
它只是行星中的一个 和其它行星一样 It was just one of the planets, and, like them,
都是围绕着太阳旋转的 it revolved around the Sun.
大多数人 和宗教改革家马丁·路德一样 Many, like the Protestant reformer Martin Luther,
认为这是对《圣经》的亵渎 took this idea as a scandalous affront to Scripture.
他们吓坏了 They were horrified.
但对另一个人 But for one man,
哥白尼走得还不够远 Copernicus didn't go far enough.
他的名字是焦尔达诺·布鲁诺 His name was Giordano Bruno,
他是一位天生的反叛者 and he was a natural-born rebel.
他一直渴望冲破这个狭小宇宙的牢笼 He longed to bust out of that cramped little universe.
道明会 天主教托钵修会的主要派别之一
在那不勒斯 这位年轻的道明会修士 Even as a young Dominican monk in Naples,
就与周遭格格不入 he was a misfit.
这是意大利 This was a time
一段没有思想自由的黑暗时期 when there was no freedom of thought in Italy.
但布鲁诺无比渴求了解 But Bruno hungered to know
上帝创造的一切 everything about God's creation.
他敢于阅读被教会禁止的书籍 He dared to read the books banned by the Church,
这是他被毁灭的开端 and that was his undoing.
在其中一本书中 In one of them,
一位已逝去一千五百多年的古罗马人 an ancient Roman, a man dead for more than 1,500 years
卢克莱修 《物性论》
向他私语描绘出一个更大的宇宙 whispered to him of a universe far greater,
与他心中的上帝一样无限的宇宙 one as boundless as his idea of God.
卢克莱修让他的读者 Lucretius asked the reader
去想象站在宇宙的边缘 to imagine standing at the edge of the universe
向外射箭的情景 and shooting an arrow outward.
如果箭飞出去不停止 那么很显然 If the arrow keeps going, then clearly,
宇宙比你想象的尽头还有广阔 the universe extends beyond what you thought was the edge.
但如果箭停下来了 But if the arrow doesn't keep going...
假设它击中了一面墙 那么那面墙一定 say it hits a wall... then that wall must lie
矗立在比你认为的宇宙边缘更远的地方 beyond what you thought was the edge of the universe.
现在假设你站在这面墙上往外再射一箭 Now if you stand on that wall and shoot another arrow,
那么也只可能得出同样的两个结论 there are only the same two possible outcomes...
这支箭或者不停往前飞 it either flies forever out into space,
或者击中了某个边界 or it hits some boundary
在这个边界你可以向外再射一箭 where you can stand and shoot yet another arrow.
不管是哪种情况 宇宙都是没有边界的 Either way, the universe is unbounded.
宇宙必然是无限的 The cosmos must be infinite.
布鲁诺觉得这个想法很有道理 This made perfect sense to Bruno.
他尊崇的上帝是无限的 The God he worshiped was infinite.
那么 他大胆推测 So how, he reasoned,
上帝的创造又怎么可能是有限的呢 could Creation be anything less?
这是他最后一份稳定的工作了 It was the last steady job he ever had.
接着到了他30岁时 And then, when he was 30,
他预见了注定他命运的一幕 he had the vision that sealed his fate.
在这个梦里 他在一个被碗一样的 In this dream, he awakened to a world
狭小星空所包围的世界中醒来 enclosed inside a confining bowl of stars.
这是布鲁诺所在时代的宇宙观 This was the cosmos of Bruno's time.
他先是感到了令他毛骨悚然的恐惧 He experienced a sickening moment of fear,
就仿佛脚下的一切 as if the bottom of everything
都在土崩瓦解 was falling away beneath his feet.
但他鼓起勇气 But he summoned up his courage.
我展开自信的翅膀飞向宇宙 I spread confident wings to space
向着无尽飞升 留在身后的 and soared toward the infinite, leaving far behind me
是别人只有从远处才能看到的景象 what others strained to see from a distance.
在这里 没有上下 没有边际 Here, there was no up, no down, no edge,
也没有中心 no center.
我看到太阳也不过是群星中的一颗 I saw that the Sun was just another star,
而其他的星星也不过是 and the stars were other Suns,
被其他的地球环绕的太阳 each escorted by other Earths
就和我们的一样 like our own.
揭示这无穷世界的感觉就好像是在 The revelation of this immensity was like
坠入爱河 falling in love.
布鲁诺成了狂热的布道士 Bruno became an evangelist,
在整个欧洲传播宇宙无尽的真理 spreading the gospel of infinity throughout Europe.
他猜想其他爱着上帝的人们会自然接受 He assumed that other lovers of God would naturally embrace
这一有关创世界的更高级更辉煌的观点 this grander and more glorious view of Creation.
但我太傻了 What a fool I was.
他被多次驱逐 He was excommunicated
包含自己家乡的罗马天主教教会 by the Roman Catholic Church in his homeland,
瑞士的开尔文教徒 expelled by the Calvinists in Switzerland,
以及德国的路德教会 and by the Lutherans in Germany.
布鲁诺接受了英国 Bruno jumped at an invitation
牛津大学演讲的邀请 to lecture at Oxford, in England.
他想 总算有可以 At last, he thought,
向同辈分享观点的机会了 a chance to share his vision with an audience of his peers.
我来这里分享我对宇宙的新观点 I have come to present a new vision of the cosmos.
哥白尼关于我们的世界 Copernicus was right to argue that our world
并非宇宙中心的观点是对的 is not the center of the universe.
地球绕着太阳运动 The Earth goes around the Sun.
它是颗行星 和其他行星一样 It's a planet, just like the others.
但是哥白尼只是黎明 But Copernicus was only the dawn.
让我来带给你们日出 I bring you the sunrise.
繁星就是其他的炽热太阳 The stars are other fiery suns,
和我们地球的太阳由同样的物质组成 made of the same substance as the Earth,
那里一样有拥有海洋的星球 and they have their own watery Earths,
还有和我们一样的动物和植物 with plants and animals no less noble than our own.
你是疯了还是就是太无知了 Are you mad or merely ignorant?
人人都知道只有一个世界 Everyone knows there is only one world.
大家知道的都是错的 What everyone knows is wrong.
我们万能的上帝创造了一个无尽的宇宙 Our infinite God has created a boundless universe
而里面有无限个世界 with an infinite number of worlds.
你家乡人不读《亚里士多德》的吗 Do they not read Aristotle where you come from?
或是连《圣经》都不读吗 Or even the Bible?
请你们抛弃陈见 传统 信仰和权威 I beg you, reject antiquity, tradition, faith, and authority.
让我们重新开始 Let us begin anew,
就从质疑所有我们认为 by doubting everything we assume
-是对的东西开始 -异教徒 - has been proven. - Heretic!
异教徒 Infidel!
你们的上帝太小了 Your God is too small.
一个聪明点的人会吸取教训 A wiser man would have learned his lesson.
但是布鲁诺不是这样一个人 But Bruno was not such a man.
他极力分享他关于宇宙的先进观点 He couldn't keep his soaring vision of the cosmos to himself,
尽管在他的世界里 despite the fact that the penalty for doing so
这么做的代价将是 in his world was the most vicious form
最恶毒残忍的惩罚 of cruel and unusual punishment.
焦尔达诺·布鲁诺生活在一个政教 Giordano Bruno lived at a time when there was no such thing
并不分离的时代 as the separation of church and state,
那时的每个人也没有 or the notion that freedom of speech
言论自由的神圣权利 was a sacred right of every individual.
表达一种颠覆统信仰观点 Expressing an idea that didn't conform to traditional belief
会给自己惹上大麻烦 could land you in deep trouble.
布鲁诺鲁莽地回到了意大利 Recklessly, Bruno returned to Italy.
也许是他想家了 Maybe he was homesick.
但是 他必须知道对他而言 But still, he must have known that his homeland
他的家乡是整个欧洲 was one of the most dangerous places in Europe
最危险的地方 he could possibly go.
罗马天主教会保留了一套执法系统 The Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts
也就是宗教裁判所 known as the Inquisition,
而它的唯一的目的就是调查和折磨 and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment
任何敢于发表不同于他们观点的人 anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs.
布鲁诺没过多久就落入了 It wasn't long before Bruno fell into the clutches
思想警察之手 of the thought police.
这位崇拜无穷宇宙的迷途之人 This wanderer, who worshiped an infinite universe,
在监狱中苦苦支撑了八年 languished in confinement for eight years.
经历了残酷的审讯 Through relentless interrogations,
他固执地拒绝改变他的观点 he stubbornly refused to renounce his views.
为何教廷愿意 Why was the Church willing
花时间折磨布鲁诺呢 to go to such lengths to torment Bruno?
他们到底在怕什么 What were they afraid of?
因为若布鲁诺是对的 那么教廷的 If Bruno was right, then the sacred books
圣书和权威 and the authority of the Church
就会遭到质疑 would be open to question.
最终 宗教裁判所的红衣主教们 Finally, the cardinals of the Inquisition
宣布了他们的判决 rendered their verdict.
你因为质疑 You are found guilty
三位一体 of questioning the Holy Trinity
和耶稣基督的神性而被判有罪 and the divinity of Jesus Christ.
还因为相信上帝的天谴不是永恒的 Of believing that God's wrath is not eternal,
而人人终得救赎 that everyone will be saved.
还因为宣扬其他世界的存在 Of asserting the existence of other worlds.
你写过的所有书 All of the books you have written
都将被收缴并于圣彼得广场焚毁 will be gathered up and burned in St. Peter's Square.
尊敬的神父 这八年的监禁 Reverend Father, these eight years of confinement
让我有了很多时间来反思 have given me much time to reflect.
那么 So...
你要承认错误吗 you will recant?
我对造物主的爱和尊敬 My love and reverence for the Creator
激发了我无限世界的观点 inspires in me the vision of an infinite Creation.
你将被移交给罗马政府 You shall be turned over to the Governor of Rome
执行因你不愿忏悔而 to administer the appropriate punishment
该受到的惩罚 for those who will not repent.
比起我害怕听到判决 It may be that you are more afraid
也许你更害怕将判决说出来 to deliver this judgment than I am to hear it.
布鲁诺殉难十年后 Ten years after Bruno's martyrdom,
伽利略第一次通过望远镜观测天空 Galileo first looked through a telescope,
并意识到布鲁诺一直都是对的 realizing that Bruno had been right all along.
银河确是由裸眼看不见的 The Milky Way was made of countless stars
无数的星星所组成 invisible to the naked eye,
而天空中的这些光点中确实有其他的世界 and some of those lights in the sky were actually other worlds.
布鲁诺并非科学家 Bruno was no scientist.
他对宇宙的观点不过是一次幸运的猜想 His vision of the cosmos was a lucky guess,
因为他没有证据来证明它 because he had no evidence to support it.
与许多猜想一样 Like most guesses,
它很可能最终被证实是错误的 it could well have turned out wrong.
但是一旦这个想法产生了 But once the idea was in the air,
它就给了别人指引了方向 it gave others a target to aim at.
就算能反驳它也好 If only to disprove it.
布鲁诺瞥见了宇宙的浩瀚 Bruno glimpsed the vastness of space.
但他却没能了解时间的无穷 But he had no inkling of the staggering immensity of time.
生命不过百年的人类 How can we humans, who rarely live more than a century,
怎么能抓得住宇宙历史 hope to grasp the vast expanse of time
那样漫长的时间呢 that is the history of the cosmos?
宇宙有138亿年的历史 The universe is 13.8 thousand million years old.
为了方便想象所有的宇宙时间 In order to imagine all of cosmic time,
让我们将它压缩到一年的时间中去 let's compress it into a single calendar year.
这张宇宙日历始于 The cosmic calendar begins
一月一号 也就是宇宙诞生的那天 on January 1st with the birth of our universe.
它包含了从那天起一直到现在 It contains everything that's happened since then,
也就是日历上 up to now,
十二月三十一日午夜间发生的所有事情 which on this calendar is midnight December 31st.
在这个比例下 每月大约相当于10亿年 On this scale, every month represents about a billion years.
每天相当于4000万年 Every day represents nearly 40 million years.
让我们尽可能地回溯 Let's go back as far as we can,
来到宇宙的最开始 to the very first moment of the universe.
1月1日 宇宙大爆炸 January 1st, the Big Bang.
这是目前为止我们能够了解的 It's as far back as we can see in time...
最久远的事件了 for now.
我们的宇宙 Our entire universe emerged
由一个比原子还小的奇点演变而来 from a point smaller than a single atom.
在一场宇宙大火中 空间出现 Space itself exploded in a cosmic fire,
宇宙开始膨胀 launching the expansion of the universe
我们目前所知的一切能量 and giving birth to all the energy
和一切物质都来源于此 and all the matter we know today.
这听起来确实很不可思议 I know that sounds crazy,
但我们拥有强有力的观测证据 but there's strong observational evidence
能够支持大爆炸理论 to support the Big Bang theory.
比如宇宙中观测到的氦元素和理论丰度非常接近 And it includes the amount of helium in the cosmos
还有大爆炸遗留下的微波背景辐射 and the glow of radio waves left over from the explosion.
随着它不断膨胀 宇宙开始冷却 As it expanded, the universe cooled,
接着就是大约2亿年的黑暗期 and there was darkness for about 200 million years.
气体团在引力作用下聚在一起 温度升高 Gravity was pulling together clumps of gas and heating them
在1月10日这天 until the first stars burst into light
最古老的一批恒星诞生了 on January 10th.
1月19日 这些恒星聚集 On January 13th, these stars coalesced
组成了最初的小星系 into the first small galaxies.
小星系继续聚集形成较大星系 These galaxies merged to form still larger ones,
其中就包括我们的银河系 including our own Milky Way,
大约形成于110亿年前 which formed about 11 billion years ago,
也就是宇宙年历的3月15日 on March 15th of the cosmic year.
数以千亿记的恒星 Hundreds of billions of suns.
我们的太阳在哪里 Which one is ours?
还没诞生呢 It's not yet born.
它将在其他恒星的灰烬中浴火重生 It will rise from the ashes of other stars.
看见那些像狗仔闪光灯一样闪烁的光芒了吗 See those lights flashing like paparazzi?
每个点都是一颗超新星 Each one is a supernova,
大质量恒星的华丽谢幕 the blazing death of a giant star.
恒星在这里灭亡 在这里重生 Stars die and are born in places like this one...
被称为恒星摇篮 a stellar nursery.
它们像雨滴一样 They condense like raindrops
在巨大的气体和尘埃云团中聚集而成 from giant clouds of gas and dust.
它们温度越来越高 They get so hot
原子核在它们中心发生聚变 that the nuclei of the atoms fuse together deep within them
产生了我们所呼吸的氧 肌肉中的碳 to make the oxygen we breathe, the carbon in our muscles,
骨骼里的钙 血液中的铁 the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood,
所有这一切都在 all of it was cooked
早已灰飞烟灭的恒星中心形成 in the fiery hearts of long-vanished stars.
你 我 所有人 You, me, everyone...
我们都是恒星物质构成的 we are made of star stuff.
恒星物质不断被利用 重元素逐渐增加 This star stuff is recycled and enriched,
以此往复 again and again,
伴随着一代又一代的恒星 through succeeding generations of stars.
我们的太阳还有多久诞生 How much longer until the birth of our Sun?
久着呢 A long time.
直到60亿年后 It won't begin to shine
它才开始发光发热 for another six billion years.
在宇宙年历上 Our Sun's birthday is August 31st
太阳的生日是8月31日这天 on the Cosmic Calendar...
也就是大约45亿年前 ...four and a half billion years ago.
气体和尘埃构成的盘环绕初生的太阳运行 As with the other worlds of our Solar System,
和太阳系其他行星一样 Earth was formed from a disk of gas and dust
地球在盘中诞生 orbiting the newborn Sun.
不断的撞击让行星胚胎越长越大 Repeated collisions produced a growing ball of debris.
看见那个小行星了吗 See that asteroid?
不是 不是这个 No, not that one.
那边那个 The one over there.
旁边那颗行星的引力让它往左偏了一点 We exist because the gravity of that one next to it
我们才得以在地球上繁衍 just nudged it an inch to the left.
在太阳系这样浩瀚的空间里 What difference could an inch make
毫厘之差能产生多大后果呢 on the scale the Solar System?
稍等 你马上就知道了 Just wait, you'll see.
在最初的十亿年里 地球 The Earth took one hell of a beating
遭到了一次狠狠的撞击 in its first billion years.
绕地运行的碎片碰撞 结合 Fragments of orbiting debris collided and coalesced,
直到它们滚雪球般形成了月球 until they snowballed to form our Moon.
月球便是那个混乱时代的遗留物 The Moon is a souvenir of that violent epoch.
如果你站在当年的地球上看 If you stood on the surface of that long ago Earth,
月球要比现在明亮一百倍 the Moon would have looked a hundred times brighter.
当时的月地距离只有现在的十分之一 It was ten times closer back then,
二者间的引力作用远比现在强 locked in a much more intimate gravitational embrace.
随着地球不断降温 海洋开始形成 As the Earth cooled, seas began to form.
潮汐是现在的千百倍高 The tides were a thousand times higher then.
千万年里 地球潮汐所产生的摩擦力 Over the eons, tidal friction within Earth
将月球越推越远 pushed the Moon away.
生命大约在这时候诞生 Life began somewhere around here,
9月21日 September 21st,
我们小小世界的35亿年前 three and a half billion years ago on our little world.
生命如何诞生至今仍是未解之谜 We still don't know how life got started.
我们只能猜想 For all we know,
它可能来自于银河系的另一边 it may have come from another part of the Milky Way.
生命的起源 The origin of life
是科学界的几大超级难题之一 is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of science.
这是生命的形成过程 That's life cooking,
所有生物化学元素为原料 evolving all the biochemical recipes
加上非常不可思议的复杂过程 for its incredibly complex activities.
到了11月9日这天 生命开始呼吸 移动 By November 9th, life was breathing, moving,
进食 对环境有所反应 eating, responding to its environment.
我们要感谢那些微生物先驱 We owe a lot to those pioneering microbes.
哦对了 还有一件事 Oh, yeah... one other thing.
它们还创造了有性繁殖 They also invented sex.
12月17日是个重大日子 December 17th was quite a day.
海洋生命真正开始繁荣 Life in the sea really took off,
种类繁多的大型植物和动物大爆发 it was exploding with a diversity of larger plants and animals.
提塔利克鱼是最早造访陆地的海洋动物之一 Tiktaalik was one of the first animals to venture onto land.
陆地对它来说就像另一个星球 It must have felt like visiting another planet.
森林 恐龙 Forests, dinosaurs,
鸟类 昆虫 birds, insects,
所有都在12月的最后一周进化而来 they all evolved in the final week of December.
第一枝花 The first flower...
绽放于12月28日 bloomed on December 28th.
随着这些古老森林生长 死去 As these ancient forests grew and died
又被深埋入地底 and sank beneath the surface,
植物遗骸逐渐转化为了煤 their remains transformed into coal.
3亿年之后 300 million years later,
人类才懂得烧煤来推动发展 we humans are burning most of that coal to power
同时也危及到我们的文明 and imperil our civilization.
还记得在太阳系形成之初 Remember that asteroid back in the formation
出现的小行星吗 of the Solar System...
被向左推了一点点的那颗 the one that got nudged a little to the left?
它来了 Well, here it comes.
宇宙年历 It's 6:24 am
12月30日 早上6点24分 on December 30th on the Cosmic Calendar.
在长达一亿多年的时间里 For more than a hundred million years,
恐龙都是地球的王者 the dinosaurs were lords of the Earth,
而我们的祖先 小型哺乳动物 while our ancestors, small mammals,
只能畏手畏脚地潜行于世 scurried fearfully underfoot.
这颗小行星彻底扭转了局面 The asteroid changed all that.
假设它没有被推开 Suppose it hadn't been nudged at all.
那么就会永远和地球擦肩而过 It would have missed the Earth entirely,
我们可以推测 恐龙可能继续统治地球 and for all we know, the dinosaurs might still be here
人类不会存在 but we wouldn't.
这就是极端偶然性的极好例子 This is a good example of the extreme contingency,
生存的侥幸 the chance nature, of existence.
宇宙已经135多亿岁了 The universe is already more than 13 and a half billion years old.
但仍未看见我们的身影 Still no sign of us.
在这张日历代表的浩瀚时间中 In the vast ocean of time that this calendar represents,
人类的进化在宇宙年最后一天的 we humans only evolved within the last hour
最后一小时才刚开始 of the last day of the cosmic year.
午夜11点59分46秒 11: 59: 46.
人类书写的历史仅占最后的14秒 All of recorded history occupies only the last 14 seconds,
你所听说过的每一个人 and every person you've ever heard of
活在这里的某个瞬间 lived somewhere in there.
国王与战争 迁移与发明 All those kings and battles, migrations and inventions,
战争与爱情 史书记载的一切 wars and loves, everything in the history books
都在这里发生 happened here, in the last seconds
在宇宙年历最后的几秒中 of the Cosmic Calendar.
但如果我们想要探索 But if we want to explore
宇宙时间中如此短暂的瞬间 such a brief moment of cosmic time...
我们必须重新设定比例尺 we'll have to change scale.
我们在宇宙中初来乍到 We are newcomers to the cosmos.
我们自身的历史始于宇宙年的最后一天 Our own story only begins on the last night of the cosmic year.
现在是新年前夕9点45分 It's 9: 45 on New Year's Eve.
三百五十万年前 Three and a half million years ago,
你我的祖先 留下了这些足迹 our ancestors, yours and mine, left these traces.
我们学会了直立行走 并越走越远 We stood up, and parted ways from them.
当我们开始用双腿站立 Once we were standing on two feet,
我们的眼光便不再局限在地面 our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground.
我们仰望天空并开始探索 Now we were free to look up in wonder.
人类的大部分历史 For the longest part of human existence,
例如说过去四万代人类 say the last 40,000 generations,
我们都是流浪者 we were wanderers,
猎人与采集人组成一个个小部落 living in small bands of hunters and gatherers,
制造工具 使用火焰 making tools, controlling fire,
命名事物 naming things,
这一切都发生在宇宙年最后的一小时 all within the last hour of the Cosmic Calendar.
为了了解下一步的情况 To find out what happens next,
我们需要重新设定比例尺 we'll have to change scale
才能细细看清宇宙年最后一夜的 to see the last minute of the last night
最后一分钟 of the cosmic year.
11点59分 11: 59.
以宇宙时间来衡量 我们仍旧十分年轻 We're so very young on the time scale of the universe
在宇宙年最后的六十秒时 that we didn't start painting our first pictures
我们甚至还未完成第一幅画作 until the last 60 seconds of the cosmic year,
在三万年前 a mere 30,000 years ago.
我们发明了天文学 This is when we invented astronomy.
其实 我们都是天文学家的后裔 In fact, we're all descended from astronomers.
我们的生存依赖于了解如何解读星辰 Our survival depended on knowing how to read the stars
以此来预计冬天 in order to predict the coming of the winter
及野生动物的迁徙 and the migration of the wild herds.
然后 在一万年前左右 And then, around 10,000 years ago,
我们的生活方式开始出现革命性变化 there began a revolution in the way we lived.
我们的祖先学会了如何塑造环境 Our ancestors learned how to shape their environment,
种植作物 驯养动物 taming wild plants and animals,
耕种土地并定居下来 cultivating land and settling down.
这改变了一切 This changed everything.
史上第一次 For the first time in our history,
我们拥有过多事物 无法携带 we had more stuff than we could carry.
我们需要记录它们 We needed a way to keep track of it.
在午夜前十四秒 At 14 seconds to midnight,
即六千年前左右 我们发明了文字 or about 6,000 years ago, we invented writing.
不久后我们记录的 And it wasn't long before we started recording
就不仅仅是几担谷物 more than bushels of grain.
文字可以记录我们的思想 Writing allowed us to save our thoughts
并让它们在时间与空间中走得更远 and send them much further in space and time.
泥板上的小小的划痕 Tiny markings on a clay tablet
令我们克服了生命的短暂 became a means for us to vanquish mortality.
它震撼了世界 It shook the world.
摩西在七秒前诞生 Moses was born seven seconds ago.
佛祖在六秒前诞生 Buddha, six seconds ago.
耶稣在五秒前诞生 Jesus, five seconds ago.
穆罕默德在三秒前诞生 Mohammed, three seconds ago.
在两秒前 无论是好是坏 It was not even two seconds ago that, for better or worse,
东西半球的人类发现了彼此的存在 the two halves of the Earth discovered each other.
在宇宙年的最后的一秒 And it was only in the very last second
我们才开始用科学 of the Cosmic Calendar that we began to use science
揭示自然的秘密与法则 to reveal nature's secrets and her laws.
这种科学方法是如此强大 The scientific method is so powerful
在四个世纪内 that in a mere four centuries,
便经历了从伽利略首次发明天文望远镜 it has taken us from Galileo's first look through a telescope
到我们在月球上留下第一个脚印的跨越 at another world to leaving our footprints on the Moon.
它令我们可以透过时间与空间 It allowed us to look out across space and time
来看清我们在宇宙中的时间与所在 to discover where and when we are in the cosmos.
我们进行的探索是宇宙了解其自身的一种方式 We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.
卡尔·萨根指导了上一代人 Carl Sagan guided the maiden voyage of Cosmos
对宇宙研究的初次探索 a generation ago.
他是二十世纪最成功的 He was the most successful science communicator
科学传播者 of the 20th century,
但他首先还是一名科学家 but he was first and foremost a scientist.
卡尔对关于行星的认知 Carl contributed enormously
卡尔·萨根 哈佛大学
作出了巨大贡献 to our knowledge of the planets.
他正确推测出在土星最大的卫星 He correctly predicted the existence of methane lakes
泰坦上有甲烷湖 on Saturn's giant moon Titan.
他展示了地球的早期大气 He showed that the atmosphere of the early Earth
一定含有大量温室气体 must have contained powerful greenhouse gases.
他是首位明白火星上的季节变化 He was the first to understand that seasonal changes on Mars
是因为火星风尘暴 were due to windblown dust.
卡尔是寻找 Carl was a pioneer
地外生命及智慧生物的先锋 in the search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence.
在太空时代的前40年 He played a leading role in every major spacecraft mission
他在每一项探索太阳系的重要空间任务中 to explore the Solar System during the first 40 years
都扮演重要角色 of the Space Age.
但他所做的远不止这些 But that's not all he did.
这是卡尔·萨根1975年的个人日程本 This is Carl Sagan's own calendar from 1975.
奈尔·泰森
那时我是谁 Who was I back then?
我只是纽约布朗克斯区一个十七岁的孩子 I was just a 17-year-old kid from the Bronx
梦想着成为一名科学家 with dreams of becoming a scientist,
不知怎的 举世闻名的天文学家 and somehow the world's most famous astronomer found time
抽空邀请我到纽约北部的艾希卡镇 to invite me to Ithaca, in upstate New York,
并在周六与他见面 and spend a Saturday with him.
那个雪天仿佛就在昨天 I remember that snowy day like it was yesterday.
他在公交站等我 He met me at the bus stop
带我参观他在康奈尔大学的实验室 and showed me his laboratory at Cornell University.
卡尔把书桌后的这本书赠与我并题字 Carl reached behind his desk and inscribed this book for me.
"送给奈尔 未来的天文学家 "For Neil, a future astronomer.
卡尔 赠" Carl."
那天晚上 他开车送我到公交站 At the end of the day, he drove me back to the bus station.
雪下得更大了 The snow was falling harder.
他在一张纸条上写下他的电话 He wrote his phone number...
他的家庭电话号码 his home phone number...on a scrap of paper
并说 如果公交车来不了 and he said, "If the bus can't get through,
打给我 晚上留宿我家 见见我家人 call me and spend the night at my home with my family."
我那时已确定以后要当科学家 I already knew I wanted to become a scientist,
但那天下午 透过卡尔 but that afternoon, I learned from Carl
我知道了我以后想成为怎样的人 the kind of person I wanted to become.
他找到我 还有许多其他人 He reached out to me and to countless others,
启发我们学习 传授及实践科学 inspiring so many of us to study, teach and do science.
科学是讲究合作的事业 Science is a cooperative enterprise,
跨越许多代人 spanning the generations.
是师生间传递的火炬 It's the passing of a torch from teacher to student to teacher,
是思想的集合 追溯过去 a community of minds reaching back to antiquity
展望星辰 and forward to the stars.
现在请跟我来 Now, come with me.
我们的旅程才刚刚开始 Our journey is just beginning.