当我们把星光从天空 We pulled the stars from the skies...
带到了地面上 and brought them down to Earth.
代价是什么 But at what cost?
当我们点亮这些灯光 When we turned on all these lights...
我们就丢失了某些宝贵的东西 we lost something precious.
满天繁星 The stars.
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翻译 石墨烯思思
校对 OBAFGKM
时间轴 MH
后期 吉吉
总监 OBAFGKM
宇宙 时空之旅
曾几何时 当照亮黑夜的只有火光的时候 A long time ago, in a world lit only by fire,
我们与满天繁星的关系其实更加 our relationship with the stars was far more...
亲密 personal.
岁月交替 For thousands of generations,
我们凝视着繁星 好像我们的命运受之掌控 we watched the stars as if our lives depended on it.
是的 没错 Because they did.
跟那时候同我们人类竞争的动物相比 We humans were not the biggest, the strongest,
我们人类不是最大的 最强壮的或最快的 nor the fastest of all the animals we competed against.
可是在另一点上 我们却极具优势 But we did have one thing going for us...
我们有智慧 our intelligence.
一个很明显的体现就是 我们善于认出图案 One aspect of that was a genius for pattern recognition.
一夜又一夜 我们凝视着满天繁星 Night after night, we watched the stars.
随着时间推移 我们的祖先发现 And over time, our ancestors noticed
地球上的万事万物之变 吉事凶事之兆 that the motions of the stars across the nights of the year
竟可以用 foretold changes on Earth
头顶的斗转星移来解释 that threatened or enhanced our chances for survival.
在那个没有电影电视 In a time when our imaginations
没有电子设备的时代 were the only stage where stories came to life,
当我们头脑中的故事 before there were movies or TVs
只能停留在想象中的时代 or electronic devices of any kind,
每一个人类文明都把天上的点点连起来 every human culture connected the dots
形成他们自己的图案 to form their own pictures.
这些图案慢慢地变成了一本故事书的插图 These images became the illustrations of a storybook
在更深的层次来说 这本书是一本生存手册 that, on a deeper level, was also a survival manual.
而随着文明的不同 天上的繁星 The names and personalities of the gods, heroes,
是有着不同名称和身份的诸神 英雄 farm animals or familiar objects
甚至牲畜或者熟悉的物件 varied from culture to culture.
但这当中一群优雅的星组成的星团 But there was one particularly gorgeous group of stars
它被古希腊人和我们现代人称为 known to the Ancient Greeks and to us today
昴星团 as the Pleiades,
这是一个形成于一亿年之前的星团 a star cluster formed about 100 million years ago.
这其中的每一个都差不多比太阳亮40倍 Each of them is some 40 times brighter than our Sun.
而这当中最亮的一颗 昴宿六 And Alcyone, the most luminous,
比我们的太阳要亮近1000倍 outshines our Sun 1,000 times.
多少年以来 昴星团一直被世界各地的人们 For ages, the Pleiades have been used as an eye test
用来做视力测验 for people all over the world.
如果你能看到至少六颗 If you could see at least six of them,
那你的视力就是正常 you were considered normal.
如果你能看到比7颗更多 If you saw more than seven,
那你就是战士和侦察兵的理想人选 you were an ideal candidate for a warrior or scout.
在不列颠群岛的古凯尔特人和德鲁伊人中 Among the Ancient Celts and Druids of the British Isles,
昴星团被认为对狩猎有着重要意义 the Pleiades were believed to have a haunting significance.
当昴星团在天空中达到 On the night of the year that they reach
每年最高的那个晚上 the highest point in the sky at midnight,
人们认为死者的灵魂将会在地表上徘徊 the spirits of the dead were thought to wander the Earth.
很多人认为这是Samhain This is believed to be the origin of the holiday
这个节日的起源 once known as Samhain,
现在被称作 万圣节 now called Halloween.
关于昴星团里的星星如何飞上天 All over the Earth, our ancestors told
世界各地的不同文化 wonderful stories to explain
都有自己的精彩故事 how the Pleiades came to be in the sky.
对于北美洲的基奥瓦人来说 For the Kiowa people of North America,
故事差不多是这样的 it happened something like this.
很久很久以前 有一群美丽的姑娘 Long, long ago, some young women
为了在繁星下自由地舞蹈 snuck away from their campsite
偷偷地从营地溜走 to dance freely beneath the stars.
巨石 救救我们 Rock, save us!
巨石 可怜可怜我们 Rock, take pity on us!
巨石听到了她们的祈求 就慢慢长高 The rock heard their cries and grew taller.
直到变成今日所见的 魔鬼峰 Until it became what is today known as the Devil's Tower.
这些少女们就变成了昴星团中的星 The maidens were transformed into the stars of the Pleiades,
在冬日的夜晚悬挂在峰顶之上 which may be seen hanging above the tower in midwinter.
古希腊人也把那七颗明珠看作七位少女 The Ancient Greeks also saw those seven jewels as seven maidens,
阿特拉斯的七个女儿 the seven daughters of Atlas,
然而追逐她们的不是巨熊 pursued not by bears, but by...
却是有一天出来散步 Orion the hunter,
然后偷看到她们的猎人俄里翁 who spied them when he was out walking one day.
俄里翁被欲望冲昏了头脑 Orion became mad with desire.
整整七年 他一刻不停地追逐着她们 For seven years, he chased them relentlessly.
少女筋疲力尽时 -宙斯 帮帮我们 Exhausted... - Zeus, help us.
她们向宙斯祈求解救 ...they prayed to Zeus for deliverance.
众神之王宙斯 可怜她们 Zeus, the king of the gods, felt sorry for them,
便把七姐妹变成了昴星团中的七颗明星 and transformed those seven maidens into the Pleiades.
但是神明们却总是反复无常 But the gods are, if anything, capricious.
当俄里翁被一只巨蝎蜇死之后 When Orion was killed by the sting of a scorpion,
宙斯把升到了天上的一个可以继续追逐 Zeus placed him in the sky where he could resume his pursuit
美丽的七姐妹的位置 of the seven gorgeous sisters.
我们的祖先 Our ancestors,
他们用想象力编织出了精彩的故事 they wove brilliantly imaginative stories.
但是这些故事却与梦一样没办法拉近我们 But they can bring us no closer to the stars
和繁星的距离 than our dreams.
直到几千年之后 It took yet another few thousand years
才有三位聪慧过顶的科学家解开了 until three brilliant scientists unlocked the secrets
恒星本来面目 of the true lives of the stars.
在1901年 In 1901,
哈佛大学还是男人的天下 Harvard was a man's world.
但一位名叫爱德华·查尔斯·皮克林的天文学家 But an astronomer named Edward Charles Pickering
破了陈规 broke that rule.
皮克林的办公室就在走廊那头 Oh, Pickering's office is just down the hallway.
那边的那扇门是他放 And that door over there leads to the room
他的计算器的屋子 where he keeps his computers.
我们应该叫这些女人"计算器"吧 We're supposed to call those women "Computers," But, uh,
但是我却听过不止一人叫这些女的 I've heard more than one fellow refer to those gals
"皮克林的后宫" as "Pickering's Harem."
皮克林集结了一些妇女 Pickering assembled a team of women
来对恒星进行定位和分类的工作 to map and classify the types of stars.
而其中一个人为我们理解恒星中的物质 One of them provided the key to our understanding
做出了重要贡献 of the substance of the stars.
另一个人想出了一种计算 And another devised a way for us to calculate
宇宙大小的方法 the size of the universe.
由于某些原因 For some reason,
你可能从没听说过她们中的任何一人 you probably never heard of either of them.
唉 Wonder why.
这是整个女性团队的队长 安妮·詹普·坎农 That's Annie Jump Cannon, the leader of the team.
在她退休以前 Before she was through,
她对将近二十五万颗恒星进行了分类 she catalogued a quarter of a million stars.
11号是一个B7型 Number 11 is a B7.
这是昴星团中的昴宿六 That's Alcyone in the Pleiades.
在坎农年轻的时候 由于一次猩红热 Cannon lost her hearing during a bout of scarlet fever
她失去了听力 when she was a young woman.
12号是个B6型 Number 12 is a B6.
这是亨利埃塔·斯万·勒维特 她也是聋人 That's Henrietta Swan Leavitt. She's also deaf.
而她是这个房间中的另一个伟大的科学家 And she's the other great scientist in the room.
勒维特发现了测量到恒星距离的方法 Leavitt discovered the law that astronomers still use
还有宇宙大小的方法 more than a century later
而这些方法在一个多世纪以后 to measure the distances to the stars
还在被天文学家所使用 and the size of the cosmos itself.
安妮·坎农寄出了一张圣诞贺卡 Annie Jump Cannon sent out a Christmas card
她在这贺卡上解释了她和姐妹们在做的事情 explaining what she and her sisters were actually doing.
来自恒星的光可以穿过 The light from a star is allowed
望远镜中所安装的折射棱镜 她写道 to fall through a prism placed in the telescope, she wrote.
这样放大之后就可以看到星光分成了一条带 Thus magnified, the starlight is split up into a band
这条带显示其包含的颜色 showing its component colors,
其中的红色和紫色分列在色带的两端 the red rays going to one end and the violet to the other.
这就是恒星的光谱 This is the spectrum of the star.
光谱上有一些精细的暗线 It shows the presence of fine, dark lines.
在把这些暗线与实验室中 By comparing them with lines given
用发光物质得到的线比较之后 by glowing substances in the laboratory,
就发现了我们所熟悉的那些地球上的元素 we can determine that the same elements familiar to us on the Earth
也存在于那些遥远的恒星中 also exist in the outermost star.
这是12358B号盘 This is plate number 12358B.
这张盘上的01号星是一个B型星 Number one at this plate is a B-type star.
B2 是B2型 Make that a B2.
为了给成百上千颗恒星按照 It took Cannon decades to classify the spectral character
她所设计的标准进行光谱分类 of hundreds of thousands of stars
坎农花费了近几十年的时间 according to the scheme that she devised.
按照恒星光谱线型的不同 Cannon discovered that the stars fell
坎农发现所有的恒星都可以被归为 into a continuous sequence of seven broad categories
七种连续的 较为宽泛的类型 according to their spectral line patterns.
每一种用一个字母来表示 Each was designated by a letter.
但是每一个字母下面的恒星的光谱之间 But the spectral lines of two stars in the same letter class
又有些细小的不同 could differ in subtle ways,
这些细微的不同是坎农通过 minute variations that Cannon learned
记忆发现的 to recognize from memory.
为了区分这些有着细小区别的光谱 To distinguish these spectra from one another,
她又用数字把每个恒星类型细分成了十个亚类型 she assigned ten numerical subcategories for each class.
安妮·詹普·坎农只是给恒星分了类 Annie Jump Cannon organized the stars,
但是这分类背后所蕴含的物理意义却需要 but it would fall to another scientist to decipher
另一位科学家来解释 the hidden meaning in her work.
在1923年的英国 女性被禁止 In the England of 1923, women were forbidden
在科学学科中追求高等学位 from pursuing advanced degrees in science.
但是塞西莉亚·佩恩在听过天文学家阿瑟·艾丁顿 But Cecelia Payne had attended a lecture in London
在伦敦的一次报告之后受到了启发 by the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington,
这位艾丁顿爵士可是世界上第一位 the first scientist to provide evidence
给爱因斯坦革命性的 that Einstein's revolutionary
广义相对论的正确性给出证据的人 General Theory of Relativity was correct.
从那一刻开始 From that moment on,
她下定决心追求自己的伟大梦想 she knew that nothing would deter her
君子一言 驷马难追 from pursing her big dreams.
她决心移民到美国去 She resolved to emigrate to America,
在那里 女性已经获得了参与科学研究的自由 where women had already gained the freedom to study the stars.
她的申请被哈佛接受 Her application was accepted at Harvard.
而之后她在哈佛的发现 What she would discover there would challenge
将会动摇天文学界的一个核心思想 one of the central beliefs of astronomy.
而这发现的结果 The resulting impact
就是现代天体物理学的开端 would be the dawn of modern astrophysics.
时光荏苒 As the decades passed,
安妮·坎农和她的团队继续筛选着恒星 Annie Jump Cannon and her team kept sifting the stars,
她们只需要短暂的一瞥 checking each one's spectral signature
便能分辨出每颗恒星的光谱特点 with a fleeting glance and then dropping them
然后确定为七大类中的一类 into one of seven categories.
这些分类好的恒星变成了几十万个点 They became hundreds of thousands of dots
但是它背后的意义 却没有人能够理解 in a larger picture which no one could yet understand.
而这个女性的团体当中 又多了一位 Into this community of women came one more.
嘿 你好 Well, hello there.
你一定是佩恩小姐吧 You must be Miss Payne.
我们一直在等你啊 We've been waiting for you.
快进来 Come on in.
在有学术氛围的地方 塞西莉亚·佩恩 Cecilia Payne had never experienced such kindness
可从没感受过如此善意 in a scientific setting before.
姐妹们大方的把自己劳动的 This sisterhood generously shared
成果与她分享 the fruits of their labors with her,
而她也利用她们的观测 and she turned their observations
彻底地改变了人们对恒星的认识 into a radical new understanding of the stars.
这两位女性之间产生了伟大的友谊 The two women became great friends.
坎农把自己毕生所学的关于恒星光谱的知识 Cannon taught Payne everything she had learned
都教给了佩恩 about stellar spectra.
而佩恩也开始研究坎农的数据 And Payne began to analyze Cannon's data
尝试着看看她能否确定恒星的化学组成 to see if she could determine the actual chemical composition
和物理状态 and physical state of the stars.
佩恩把自己在理论物理和原子物理 She brought to this work her expertise
方面的知识应用到恒星研究中 in theoretical and atomic physics.
钙 铁 等重元素的存在是恒星光谱中 The most prominent features in the spectra of stars
一个非常显著的特点 showed the presence of heavy elements
而在地球的所有元素中 such as calcium... and iron,
钙 铁 也是含量最丰富的几个之一 which are among the most abundant elements in the Earth.
所以天文学家很自然地下结论说 So astronomers naturally concluded
恒星是由跟地球相同的元素所组成的 that the stars were made of the same elements as the Earth
元素比例也与地球差不多 and in roughly the same proportions.
在1924年 亨利·诺里斯·罗素 In 1924, Henry Norris Russell
是美国天文学界的权威 他对人们理解恒星 was the dean of American astronomers, having made major contributions
做出了突出贡献 to our understanding of the stars.
四十到四十五种地球上的化学元素 40 to 45 of the chemical elements that we have here on Earth
在太阳光谱上都找到了存在的证据 are also present in the spectrum of the Sun.
所以我们可以认为 太阳的化学组成 So we can assume that the composition of the Sun
和地球是类似的 resembles that of the Earth.
如果我们能把地球的外壳加热到炽热状态的话 If one were to heat the crust of the Earth to incandescence,
那么它的光谱就会和太阳的很像 its spectrum would resemble that of the Sun.
亨利·德雷珀星表 安妮·坎农 天文图片管理科科长 爱德华·皮克林 观测站主任
安妮 我觉得我终于知道是什么意思了 Annie, I think I now understand what it all means.
你的工作的意义 All your years of work.
跟我说说 Tell me.
我计算了在很大的温度 I've calculated what the spectra
范围内光谱的理论形式 should look like across a wide range of temperatures,
结果是 跟你的分类系统吻合的特别好 and they match your system of classification perfectly.
任何一颗恒星的光谱都能准确地告诉你它有多热 The spectrum of any star tells you exactly how hot it is.
你的 "OBAFGKM" 分类系统实际上是从高到低 Your "O-B-A-F-G-K-M" Is really a temperature scale of the stars
在温度上对恒星的分类 from the hottest to the coldest.
安妮 最重要的是 正是由于你的工作 Here's the headline, Annie. Thanks to your work,
我才发现恒星基本上都是由氢和氦 I've discovered that the stars are made almost entirely
所组成的 of hydrogen and helium.
相对于恒星中的金属元素 氢和氦的量 There's a million times more hydrogen and helium
可是要多出几百万倍的 than the metals in the stars.
我知道 这听起来很蠢 I know, it sounds daft.
你确定么 Are you certain?
你有没有让其他人验证一下你的计算 Has anyone else checked your calculations?
还没呢 但是计算都在我的论文里 Not yet, but it's all in my thesis,
我已经把论文寄给罗素教授了 which is already on its way to Professor Russell.
小傻姑娘 Poor woman.
罗素为塞西莉亚·佩恩感到遗憾 Russell felt sorry for Cecilia Payne.
在他眼里 佩恩论文最基础的假设就有问题 Her thesis appeared to him to be fundamentally flawed.
塞西莉亚·佩恩 收
氢含量是金属元素含量的百万倍 It is clearly impossible that hydrogen should be
显然是不可能的 a million times more abundant than the metals.
她仔细收集的证据在传统的科学思维面前 Her carefully gathered evidence flew in the face
简直是大逆不道 of conventional scientific wisdom.
"我怎么可能是对的呢"她反问自己 "How could I be right," She asked,
恒星大气理论 塞西莉亚·佩恩
"如果那意味着 "If that must mean
罗素教授这样杰出的科学家是错的" that such a distinguished scientist was wrong?"
尽管她对自己的研究很有信心 Despite her confidence in the quality of her research,
她还是屈从于权威并在论文后面加上了一句 she caved and added a sentence to her thesis
是过分高并且基本不可能的
掩盖了论文精髓的话 that undermined its greatest insight.
直到四年之后 It would be four years
罗素才意识到佩恩的发现是正确的 before Russell realized that Payne was right.
但值得钦佩的是 在他刚意识到的时候 To his credit, as soon as he did,
他就承认这个发现是佩恩的 he acknowledged that it was her discovery.
佩恩的《恒星大气理论》一直被很多人认为是 Payne's "Stellar Atmospheres" Is widely regarded
天文学界最杰出的博士论文 as the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.
这篇博士论文甚至成了领域内的教科书 It became the standard text in its field.
没有为了自己的观点愤声疾呼是我的问题 I was to blame for not having pressed my point.
当我相信自己是正确的时候我却屈从于权威 I had given in to authority when I believed I was right.
如果你对自己的证据很肯定 If you are sure of your facts,
恒星大气理论 塞西莉亚·佩恩
那你就要捍卫你的理论 you should defend your position.
权威的话语 The words of the powerful
在人类其他经验性的领域可能会占上风 may prevail in other spheres of human experience,
但是在科学中 唯一能让大家信服的只有 but in science, the only thing that counts is the evidence
观点当中的证据和逻辑推理 and the logic of the argument itself.
塞西莉亚·佩恩对于 Cecilia Payne's interpretation
安妮·坎农的恒星光谱分类法的解释 of Annie Jump Cannon's sequence of stellar spectra
让我们第一次有能力去了解 made it possible for us
恒星一辈子的故事 to read the life stories of the stars
并且可以从恒星激烈的死亡中 and to trace the story of life itself back to its beginnings
推断出它生命的开始 in their fiery deaths.
我们的宇宙中有很多种恒星 There are many kinds of stars.
有些如太阳一样明亮 Some are bright like the Sun.
有些则昏暗 Some are dim.
最大的恒星在质量上要比最小的恒星 The greatest stars are ten million times larger
大一千万倍 than the smallest ones.
有些恒星已经有一百亿岁 Some stars are old beyond imagining,
古老得不可想象 more than ten billion years of age.
还有一些此时此刻正在诞生 Others are being born right now.
当原子在恒星中心聚变的时候 When atoms fuse in the hearts of stars,
星光就产生了 they make starlight.
恒星是在残骸中产生的 Stars are born in litters,
组成它们的是星际云中的气体和尘埃 formed from the gas and dust of interstellar clouds.
而残骸中诞生的恒星的质量 The mass of the individual stars in a litter
可以从矮星 can range from the runts
并不比最大的行星大多少 not much larger than the largest planets--
一直到令太阳显得小巧玲珑的超级巨星 to the supergiant stars that dwarf the Sun.
猎户座腰带下面星云中的恒星都是新生的 The stars in the nebula below Orion's Belt are newborns,
大概也就五百万年左右 around five million years old,
它们依旧被包裹在孕育它们的气体尘埃中 and still swaddled in the gas and dust that gave birth to them.
而昴星团中的恒星已经是咿呀学语的小孩子了 The stars in the Pleiades are already toddlers,
大概有一亿年左右 about 100 million years old.
它们已经抛掉了气体和尘埃的包裹层 They've shed their blankets of gas and dust,
但是它们还是被彼此之间的引力所束缚着 but they're still bound together by their mutual gravity.
再过几亿年 Another few hundred million years,
它们就会飘散 各奔东西 and they'll drift apart and go their separate ways,
后会无期了 never to meet again.
北斗七星中的大部分恒星都是青春期的少年了 Most of the stars of the Big Dipper are adolescents,
大概有五亿岁左右 roughly half a billion years old.
虽然它们已经从诞生的星云当中飘散开来 They've already drifted apart from their birth cluster,
但是我们还是可以追寻到它们共同的祖先 although we can still trace their common ancestry.
最终 它们会在银河系当中完全分散开 Eventually, they'll spread out around the Milky Way galaxy.
但是我们所熟悉的那些星座 But most of the familiar constellations
大部分是由根本不相干的恒星组成的 are a mix of entirely unrelated stars,
有些离得近但是比较暗 some faint and nearby,
有些离得远但是很亮 others bright and far away.
我们的太阳 Our own Sun?
就算从几光年的距离上来看 From the distance of even a few light-years,
我们也很难分辨出太阳 it's hard to find amidst the other stars.
就那个 It's that one.
太阳现在处在中年阶段 Our Sun is middle-aged
距离诞生地已经飘离很远 and a long way from where it was born.
它的姐妹星 Its sister stars,
就是从同一块星际云当中诞生的恒星 hatched from the same interstellar cloud,
已经分散在整个银河系了 are dispersed throughout the galaxy.
它们中的许多都有自己的行星 Many of them have their own planets.
或许还有一些行星培育出了 Perhaps some of them nurture
生命 允许生命进行演化产生出智慧 the evolution of life and intelligence.
夜空中的大部分恒星 Most of the stars in our night sky
实际上都有至少一个互相绕行的伴星 actually orbit around one or more stellar companions.
如果只用肉眼 With the naked eye,
在这些双星或多星系统当中我们 we usually can't see the fainter members
没有办法看到那些比较暗的成员 in such double and multiple star systems.
如果一个世界有三个太阳 On a world with three suns,
夜空就会很罕见 the nights would be rare
而白昼也会在红与蓝之间交替变换 and the days might alternate between red and blue.
塌缩是恒星不可逃避的命运 It is the destiny of stars to collapse.
每次你抬头在夜空中看到的成百上千的繁星 Of the thousands of stars you see when you look up at the night sky,
其实都是活在 every one of them is living
两次塌缩之间 in an interval between two collapses...
第一次塌缩是从昏暗的星际气体云中 an initial collapse of a dark, interstellar gas cloud
形成恒星 to form the star,
最终塌缩就是这颗明亮的恒星 and a final collapse of the luminous star
奔赴命运终点 on its way to its ultimate fate.
除非有某种力的干扰 Gravity makes stars contract,
否则引力就会让恒星收缩 unless some other force intervenes.
太阳是一个无比巨大的炽热的气体球 The Sun is a great, big ball of incandescent gas.
太阳核心无比炽热的气体推着太阳向外膨胀 The super hot gas in its core pushes the Sun to expand outward.
与此同时 太阳自身的引力 At the same time, the Sun's own gravity
也拉着自己向内收缩 pulls it inward to contract.
太阳现在就在向内的引力 And our Sun is poised between these two forces
和向外的压力之间保持着稳定的动态平衡 in a stable equilibrium between gravity and nuclear fire,
而这种动态平衡还会持续四十亿年 a balance it will maintain for another four billion years.
但随着太阳不停地消耗掉氢 But as the Sun consumes hydrogen,
它的核心会慢慢缩小 its core very slowly shrinks,
同时太阳的表面会相应的逐渐向外扩张 and the Sun's surface gradually expands in response.
这种变化非常缓慢 It happens very slowly,
在长达 imperceptibly,
百万年的过程当中根本无法察觉 over the course of millions of years.
但是大概在十亿年之后 But in about a billion years,
太阳就会比今天亮百分之十左右 the Sun will be ten percent brighter than it is today.
百分之十听起来可能不多 Ten percent may not sound like much,
但多出来的热量对地球有巨大影响 but that extra heat will have a big effect on Earth.
大概四十亿到五十亿年之后 When the Sun finally exhausts its nuclear fuel
当太阳完全耗尽自己的核燃料时 four or five billion years from now,
它的气体就会逐渐变冷 压力就会下降 its gas will cool and the pressure will fall.
当太阳的内部压力没办法再承受 The Sun's interior can no longer support the weight
外层的重力时 of the outer layers,
形成恒星的那个初始塌缩就会继续 and the initial collapse will resume.
天下没有不散的筵席 Nothing lasts forever.
纵使恒星也会死 Even the stars die.
氢在一百亿年的聚变过程中 Helium, the ash of ten billion years of hydrogen fusion,
在恒星内核产生了大量的氦 has built up in the core.
没有了核聚变支撑外壳 With no nuclear fire to sustain its weight,
内核会继续塌缩直到温度足够高 the core collapses until it becomes hot enough
点燃氦 聚变成碳和氧 to start fusing helium into carbon and oxygen.
现在太阳的内核已经比以前热了太多 The core of the Sun is now much hotter than it was before.
它的大气层不断扩张 Its atmosphere rapidly expands.
在接下来的几十亿年中 它就会变成一颗红巨星 Over the next billion years, it'll become bloated
这时候它的大小将会变成 to more than 100 times its original size--
现在的一百倍 a red giant star.
它会包裹并且吞噬水星 It will envelop and devour the planets Mercury...
之后是金星 ...and Venus...
甚至最后吞噬地球 ...and possibly the Earth.
我倒是希望 I like to think that
在那个遥远的将来到来之前 tens of millions of years before that far distant future,
地球上如果还有生命的话 if there still be life born of Earth,
它们能在群星之中找到新的家 it will have found new homes among the stars.
一旦太阳燃尽了它所有的氦 Once the Sun burns through its helium,
它就会变得非常不稳定 it will become highly unstable,
并且会把它的外层物质抛射到空间中 casting off its outer layers into space.
而裸露在外无比巨热的内核将会用高能紫外线 The exposed, super hot core will flood its surroundings
淹没周围的一切 with high-energy ultraviolet light.
原子将会上演一出狂野的荧光之舞 The atoms will perform a wild, fluorescent dance.
太阳将会像蛋奶酥一样塌缩 The Sun will collapse like a souffle.
缩小到原来的百分之一 跟地球差不多 shrinking a hundredfold to the size of the Earth.
而到那个时候 太阳本身会变得如此致密 And at that point, the Sun will be so dense
过于拥挤的电子开始产生向外的推力 that its overcrowded electrons will push back,
这就停止了进一步的收缩 stopping any further contraction.
这时 太阳唯一存在过的证据 The kernel of light at the center
就是它的光之内核 will be the only part of the Sun that endures,
这是一颗还会在接下来的一千亿年里 a white dwarf star that will go on shining dimly
继续发出黯淡光芒的白矮星 for another 100 billion years.
当遥远未来的生命路过 Will the beings of a distant future,
这颗恒星的残骸之时 sailing past this wreck of a star,
会不会了解它曾经抚育过的世界和生命 have any idea of the life and worlds that it once warmed?
普通恒星梦幻般的裹尸布转瞬即逝 The psychedelic death shrouds of ordinary stars are fleeting,
通常只存在几万年的时间 lasting only tens of thousands of years
之后就会消散 回到星际气体和尘埃中 before dissipating in the interstellar gas and dust
而新生命也会从此诞生 from which the new stars will be born.
双星系统中的恒星命运则有所不同 The stars in a binary star system can have a different fate.
夜空中最亮的天狼星 Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky,
有一颗很暗很暗的伴星 has a very faint stellar companion--
一颗白矮星 a white dwarf.
这颗白矮星曾经与太阳很像 It was once a Sun-like star.
当天狼星燃尽自己的核燃料变成一颗红巨星 Someday, when Sirius runs out of fuel and becomes a red giant,
它会把自己的物质转移到那颗白矮星上 it will shed its substance onto the white dwarf.
这颗伴星的强大引力将会吸引那些气体 The intense gravity of the companion will attract that gas,
使它们形成一个漩涡盘 pulling it into a spiraling disk.
当较大的恒星上的气体 When the gas from the larger star
落到白矮星表面的时候 falls onto the surface of the white dwarf,
它们将会引发核爆炸 it will trigger nuclear explosions.
最大的爆发将会释放出 The greatest burst will release
十万倍太阳的能量 100,000 times more energy than the Sun.
这种爆发的恒星被称作"新星" Each one of those star bursts is called a "Nova,"
来自于拉丁文"新" from the Latin for "New."
对于十五倍太阳质量的恒星 A star about 15 times as massive as the Sun,
比如像猎户座右脚处的 one like Rigel, the blue supergiant
参宿七一样的蓝超巨星 that forms the right foot of Orion,
它的命运又是有所不同的 has a different fate in store.
电子的压力就完全无法阻止它的塌缩过程 Its collapse will not be stopped by the pressure of electrons.
这种恒星会继续向内塌缩 The star will keep falling in on itself,
直到恒星内部的原子核由于过度拥挤 until its nuclei become so overcrowded
产生对抗引力的压力 that they push back.
参宿七会收缩到自身的十万分之一 Rigel will shrink down about 100,000 times,
直到原子核靠得非常紧密 until there's no space left between the nuclei
以至于无法再继续收缩 and it can shrink no more.
到那时 At that point,
它会引发一个更强大的核爆炸 一个超新星 it ignites a more powerful nuclear reaction, a supernova.
绝大多数恒星演化 Most stellar evolution
都长达千万或者百亿年 takes millions or billions of years.
但是能引发超新星的内核塌缩 But the interior collapse that triggers a supernova explosion
却只持续仅仅几秒钟 takes only seconds.
爆发之后剩下的 是一个称作脉冲星的 What remains will be an atomic nucleus
急速自转的中子星 the size of a small city--
它就是一个原子核 大小跟一座小城市差不多 a rapidly rotating neutron star called a pulsar.
但对于超过三十倍太阳质量的恒星来说 But for a star more than 30 times as massive as the Sun--
比如猎户座腰带处的参宿二 a star like Alnilam, in Orion's Belt--
这种塌缩就完全没办法被阻止了 there will be no stopping its collapse.
在几百万年之后 In a few million years,
当参宿二也耗光了自己的燃料 when Alnilam runs out of fuel,
它也会超新星爆发 it, too, will go supernova.
参宿二向内塌缩的内核 The imploding core of Alnilam
质量如此巨大以至于原子核之间的核力 will be so massive that not even nuclear forces
都没有办法阻止它的塌缩 will be strong enough to hold off its collapse.
没有任何东西能承受如此大的引力 Nothing can withstand such gravity.
而这种恒星的宿命是不可思议的 And such a star has an astonishing destiny.
它会不停地塌缩 It will continues to collapse,
直至过了一个被称作"视界"的 crossing a boundary in space-time
时空边界 called the "Event horizon,"
我们看不到边界内的任何东西 beyond which we cannot see.
当它跨过那道边界 When it traverses that frontier,
这颗恒星就彻底从视线中消失了 the star will vanish completely from sight.
它会进到一个黑洞中 It will be inside a black hole,
这地方的引力强到没有任何东西 a place where gravity is so strong that nothing,
就算是光 也无法逃脱 not even light, can escape.
对于另一种更罕见的恒星来说 But there's an even more dramatic fate
它们的命运更有戏剧性 that awaits a rare kind of star.
这种星 在银河系中就有一颗 There's one of them in our galaxy.
它是如此的不稳定以至于当它爆发时 It's so unstable that when it goes,
它不会简单地成为新星或者超新星 it won't become a mere nova or supernova.
一种更惨烈的结局在等待着它 它会成为 It'll become something far more catastrophic...
超超新星 a hypernova.
这种爆发在我们有生之年就可能发生 And it could happen in our lifetime.
澳洲内陆可以说是地球上 There are few places on Earth to get a better view of the night sky
最适合观测星空的地方 than the Australian Outback.
没有建筑物 No buildings,
没有汽车 没有街灯 这里什么都没有 no cars, streetlights, nothing out here;
只有无垠的星空和星光 just lots of starlight...
还有偶尔露脸的袋鼠 and the occasional kangaroo.
在这里 看银河的话风景一定不会差 You can get a particularly good view of the Milky Way from down here.
银河系的中心高高地升在天上 The center of our galaxy rises high in the sky,
那跨越天际的弧形就好像夜空的脊梁 and it arches across the heavens like the backbone of night.
我们住在一个螺旋星系中 We live in a spiral galaxy.
当我们仰望银河系的时候 And when we look at the Milky Way,
看到的其实是漩涡盘中数百亿的恒星的星光 we're seeing light from billions of stars in its spiral disk.
而在这美好的夜空下 And under this beautiful dark sky,
你会发现其实银河系并不是一条均匀的光带 you can see that the Milky Way isn't a uniform band of light.
它有昏暗的区域 截断了星光 There are dark patches, breaks in the starlight.
这些昏暗的区域是由星际尘埃产生的 Those dark patches are caused by interstellar dust.
这种尘埃会阻挡星光 而尘埃又有很多很多 The dust blocks the starlight, and there's lots of it.
大部分的文明仰望星空时 Most cultures looked up at the stars
都会把星空中的点连接起来 and connected the dots
在天空中组成一些熟悉的图案 to form familiar images in the sky.
这就是星座 Constellations.
但是澳大利亚的原住民们 But the Aboriginal people of Australia
却在沿着银河系延伸的黑暗中发现了一个图案 saw a pattern in the darkness running through the Milky Way.
他们看到了澳洲大陆的一种特有大鸟 鸸鹋 They saw an emu, a large bird native to this continent.
并不是在繁星中 而是在无星处 Not in the stars, but in the absence of stars.
想看夜空的话 有太多种方法 There are so many ways to look at the night sky.
从人类诞生开始 我们已经仰望星空百万年 For a million years or more, we've watched the sky.
而这当中 发生了很多事情 And a lot's happened in that time.
超新星在银河系中差不多一个世纪发生一次 Supernova explode in our galaxy about once a century.
如果我们把这百万年凝视星空的时间 If we could compress all those nights of stargazing
凝结到一分钟里 into a single minute,
这就是我们能看到的 this is what we would see.
现在 如果假设我们的眼睛就是望远镜 Now, if our eyes were telescopes,
假设它们是大如马车轮的接收光的桶 if they were light buckets as big as wagon wheels
同时我们的视力也不局限于单一类型的光 and our vision was not limited to just one kind of light,
那这就是我们能看到的银河系 then this is the Milky Way we would see.
这是近红外波段的银河系 A galaxy in near-infrared light
在由无数恒星组成的背景之上 with streaming tendrils of dust
超新星爆发正在将尘埃 hurled outward by those exploding supernovas,
像蜿蜒的藤蔓一样抛射出去 silhouetted against a backdrop of countless stars.
在银河系的另一部分 About 7,500 light-years away,
大概七千五百光年之外 in another part of our galaxy,
在难以置信的尺度之上正发生着惊人的剧变 there is a place of upheaval on an inconceivable scale.
这里是船底座星云 This is the Carina Nebula.
一个造星机器 A star-making machine.
要横穿这块星云 就算是光也要跑五十年 It takes a ray of light 50 years to cross it.
这里诞生的巨型恒星 The titanic stars born here
正在用强烈的紫外辐射 sear the surrounding gas and dust
灼烧着周围的气体和尘埃 with their fierce ultraviolet radiation.
当一个巨大的恒星死亡时 When a massive star dies,
它会把自己炸成碎片 it blows itself to smithereens.
它的物质被抛射至无垠的空间中 Its substance is propelled across the vastness
等星光去唤起 待引力去聚集 to be stirred by starlight and gathered up by gravity.
星归尘 尘归星 Stars to dust and dust to stars.
在这个宇宙中 没有什么会被浪费 In the cosmos, nothing is wasted.
但是对于恒星来说 它的质量其实是有上限的 But there's an upper limit to how massive a star can be.
早在十七世纪 当埃德蒙·哈雷 Back in the 17th century, when Edmond Halley
横跨赤道去绘制南天的星座时 crossed the equator to map the southern constellations,
海山二看起来就是一颗普通的暗星 Eta Carinae seemed like just another faint star.
但是在1843年 海山二 But in 1843, Eta Carinae
突然变成了整个天空中第二亮的恒星 suddenly became the second brightest star in the sky,
只有天狼星比它亮 outshined only by Sirius.
从此以后它就处在失控的状态中 And it's been flipping out ever since.
那个正在膨胀的哑铃形的星云 That dumbbell-shaped cloud
就是那次爆发事件的产物 is the expanding remnant of that event.
在它的中心是一颗发疯的恒星 At its center is one crazy star.
这才叫不稳定 Talk about unstable--
海山二的质量至少是太阳的一百倍 Eta Carinae is at least 100 times more massive than the Sun,
每秒钟发出的光是太阳的五百万倍 and pouring out five million times more light.
它的质量已经接近了恒星质量的上限 It's pushing the upper limit of what a star can be.
而现在 还有证据表明海山二有一个伴星 What's more, there's evidence that Eta Carinae
这个伴星的质量也非常大 is being gravitationally tormented by an evil twin--
它们通过引力互相绕转 another massive star in orbit around it
轨道距离就像土星到太阳 as close as Saturn is to the Sun.
一个超级巨大的恒星会发出如此巨量的光 The core of a supermassive star pours out so much light
以至于向外的压力会超过恒星本身的引力 that the outward pressure can overwhelm the star's gravity.
这样 如果恒星过于巨大 If a star is too massive,
它的辐射压力就会超过它的引力 its radiation pressure overpowers its gravity
结果就是吹散自己 and blows the star apart.
海山二的命运在它百万年 The fate of Eta Carinae was sealed
诞生的时候 就已经确定了 when it was born millions of years ago.
当它最终真的爆发了的时候 When it finally does blow up--
谁知道呢 说不定已经爆发了 and who knows, maybe it already has;
毕竟我们看到的海山二的光 after all, we're looking at it by light that left the star
可是它7500年以前发出来的 7,500 years ago--
这场爆发将会是一场前所未见的灾难 it will be a cataclysm unlike anything we've seen before.
一个超超新星 A hypernova.
这爆发是如此的强大 An explosion so powerful,
超新星爆发跟它来比就好像是放烟花 it'll make a supernova seem like a firecracker by comparison.
如果海山二周围的恒星系统中 If there are nearby solar systems
有行星孕育出了生命 那他们的日子就不久了 with planets harboring life, their days are numbered.
超超新星在爆发时会放出巨量的辐射 A hypernova spews so much radiation into space--
不仅是可见光 还有X射线和伽马射线 not just light, but X-rays and gamma rays--
几十光年 甚至是几百光年内行星的大气层 that planets that are dozens or perhaps hundreds of light-years away
都会被这辐射彻底蒸发 could be stripped of their atmospheres
而行星就会泡在这致命辐射中 and bathed in deadly radiation.
它会在邻近的几千个恒星系统中引发惊天灾难 It would wreak havoc in thousands of nearby star systems.
我猜现在啊 你可能在问你自己 Right about now, you're probably asking yourself,
"我们安全么" "Are we safe?"
如果海山二爆发的话 If Eta Carinae blows up,
地球会怎么样 what happens to Earth?
放心 地球不会有问题的 Rest assured, Earth will be just fine.
你想想 我们距离海山二可是有7500光年 Remember, we're 7,500 light-years away from Eta Carinae.
就算是来自爆发的恒星 The intensity of radiation from a star,
恒星辐射强度 even an exploding star,
也会随着距离增加而急速衰减 falls off rapidly with distance.
不过 海山二的爆发定会带来一场精彩表演 But still, Eta Carinae in its death throes will put on quite a show.
它会像第二个月亮一样 It will light up the night of the southern hemisphere
点亮整个南天 with the brightness of a second moon.
海山二将是恒星最美的绝唱 The most dramatic swan song a star can sing.
我们的祖先崇拜太阳 Our ancestors worshipped the Sun.
而这却不是因为他们无知 And they were far from foolish.
崇拜太阳和群星是有道理的 It makes good sense to revere the Sun and stars,
因为我们就是它们的后代 because we are their children.
岩石中的硅 空气中的氧 The silicon in the rocks, the oxygen in the air,
DNA中的碳 摩天大楼中的铁 the carbon in our DNA, the iron in our skyscrapers,
首饰当中的银 the silver in our jewelry
都是在几十亿年以前在恒星中产生的 were all made in stars billions of years ago.
我们的行星 我们的社会 Our planet, our society
甚至我们自己都是星尘 and we ourselves are stardust.
那么 是什么让原子舞蹈 Well, what is it that makes the atoms dance?
一颗恒星的能量 How is the energy of a star transformed
是如何转化为世界上发生的事情 into everything that happens in the world?
什么是能量 What is energy?
我们就在能量之中 We're awash in it.
当太阳中的氢原子发生聚变时 When hydrogen atoms fuse inside the Sun,
它们就会产生氦原子 they make helium atoms.
而这聚变的过程就会发出一束能量 And this fusion emits a burst of energy
这能量在到达表面之前会在太阳内部 that can wander inside the Sun for ten million years
徘徊近千万年 before making its way to the surface.
而一旦到了表面 它就会 And once there, it's free to fly
以可见光的形式从太阳飞向地球 straight from the Sun to the Earth as visible light.
如果这束光打到了树叶表面 If it should strike the surface of a leaf,
它就会在植物内部以化学能的形式储存起来 it will be stored in the plant as chemical energy.
日光 Sunshine...
变为月光 into moonshine.
干杯
我可以感觉到我的大脑在把葡萄酒的化学能 I can feel my brain turning the chemical energy of the wine
转化为思维的电能 into the electrical energy of my thoughts
并且引导着我的声带 and directing my vocal chords
来产生说话的声能 to produce the acoustic energy of my voice.
这种能量转化形式 Such transformations of energy
无时无刻无处不在地在发生着 are happening everywhere all the time.
来自于太阳的能量驱动着地球上的风 浪 Energy from our star drives the wind and the waves
还有我们所有的生命 and the life around us.
能有无穷无尽的洁净能源像甘露一样从天而降 How lucky we are to have this vast source of clean energy
对我们来说 是一件多么幸运的事情 falling like manna from heaven on all of us.
敬安妮·詹普·坎农 To Annie Jump Cannon,
亨利埃塔·斯万·勒维特 Henrietta Swan Leavitt
还有塞西莉亚·佩恩 and Cecilia Payne
感谢她们点亮了通向现代天体物理学之路 for blazing the trail to modern astrophysics.
同时 敬所有太阳的姐妹 And to all the sisters of the Sun.
在这个宇宙中 没有东西能一成不变 There's no refuge from change in the cosmos.
大概在一千万到二千万年之后 Some ten or 20 million years from now,
宇宙中的一瞬间 it'll seem for a cosmic moment
看起来俄里翁将会最终追到七姐妹 as if Orion is finally about to catch the seven sisters.
但是在他能伸出最后的魔爪之前 But before he has them in his clutches,
猎户座中最大的一颗星会超新星爆发 the biggest stars of Orion will go supernova.
俄里翁对昴星七姐妹的追逐也终将结束 Orion's pursuit of the Pleiades will finally end,
而这七姐妹 and the seven sisters
也将最终静静地滑入银河系的怀抱当中 will glide serenely into the waiting arms of the Milky Way.
地球上的我们 We on Earth marvel-- and rightly so--
总会为太阳的升起感到惊喜 at the return of our solitary Sun.
但如果有行星环绕着 But from a planet orbiting a star
遥远的球状星团里的某颗恒星 in a distant globular cluster,
那么它将见到更精彩的黎明 a still more glorious dawn awaits.
并不是一次日出 Not a sunrise...
而是一个星系将升起 but a galaxy rise.
一个拥有两千亿颗恒星的早晨 A morning filled with 200 billion suns.
银河系的升起 The rising of the Milky Way.
一个巨大的漩涡 伴随着塌缩的气体云 An enormous spiral form with collapsing gas clouds,
凝结的行星系统 明亮的超巨星 condensing planetary systems, luminous supergiants,
稳定的中年太阳 红巨星 白矮星 stable middle-aged suns, red giants, white dwarfs,
行星状星云 超新星 planetary nebulas, supernovas,
中子星 脉冲星 黑洞 neutron stars, pulsars, black holes
同时 我们也有足够的理由去相信 and, there is every reason to think,
还有亟待我们去发现的其它奇异天体 other exotic objects that we have yet to discover.
在这样高于银河系平面的世界中 From such a world, high above the Milky Way,
一切都很明了 it would be clear,
就好像我们现在慢慢开始理解的一样 as it is beginning to be clear on our world,
那就是我们是由原子和恒星所构成 that we are made by the atoms and the stars,
组成我们的物质和我们的形式 that our matter and our form
是由这伟大而古老的宇宙所锻造 are forged by the great and ancient cosmos,
而我们也是这宇宙的一部分 of which we are a part.