成为宇宙公民的梦想诞生于 The dream of becoming a citizen of the cosmos was born here,
两千多年前的 more than two millennia ago,
亚历山大城 in the City of Alexandria,
该城以它的统治者和缔造者 named after and conceived by its dead conqueror,
亚历山大大帝命名 Alexander the Great.
托勒密王朝和希腊诸王 The Ptolemys, the Greek kings
继承了亚历山大帝国中的埃及文化 who inherited the Egyptian portion of Alexander's empire,
建造了这座图书馆 built this library
及相关研究院 and its associated research institution.
从古至今 Rarely, if ever,
一个政府愿意将 before or since,
如此多的财力投入到 has there been a government that was willing to spend
知识的获取上 so much of its gross national product
都是非常罕见的 on the acquisition of knowledge.
然而这些投入是有回报的 And it paid off.
巨大的回报 Big time.
每艘进入亚历山大港的船 Every ship entering Alexandria's harbor
都会被搜查 不是查走私 was searched-- not for contraband,
而是查有没有 but for books that
值得当时世界上最伟大的图书馆 might be copied and stored here,
抄录收藏的书籍 in what was then the greatest library on Earth.
这里的主要馆员之一 埃拉托色尼 Here, Eratosthenes, one of the chief librarians,
精确地计算出了地球的大小 accurately calculated the size of the Earth
发明了地理学 and invented geography.
毕达哥拉斯 Pythagoras.
古希腊数学家 哲学家
希帕蒂娅 Hypatia.
古希腊女数学家 天文学家 哲学家
古希腊数学家 著有《几何原本》
欧几里得 Euclid.
欧几里得阐明了几何的原理 Euclid set forth the precepts of geometry
写成了一本沿用两千三百年的教材 in a textbook that remained in use for 2,300 years.
现今流传于世的《圣经·旧约》 The Old Testament Bible comes down to us
主要来自于该馆翻译的希腊语译本 mainly from the Greek translations made here.
这里保存着很多杰作的原始手稿 The original manuscripts of the masterpieces
古希腊喜剧 戏剧 诗集 of Greek comedy and drama, poetry,
科学 工程学 science, engineering,
医学 历史 medicine and history--
古代人类文明觉醒的产物 The total work product of the awakening of ancient civilization--
都保存于此 were kept here.
人们对总卷数的估计各有不同 Estimates vary on the total number of scrolls.
从五十万卷 They range from 500,000
到将近一百万卷 to nearly a million.
这所有... And all of it...
这里的所有 all of this
只占此刻你触手可及的 is but a tiny fraction of the information
信息中的很小一部分 that you have at your fingertips at this very moment.
人类知识的总合 The collective knowledge of our species,
我们自己的亚历山大电子图书馆 our own electronic library of Alexandria,
只需要一台设备 任何感兴趣的人 may be accessed by anyone who has a device
都能自由访问 and the interest and the freedom to do so.
这在亚历山大城是不可能的 This was not true in Alexandria,
在那里知识只属于精英阶层 where knowledge belonged to the elite.
以至于在公元四世纪 So in the fourth century A.D.,
当暴徒们来破坏图书馆 when the mob came to destroy the library
破坏古代文明的精华时 and the genius of classical civilization,
根本没有足够的人手来抵御 there were not enough people to defend it.
下一次暴徒们来时会怎样呢 What will happen the next time the mob comes?
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宇宙
时空之旅
我们一起走过了漫长的旅程 We've come a long way together,
从原子核的深处 traveling from deep inside the heart of an atom
一直到宇宙学视界 clear out to the cosmic horizon,
从时间的开始到遥远的未来 and from the beginning of time to the distant future.
现在我们可以做一个实验 I think we're ready to perform an experiment.
不是那种必须在实验室中完成的实验 It's not the kind of experiment that requires a laboratory.
你只需在大脑中想象 You can do it in your head.
也就是"思想实验" It's called a "thought experiment."
选一颗恒星 Pick a star--
从我们银河系中数千亿的恒星中 any one of the hundreds of billions of stars
任选一颗 in our Milky Way Galaxy,
而银河系也只不过是 which is just one galaxy
已知宇宙中上千亿星系中的一个 out of the hundred billion in the known universe.
选那颗恒星怎么样 How about that star?
或者是那颗 Or that one?
好吧 就这颗 Okay, this one.
一些行星和卫星环绕着它 It's orbited by dozens of planets and moons.
假设在其中一颗上 Suppose, on one of them,
生活着一个智慧物种 there lives an intelligent species,
他们是这颗行星上一千万种生命形式中的一种 one the ten million life-forms on that planet,
这个物种中的一个亚种 and there's a subgroup of that species
认为他们已经理解了一切 who believe they have it all figured out--
他们的世界就是宇宙的中心 their world is the center of the universe,
而宇宙也是为他们所造 a universe made for them,
并且他们已经知晓了关于这个宇宙的一切 and that they know everything they need to know about it--
他们的知识是完备的 their knowledge is complete.
对他们的这种想法你会当真么 How seriously would you take their claim?
我们的祖先相信 Our ancestors believed
宇宙是为人类而造的 the universe was made for them.
所以很自然地会认为我们就在宇宙的中心 It was natural to assume that we were at the center.
毕竟看起来太阳和其他恒星 After all, it looks like the Sun and stars
都是围绕我们转动的 all revolve around us.
我们仍说着太阳"升起" We still speak of the Sun "rising."
我们的语言 神话和梦想的体系结构 The architecture of our language, myths and dreams
早在近代科学出现以前就已成型 comes from that prescientific age.
这是在哥伦布启航之前 This is our planet as it was known then,
人们以为的地球的样子 just before Columbus set sail.
马丁·贝海姆在1492年制成第一个地球仪 This first globe of the Earth was cutting-edge
在当时可以算是前沿的技术了 when Martin Behaim made it in 1492.
和当时的每个人一样 他相信 Like everyone else, he believed
地理拼图已经完成 that the jigsaw puzzle of geography was complete.
地球上有三大洲 There were three continents...
欧洲 非洲和亚洲 Europe, Africa and Asia,
大陆之间只有浩瀚的世界之海 and only the Great World Ocean in between.
贝海姆完全不知道北美洲和南美洲的存在 Behaim had no clue that North and South America even existed.
是不是很容易就感觉到自己比贝海姆聪明 It's easy to feel smug, right?
事实上马丁·贝海姆对于他的世界 Well, the fact is Martin Behaim knew infinitely more
也就是对地球的了解 about his world, the Earth,
远超我们对我们的世界 宇宙的了解 than we know about ours, the universe.
不久前的一堂课 A recent lesson in humility
将教我们学会谦逊 will serve to illustrate.
1912年维克托·赫斯在奥地利上空 In 1912, Victor Hess made a series of voyages
进行了一系列航行 into the sky above Austria,
并且发现了科学家们最为着迷的东西... and found the thing that scientists love best...
一个传统的科学知识 a mystery that defied understanding
无法解释的迷题 in terms of conventional scientific wisdom.
即使在今天 And even today,
一个世纪之后 我们仍在寻找 a century later, we are still searching
对赫斯发现的现象一个完满的解释 for a complete explanation of what Hess found.
一种新进发现的能量形式 A new kind of energy had recently been discovered,
辐射 radioactivity.
某些元素 比如镭 就会产生辐射 It was given off by certain elements, like radium.
但空气中也发现存在辐射 But it was also found in the air,
即使是在远离放射性岩石的地方 even far away from radioactive rocks.
辐射无所不在 It was everywhere.
这些奇怪的能量从何而来 Where did this strange energy come from?
没有人知道 No one knew.
赫斯怀疑它可能来自于地球外部 Hess suspected that it might come from above the Earth.
为验证这一假设 他把辐射探测器 To test his hypothesis, he carried radiation detectors
带到高空 high into the sky.
他冒着生命危险 乘氢气球 During a risky ascent in a hydrogen balloon,
上升到近五千米的高空 he attained an altitude of more than three miles.
当他来到稀薄寒冷的大气层上层时 When he reached the thin, cold, upper half of the atmosphere...
他发现这里的辐射强度 he found that the radiation
是地面上的两倍多 was more than twice as strong as on the ground.
辐射一定来自于地球外 The radiation must be coming from above.
这就是为什么地面上强度更低 That's why its intensity was weaker on the ground--
因为辐射的绝大部分被地球大气层吸收了 the Earth's atmosphere was absorbing most of it.
有人认为辐射来自于太阳 Some thought that the radiation might come from the Sun.
为验证这一假设 赫斯安排 To test that idea, Hess timed one of his ascents
在一次日食时升空观测 to coincide with a solar eclipse.
然而日食对于辐射强度并没有影响 But the eclipse had no effect on the radiation.
赫斯还发现 Hess also found that
不论白天和黑夜 辐射强度是一样的 the radiation was just as strong at night as in daylight.
辐射来自天外 但又不是来自太阳 It was coming from above, but not from the Sun.
赫斯当时不知道的是 What Hess did not know
太阳风的速度并没有这么快 was that the solar wind doesn't move that quickly.
因此 虽然是错误的原因 And so, for the wrong reason,
他却得到了正确的结论 he came to the right conclusion.
赫斯发现了宇宙线 Hess had discovered cosmic rays--
亚原子粒子流以近乎光速 showers of subatomic particles that crisscross the universe
在宇宙中纵横穿梭 at literally the speed of light.
如果没有地球大气层的屏蔽作用 Without the shielding effect of the Earth's atmosphere,
宇宙线将是致命的 they would be lethal.
有些宇宙线携带的能量相当高 Some cosmic rays can carry as much energy
就像是步枪射出的子弹 as a bullet fired from a rifle.
几十年后人们才发现 这些宇宙线可能来自 It would take decades to trace those cosmic rays back
一场剧烈得难以想象的死亡爆炸 to a death of unimaginable violence.
维克托·赫斯在奥地利上空 The cosmic rays that Victor Hess detected
检测到的宇宙线 成为科学家们的迷题 in the skies above Austria posed a mystery to scientists.
地球上矿物的放射性 Radioactivity in minerals on Earth--
比如铀矿 like uranium ore--
来自于原子的衰变 comes from the disintegration of atoms.
然而宇宙线的起源却不同 But cosmic rays were of a different nature.
它们比赫斯当时世界上已知的 They were far more powerful
任何东西都强大得多 than anything known in Hess's world.
科学家们为宇宙线可能的来源 Scientists wondered for two decades
思索了二十年 what could possibly produce cosmic rays.
弗里茨·兹威基出现了 Enter Fritz Zwicky,
你肯定没听说过他 但他是最聪明的人之一 the most brilliant man you've never heard of.
1933年 他和一名同事发现了 In 1933, he and a colleague discovered
有些恒星会在几周内变得 that some stars flare up to become as bright
像它所在的整个星系一样亮 as their entire galaxy for a few weeks,
然后再黯淡下来 before fading out again.
弗里茨·兹威基是第一个理解 Fritz Zwicky was the first person
这一现象的人 to understand what just happened.
他正确地推测出 He correctly surmised that
这是大质量恒星的死亡方式 this is the way a massive star dies--
它把内部物质轰向太空 it blows its guts out into space.
他把这种恒星死亡的过程叫做"超新星爆发" He called this kind of stellar death a "supernova"...
并预言死亡中的恒星其直径 and predicted that the dying star would shrink
将从150万千米收缩到仅15千米 from about a million miles across to only ten.
恒星尸体的密度如此之大 This corpse would be so dense
上面沙粒般大小的物质就将 that a single grain of it would weigh as much
和埃及巨大的金字塔一样重 as the great pyramid in Egypt.
它将几乎完全由 It would consist almost entirely
被称作中子的亚原子粒子构成 of subatomic particles called neutrons,
所以他把这些奇异的天体称为"中子星" so he named these bizarre objects "neutron stars."
在兹威基预言中子星存在的三十五年之后 And 35 years after Zwicky predicted their existence,
天文学家们开始寻找这些天体 astronomers began to find them.
如果它们快速旋转并有规律地发出脉冲和能量 We call them "pulsars" when they spin rapidly and
我们就把它们称为"脉冲星" emit regular pulses and radio energy.
超新星爆发和中子星 Supernovas and neutron stars could account
是很大一部分宇宙线的来源 for a wide range of cosmic rays,
但不包括能量最高的那些宇宙线 but not the most energetic ones.
已知科学尚无法解释那一部分的来源 Nothing yet known to science can explain them,
但我们并不气馁 and we're fine with that.
这正是我对科学着迷的地方 It's one of the things I love about science,
我们不用不懂装懂 we don't have to pretend we have all the answers.
兹威基还提出了一个想法 Zwicky also came up with the idea
星系的引力会使它周围的空间结构扭曲 that the gravity of a galaxy warps the fabric of space around it,
就像透镜一样 to act like a lens.
这将使来自其正后方那些星系的光线 This distorts and magnifies light
发生偏转和放大 from any other galaxy lying directly behind it.
地球上的天文学家将观测到 So, astronomers on Earth would see multiple images
同一遥远星系的多个扭曲的镜像 of that same distant galaxy,
就像在哈哈镜中看到的一样 deformed, as in a funhouse mirror.
这一预言提出四十年后 40 years after this prediction,
我们真的开始发现这些现象 we started finding them too.
兹威基在上世纪三十年代还作出了另一发现 And Zwicky made yet another discovery back in the 1930s.
在研究后发星系团时 While studying the Coma Cluster of galaxies,
他注意到它们运动方式的一些有趣的现象 he noticed something funny about the way they moved.
这些星系运动得太快了 The galaxies were going way too fast,
快到它们本应该相互脱离的 so fast that they should've been flying apart from each other.
因为这些星系中所有的恒星 Because all the stars in all those galaxies
产生的引力都不足以维系这个星系团 had far too little gravity to hold the cluster together.
兹威基认为 Zwicky thought
有别的什么东西把它们约束在了一起 that something else must be binding them to each other.
这一尚未发现的神秘物质 That mysterious missing component
其质量将会是这些恒星 would have to weigh something like 50 times as much
本身质量的五十倍之多 as the stars themselves.
然而没有人关注过这一大胆的假设 But no one paid much attention to this wild notion.
这只是兹威基的另一个疯狂想法 Just another one of Zwicky's crazy ideas.
在我们的太阳系中 In our Solar System,
最内行星水星运行得比 the innermost planet, Mercury, moves much faster
最外行星海王星快得多 than the outermost one, Neptune.
这是理所当然的 不是吗 And that makes sense, right?
你越用力推或拉某个物体 The harder you push or pull on something,
它就跑得越快 the faster it goes.
太阳的引力随着距离增加而减弱 The Sun's gravity weakens with increasing distance,
因此越是远离太阳的行星运动得越慢 so, the planets that are farther from the Sun move slowly.
人们都以为一个星系的最外侧的恒星 Everyone expected that the outermost stars in a galaxy
也会有相同表现 would act the same way.
绝大多数恒星向星系中心聚集 Most of the stars are concentrated towards the center,
它们引力的合力会作用到其他恒星上 so, their collective gravity pulls on the other stars
就像太阳引力作用到行星上一样 the same way the Sun pulls on the planets.
然而在上世纪七十年代 天文学家 But in the 1970s, when astronomer
薇拉·鲁宾在研究仙女星系时 Vera Rubin studied the Andromeda Galaxy,
她发现其外层恒星并不遵循这一规律 she discovered that the outer stars obeyed no such rule.
不像太阳系中的外层行星 Unlike the outer planets of the Solar System,
星系中的外层恒星 the outer stars in the galaxy
和更靠内层的恒星运动速度是一样的 were all going at the same speed as the stars that were closer in
比人们预计的速度快得多 and they were moving way faster than expected.
"很有意思" 薇拉想 "That's funny," Vera thought.
"仙女星系一定有些什么古怪的地方" "There must be something weird about the Andromeda Galaxy."
因此她研究了另一个星系 So she looked at another galaxy.
一样的现象 Same story.
第三个星系也是一样 And another.
薇拉研究了六十个星系 Vera studied 60 galaxies
发现它们似乎都 and found that all of them
违反了物理学的核心定律之一 seemed to be violating the Law of Gravity,
万有引力定律 a core principle of physics.
在起初一些有建设性的质疑之后 After some initial healthy skepticism,
她的同事们也开始了研究 her colleagues looked for themselves,
并发现薇拉是正确的 and found that Vera was right.
并不是艾萨克·牛顿的万有引力定律错了 It's not that Isaac Newton had gotten the Law of Gravity wrong,
薇拉·鲁宾发现的是某些 Vera Rubin had discovered that the gravity
质量巨大却又不可见的物质 of something massive and invisible
其引力驱使恒星运动得更快 was forcing the stars to go fast.
这时有人想起了疯狂的老弗里茨·兹威基 And then, someone remembered crazy old Fritz Zwicky,
而星系团中未知的 and the unknown source of gravity
引力来源 或许是 in the galaxy clusters
他早在1933年就提出的"暗物质" that he called "dark matter," back in 1933.
薇拉·鲁宾已经证实了 Vera Rubin had verified the existence
一个全新的更为广阔的宇宙的存在 of a new, much larger cosmos.
正如我们以为已经了解的那个宇宙一样 And just like the one we thought we knew,
新宇宙充满了神秘 it was filled with mystery.
暗物质完全无法观测 Dark matter is completely unobservable,
只是它的引力效应 except for its gravitational effect,
能使可见的恒星和星系运动得更快 which makes visible stars and galaxies move faster.
它的本质是一个更深邃的奥秘 Its nature is another deep mystery.
鲁宾为一个不可见宇宙的存在提供了证据 Rubin had provided the evidence for an invisible universe
它的质量几乎是我们 nearly ten times more massive
自认为已知的宇宙的十倍 than the one we thought we knew.
这就像我们夜里站在海边 It was as if we had been standing on the seashore at night,
错误地认为 mistakenly believing
波涛卷起的泡沫就是整个大海一样 that the froth on the waves was all there was to the ocean.
薇拉·鲁宾仰望夜空中点点星光 Vera Rubin looked at the stars and realized
意识到它们不过是波涛卷起的泡沫 they were merely the foam on the waves,
而浩瀚的海洋尚为未知 and that the greatest part of the ocean remained unknown.
不过别急 But wait.
还有更疯狂的 It gets crazier.
我们银河系中 Our Milky Way Galaxy,
有几千亿颗恒星 a few hundred billion stars,
加上气体云和尘埃 plus the clouds of gas and dust,
这些恒星的遗骸和原料 the stuff of once and future stars--
以及大约一千亿个其他星系 全部一起 and about a hundred billion other galaxies-- all of that,
包括那些数不胜数的千万亿颗 including those uncounted billions of trillions
行星 卫星和彗星 of planets, moons, and comets--
只相当于宇宙物质总量的百分之五 amounts to only five percent of what is actually there.
因为比起暗物质 Because there's a bigger unsolved mystery
还有一个更大的未解之谜 than dark matter--
暗能量 它在宇宙中所占的比重更大 Dark energy, which makes up even more of the cosmos
也是宇宙膨胀的推动力 and drives its expansion.
弗里茨·兹威基发现的超新星爆发 And it was Fritz Zwicky's supernovas
照亮了通往揭示其存在的道路 that lit the way to the revelation of its existence.
在某些情形下 In one scenario,
一颗恒星在消耗完其核燃料后... a star consumes all of its nuclear fuel...
会冷却下来 then cools,
然后突然在自身引力作用下坍缩 and suddenly collapses under its own gravity.
最后在一次巨大的爆发中反弹出来 The star rebounds in a massive explosion,
留下一颗中子星或一个黑洞 leaving behind a neutron star or a black hole.
由于恒星质量的大小 Since the mass of the original star
可能有很大不同 can fall within a wide range,
在超新星爆发时的最大亮度 its peak brightness as a supernova
也会有很大不同 can also vary widely.
因此只通过其亮度 So, you can't tell how far away it is
我们不能判断出它的距离 just from how bright it looks.
一个相对较近的超新星爆发看起来可能 A relatively nearby supernova might appear just as bright
和一个更远的但能量更高的一样亮 as one that was more powerful, but farther away.
不过有一种超新星爆发 But there's another kind of supernova
它只会有一种强度 that comes in only one strength.
那就是巨星和矮星 It marks the violent grand finale
所跳探戈舞的狂暴结局 of a tango danced by a giant star and a dwarf.
当这样两颗恒星相互绕转且距离很近时 As the two stars orbit closely around each other,
巨星将其外层气体抛向矮星 the giant sheds its outer layers of gas onto the dwarf.
当这些额外的质量到了矮星无法承受时 When the added weight becomes too much for it to bear,
它就会像一颗巨大的热核炸弹一样爆炸 the dwarf detonates like a stupendous thermonuclear bomb.
数周之内 For a few weeks,
这一超新星爆发的亮度足以匹敌 the brilliance of such a supernova rivals
其所在星系所有恒星亮度之和 the combined light of all the stars in its galaxy.
这种超新星爆发 This kind of supernova
其最大亮度总是相同的 always has the same maximum power output,
大约是我们太阳亮度的五十亿倍 about five billion times brighter than our Sun.
用足够大的望远镜 With big telescopes,
我们可以在非常遥远的星系中看到它们 we can see them in galaxies very far away,
甚至是在可观测宇宙的边缘 out toward the edge of the observable universe.
因为这种超新星爆发都有相同的亮度 Because all such supernovas have the same wattage,
它们是测量宇宙中遥远距离的 they're ideal tools for measuring distances
理想工具 to the farthest reaches of the universe.
我们把它们称为"标准烛光" We call them "standard candles."
1929年爱德温·哈勃发现了 In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered
宇宙正在膨胀 that the universe is expanding.
遥远星系正在相互远离 The distant galaxies are drifting away from one another.
后来 我们知道了 Later, we learned
早在140多亿年前 that the expansion began
宇宙膨胀就已经开始了 some 14 billion years ago
它伴随着宇宙的诞生 大爆炸 with the explosive birth of the universe-- the Big Bang.
人们都以为 Everybody assumed
宇宙膨胀的速率会减慢 that the rate of expansion would be slowing down,
因为宇宙各个部分都有 due to the mutual pull of gravity
相互的引力作用 between all the parts of the universe.
如果有足够多的暗物质 If there is enough dark matter,
其引力最终将使宇宙膨胀停止 its gravity would eventually bring the expansion to a stop,
然后宇宙将会开始收缩 and the universe would then fall back on itself.
如果是那样的话 宇宙最终将经历一次 In that case, everything would eventually collapse
大坍缩 in a Big Crunch.
另一种情形 如果宇宙中暗物质较少 On the other hand, if the universe had less dark matter,
那么宇宙将会永远膨胀下去 the expansion would continue forever,
只是会变得越来越慢 just getting slower and slower.
当时有两队相互竞争的天文学家 Two competing teams of astronomers
正在观测遥远星系的那些超新星爆发 were observing those supernovas in distant galaxies.
结果却是又一个 It turned out to be another one
不可思议的发现 of those "that's funny" moments.
1998年两个小组独立地得到了相同结论 In 1998, both teams independently came to the same conclusion.
宇宙膨胀不但没有减速 The expansion isn't slowing down at all...
反而在加速 it's speeding up.
这意味着宇宙将永远膨胀下去 This means the universe will continue to expand forever.
宇宙中似乎有一股神秘的力量 There seems to be a mysterious force in the universe,
在最大尺度上超越了引力作用 one that overwhelms gravity on the grandest scale
促使宇宙不断膨胀 to push the cosmos apart.
宇宙中的大部分能量 Most of the energy of the universe is bound up
都跟这一未知力量密切相关 in this unknown force.
我们把它称为"暗能量" We call it "dark energy,"
但这一名称 就像"暗物质" but that name, like "dark matter,"
只是因为我们对其无知而起的代号罢了 is merely a code word for our ignorance.
不知道所有的答案也不是什么坏事 It's okay not to know all the answers.
与其相信可能错误的答案 It's better to admit our ignorance
不如直接承认我们的无知 than to believe answers that might be wrong.
不懂装懂的行为只会 Pretending to know everything closes the door
关闭探索事实真相的大门 to finding out what's really there.
今晚我们的航船将驶入更为奇异的水域 Tonight, our ships sail Into even more exotic waters.
跟我来吧 Come with me.
人类只有两艘飞船 Only two of our ships have ventured
驶入了星际间浩瀚的暗海 into the great dark ocean of interstellar space.
这一历史上最漫长的旅程 The longest odyssey in all of history
于1977年启动 was launched back in 1977--
它们是美国宇航局的旅行者一号和二号 NASA's Voyager 1 and 2.
旅行者号以每小时六万多千米的速度飞行 The Voyagers move about 40,000 miles an hour.
它们让我们第一次近距离观测木星大红斑 They gave us our first close-up look at Jupiter's great red spot,
那是一个大小为地球三倍的飓风 a hurricane three times the size of Earth
从它最早在1644年第一次被观测到时起 and one that's been raging since at least 1644,
它就一直在木星表面肆虐 when it was first observed.
据我们所知 它可能已经存在了上千年 For all we know, it could be thousands of years old.
在木卫一上 旅行者号首次发现了 The Voyagers discovered the first active volcano on another world,
另一颗星球上的活火山 on Jupiter's moon Io...
在木卫二冰层下发现的海洋 and an ocean beneath the icy surface of the moon Europa...
其储水量至少是地球上总水量的两倍 with at least twice as much water as we have here on Earth.
旅行者号飞越了土星环 The Voyagers dared to fly across Saturn's rings
发现该环是由上百条细带构成的 and revealed that they were made of hundreds of thin bands
细带中都是围绕土星运行的雪球 of orbiting snowballs.
在巨大的土卫六上 On Saturn's giant moon Titan,
旅行者号检测到大气的存在 Voyager detected an atmosphere
其密度为地球大气的四倍 four times denser than Earth's.
这意味着土卫六上可能存在碳氢海洋 That hinted at the existence of hydrocarbon seas on Titan,
这一推测后来被证实 which we later confirmed.
旅行者二号为我们绘制了 Voyager 2 gave us our first portrait
最外层行星海王星的第一幅图像 of the outermost planet, Neptune...
那里的狂风以每小时 where the winds roar
2000多千米的速度咆哮着 at 1,000 miles per hour...
而海卫一上有着将沸腾的液氮 and its moon Triton, where geysers
喷射到八千多米高空的间歇泉 of boiling nitrogen shoot five miles high.
旅行者号已经成功完成了 Voyager successfully completed its mission of discovery
对外层行星的探测任务 to the outer planets,
然而它驶向黑暗的旅程 but its odyssey into the darkness
才刚刚开始 was just beginning.
在发射三十五年之后 35 years after its launch,
旅行者一号成为人类历史上第一艘 Voyager 1 became the first of our spacecraft
驶入尚未测绘宙域的航天器 to enter an uncharted realm.
太阳不断地向各个方向喷射出 The Sun is constantly shooting out streams
每小时移动数百万千米的 of charged particles in all directions,
高速带电粒子流 moving at a million miles an hour.
太阳风吹起一个巨大的磁泡 This solar wind blows a vast magnetic bubble,
那就是我们的日球层 our heliosphere,
它一直延伸到外层行星之外 that extends beyond the outer planets.
日球层把星际间的稀薄气体向外推 It pushes out against the thin gas of interstellar space.
那是太阳系边缘和星际海洋起始的分界线 There's a border where one ends and the other begins.
旅行者一号向地球传回报告 Voyager 1 reported back to Earth
显示其探测装置被 that its detectors were being pummeled
越来越多的宇宙线击中 by more and more cosmic rays.
直到那时 Until then,
我们才知道此处便是星际海洋的开始 we didn't know where the interstellar ocean began.
旅行者一号继续前进 Voyager 1 pressed on
跨过我们此前从未涉足的边界 past a boundary we had never crossed before.
日球层为我们屏蔽了大部分致命的宇宙线 The heliosphere shields us from most of the deadly cosmic rays.
当太阳风暴暴发时 When stormy solar winds blow,
日球层提供的保护区变大 this zone of protection grows;
当太阳风风平浪静时 保护区缩小 In calm solar weather, it shrinks.
当我们星系中某个临近的恒星超新星爆发时 When a star goes supernova in our galactic neighborhood...
恒星爆炸后的碎片 the debris from the exploded star
将日球层向太阳的方向推 pushes the heliosphere back towards the Sun.
如果爆发足够强 If it's strong enough to push it
甚至能将日球层推回到地球轨道 all the way back to Earth's orbit,
我们的星球就将接受 our planet gets
超新星爆发后的放射碎片洗礼 a radioactive bath of supernova debris.
幸运的是 这并不经常发生 Luckily, this doesn't happen very often.
上一次大概是在两百万年以前 The last one was perhaps two million years ago.
一颗邻近的恒星在 A neighboring star explodes a million years
人类出现前的一百万年爆发 before there's even such a thing as the human species.
我们怎么知道这件事的呢 How can we possibly know this?
因为这颗濒死的恒星 Because the dying star left its traces
将它的遗迹留在了几千米深的海底 miles below the surface of the ocean.
锰结核 像这样的小岩石块 Manganese nodules, small rocks like this one,
广泛分布在海洋底层的深处 are scattered over much of the deep sea floor.
它们生长得非常缓慢 They grow very slowly.
一百万年才长一毫米 I'm talking a millimeter in a million years,
一层叠一层地生长 layer upon layer.
这些凝团和细菌合作 These nodules grow in partnership with bacteria
通过汲取溶解在海水中的矿物质生长 by taking up minerals dissolved in the seawater.
超新星爆发生成了铁的一种放射性同位素 A supernova produces a radioactive form of iron,
它跟地球上任何自然过程的产物迥然不同 unlike anything made by natural processes on Earth.
研究人员在这些锰结核 Researchers found telltale traces of this iron
表面之下的薄层中 in a thin layer below the surface
发现了这种同位素 of the manganese nodules.
他们利用这种凝团已知的生长速率 They used the known rate of growth of the nodules
来确定该薄层的年代并将其和 to date that layer and to connect it
百万年前消殒的一颗恒星的命运联系起来 to the fate of a star that perished eons ago.
从只看到一枚卵石 The difference between seeing nothing but a pebble
到读出镌刻其上的宇宙历史 and reading the history of the cosmos inscribed inside it
其间的桥梁正是科学 is science.
星际海洋黑暗而深邃 The interstellar ocean is dark and deep.
从那里来看 Out here,
太阳不过是天空中最亮的一颗星星 the Sun is just the brightest star in the sky.
然而旅行者号保持着它们 Yet the Voyagers maintain their regular communications
与美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的常规通信 with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
这些飞船和相隔数十亿千米的 talking back and forth across the light-hours
母港交换着信息 that separate these ships from their home port.
没有任何其他带有人类印记的东西 No other objects touched by human hands
曾来到如此远离地球的地方 have ever ventured this far from home.
即使在它们无法再回应我们的命令之后 Even after they lose their ability to respond to our command,
旅行者号任务的最后一个阶段 the last and, by far, the longest phase
也是目前为止最长的一个阶段即将开始 of the Voyager mission will begin.
1979年两艘旅行者号在绕行木星时 Back in 1979, when both Voyagers rounded Jupiter,
其巨大引力产生的弹弓效应 its massive gravity acted as a slingshot,
将它们抛出太阳系 flinging them out of the Solar System
使其能在银河系的恒星之间 to travel among the stars of our galaxy
航行十亿年 for a billion years.
卡尔·萨根意识到旅行者号任务 Carl Sagan recognized that the Voyager mission
提供了两张通向某种永恒的免费门票 offered two free tickets to something approaching eternity.
他组织了一个小团队来构思一条讯息 He assembled a small team to create a message
用来传达给可能在某天邂逅这些 to any civilization that might, one day,
被弃置的航天器的任何智慧生命 encounter the derelict spacecraft.
二十六个世纪前 26 centuries ago,
亚述国王以撒哈顿曾写道... the Assyrian King Esarhaddon wrote...
"我有青铜制成的纪念碑 "I had monuments made of bronze
和黏土烧制的铭文 and inscriptions of baked clay.
以其奠基必可流传后世" I left them in the foundations for future times."
这里的象形文字延续了这一古老的理念 These hieroglyphics continue that ancient tradition.
镌刻在这里的讯息 是专门设计以供 They are inscribed on the cover of a message designed
另一个世界 另一个时代的生命阅读 to be read by the beings of other worlds and times.
地球文明和外星文明 What could we possibly have in common
会有哪些可能的共同点呢 with an alien civilization
特别是那些具有独立进化史的 with its own separate evolutionary history
远远领先于地球文明的 and one so far advanced beyond us
以至于能够在星际空间巡逻的外星文明 that they can patrol interstellar space?
至少有一点 One thing at least,
一门通用的语言 a universal language...
科学 science.
摆脱引力的束缚是困难的 It's hard to break the bonds of gravity.
要航行于宇宙之海 You can only sail the cosmic seas
你必须精通数学和物理 if you speak mathematics and physics.
氢是宇宙中最普遍的元素 Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe.
氢原子中的电子 The electron in a hydrogen atom
以固定的频率 flips the direction of its spin
反转其自旋的方向 at a constant rate, or frequency.
氢原子就像微小的自然时钟 Hydrogen atoms are like tiny natural clocks--
嘀 嗒 Tick... tock...
这样我们就和外星人 Now we have a unit of time in common
有了相同的时间单位 with the extraterrestrials.
这在理解我们的下一条讯息时 This will come in handy when we get to
是很有用的 the next level of the message.
这就是我们在宇宙中的回信地址 Here's our return address in space.
脉冲星是高速旋转的中子星 Pulsars are rapidly-spinning neutron stars
它们发出规则的无线电波脉冲 that give off regular bursts of radio waves.
可以用它们来校准时钟 You can set your clock by them.
太阳位于这张图像的中心 The Sun is at the center of this diagram,
而那些射线指向离它最近的十四颗脉冲星 and the lines point to the 14 nearest pulsars.
一组简单的代码标注了 A simple code labels each pulsar
每颗脉冲星特有的频率 with its unique frequency,
采用的正是氢原子钟 using the ticktock of the hydrogen atom
这样的计时单位 as the unit of time.
因此外星天文学家可以利用这幅地图 So alien astronomers could use this diagram
来定位银河系中的 to locate the home star of the
旅行者号航天器的母星 Voyager spacecraft in our galaxy.
他们也能知道 They could also tell
这架航天器是多久之前发射的 how long ago the spacecraft was launched.
这很重要 因为旅行者号上搭载的唱片 And that's important because the Voyager record
预计有效寿命为十亿年 has a projected shelf life of 1,000 million years.
暂时假装我们是外星考古学家 Become an extraterrestrial archaeologist for a few moments.
一件智慧生物造物从星际之海打捞上来 An artifact has been fished out of the interstellar ocean.
它是由生活在 It was made by beings
大约十亿年前的生物制造的 that lived about a billion years ago.
你会如何去了解他们和他们生活的世界 What would you make of them and their world?
他们为我们送上音乐和 They've sent us their music
五十九种人类语言的问候 and greetings in 59 human languages.
"这是来自地球儿童的问候" "Hello from the children of planet Earth."
甚至还包括一种鲸的语言 And one whale language.
包含了土星五号发射声的一篇声音散文 And a sound essay that includes a Saturn V rocket launch.
母亲对她刚出生孩子的第一句话 A mother's first words to her newborn baby.
"好啦 乖孩子 乖孩子" "Oh, come on now. Be a good boy... be a good boy."
刚坠入爱河的妙龄少女的脑电波 The brain waves of a young woman newly fallen in love.
脉冲星的声音 And the sound of a pulsar.
这一切都将能保存长达十亿年 All of that will live for a billion years.
《地球之声》
献给所有世界的各个时代的音乐创作者们
十亿年有多久呢 How long is a billion years?
如果你能把从大爆炸 If you can press all the time since the Big Bang,
即宇宙诞生之时起到现在所经历的时间 the explosive birth of the universe,
压缩成地球上的一年 into a single Earth year,
十亿年大约是其中的一个月 a billion years is about one month of that year.
十亿年前的地球上是什么样的呢 What was happening on Earth a billion years ago?
当时地球上绝大部分陆地聚集为一块 Most of Earth's land was amassed into a supercontinent
被称为罗迪尼亚的超级大陆 called Rodinia.
那是一片荒凉的沙漠 It was a barren desert--
没有动物 没有植物 no animals, no plants.
十亿年前 地球大气中还没有 A billion years ago, there wasn't enough oxygen
足够的氧气来形成臭氧层 in our atmosphere to form an ozone layer,
没有臭氧层 紫外辐射 and without it, ultraviolet radiation
使生命无法在陆地上生存 prevented life from colonizing the land.
罗迪尼亚看起来可能更像是 Rodinia probably looked more like
火星而不是在今天的地球 Mars than present-day Earth.
浩瀚无垠的世界海掀起巨大的暴风雨 The giant world ocean produced huge rainstorms
洪水泛滥 陆地被侵蚀 causing flooding and erosion.
冰川形成 它们缓慢而无休止的运动 Glaciers formed, and their slow but relentless movements
将陆地刻画成新的模样 carved the land into new shapes.
单细胞生物统治着海洋 Single-celled organisms dominated the oceans,
有一些生存于被称为"微生物席"的菌落 but some existed in colonies called "microbial mats,"
第一种多细胞生物即将演化形成 and the first multicellular organisms would soon evolve.
那么十亿年之后 And a billion years from now,
地球将会是什么样的呢... what will Earth be like...
那将是在我们的城市 埃及金字塔和 long after our cities, the Egyptian pyramids,
落基山脉都被侵蚀为尘埃之后的悠远未来 the Rocky Mountains have all been eroded to dust?
关于这一遥遥无期的未来 There are few things we can say with confidence
我们能确定的东西很少 about such a far distant time.
我们唯一能肯定的是 The only thing we can say for sure
我们熟知的地球所经历的变化 is that Earth as we know it will be so changed
将使我们难以再将其认出为曾经的家园 that we would scarcely recognize it as home.
然而即使经过十亿年 But even a thousand million years from now,
一些关于人类本质的东西 something of who we were and the music that we made
和我们在那个悠远的春天创作的音乐 in that long-ago Spring...
都将幸存下来 will live on.
在那遥远的未来 In that distant future,
我们的太阳将已经完成 our Sun will have completed
另外四次围绕银河系中心的运行 another four orbits around the center of the galaxy...
旅行者号也将抵达更为远离太阳的地方 ...and the Voyagers will have ventured far from the Sun.
卡尔·萨根曾是旅行者任务成像小组的成员 Carl Sagan was a member of Voyager's imaging team,
正是他的主意要旅行者号最后再拍一张照片 and it was his idea that Voyager take one last picture.
上一代人之前 A generation before,
最后一次阿波罗登月飞行中的一名宇航员 an astronaut on the last Apollo flight to the moon
为整个地球拍了一张照片 had taken a picture of the whole Earth--
整个星球作为一个没有疆界的世界 the planet as a world without borders.
它成为了一种新思潮的标志 It became an icon of a new consciousness.
卡尔意识到这一进程的下一步 Carl realized the next step in this process.
他说服了美国宇航局在旅行者一号 He convinced NASA to turn the Voyager 1 camera
飞过海王星时 back towards Earth
把它的摄像头向后转向地球 when the spacecraft went beyond Neptune
最后再看一眼家的方向 那被他称作 for one last look homeward at what he called...
"暗淡蓝点"的地球 the Pale Blue Dot.
就在这儿 That's here.
那就是家园 That's home.
那就是我们 That's us.
在这上面 每个你爱的人 On it, everyone you love,
每个你认识的人 everyone you know,
每个你曾听过的人 everyone you ever heard of,
每个曾生活过的人 every human being who ever was,
都在这里度过了他们的一生 lived out their lives.
我们全部的喜悦和痛苦 The aggregate of our joy and suffering,
成百上千种坚定的宗教信仰 意识形态 thousands of confident religions, ideologies,
各种经济学说 and economic doctrines,
每个猎人和觅食者 every hunter and forager,
每个英雄和懦夫 every hero and coward,
每个文明的创造者和毁灭者 every creator and destroyer of civilization,
每个国王和农夫 every king and peasant,
每对年轻的恋人 every young couple in love,
每个母亲父亲和前途无量的孩童 every mother and father, hopeful child,
发明家和探险家 inventor and explorer,
每个道德高尚的导师 每个腐败的政治家 every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician,
每个超级明星 每个最高领袖 every superstar, every supreme leader,
人类历史上的每个圣人和罪人 every saint and sinner in the history of our species,
都生活在这里 lived there...
那颗悬浮在... on a mote of dust
一缕阳光之中的微尘之上 suspended... in a sunbeam.
在宇宙宏大的竞技场上 The Earth is a very small stage
地球只是一个很小的舞台 in a vast, cosmic arena.
想一想 血流成河 Think of the rivers of blood
只为那些帝王将相的 spilled by all those generals and emperors
荣耀和胜利 so that in glory and triumph
让他们得以短暂地主宰 they could become the momentary masters
一个点上的 of a fraction...
一小点 of a dot.
想一想 这个像素点上一个的角落 Think of the endless cruelties visited
那里的住民曾把无尽的残酷 by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel
施加于另一个角落里与其没有多少差别的 on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants
其他同类 of some other corner.
他们的误会竟如此之深 How frequent their misunderstandings,
他们竟然嗜杀成性 how eager they are to kill one another,
他们的仇恨竟如此强烈 how fervent their hatreds.
我们的装腔作势 Our posturings,
我们的妄自尊大 our imagined self-importance,
我们自以为在宇宙中享有 the delusion that we have some privileged position
特殊地位的错觉 in the universe,
都受到了这颗暗淡的光点的挑战 are challenged by this point of pale light.
我们的星球... Our planet...
只是这个包罗万象的 is a lonely speck in the great,
宇宙中一个小点 enveloping cosmic dark.
我们无从知晓 In our obscurity,
在这广袤宇宙中 in all this vastness,
是否会有来自别处的帮助 there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere
把我们从自己手中拯救 to save us from ourselves.
地球是迄今为止唯一已知存在生命的星球 The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.
至少在近期的未来 There is nowhere else,
没有别的星球 at least in the near future,
可供人类移居 to which our species could migrate.
可以去探测 Visit, yes.
但尚无法定居 Settle, not yet.
不管你是否喜欢 Like it or not,
就目前而言 地球才是我们的立足之地 for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.
有人曾说天文学是一门教人谦卑 It has been said that astronomy is a humbling
陶冶情操的学问 and character-building experience.
恐怕没有比这幅遥远的图像 There is perhaps no better demonstration
能更好展现 of the folly of human conceits
人类的愚蠢自负了 than this distant image.
在我看来 它强调了我们的责任 To me, it underscores our responsibility
人类应该更加和谐相处 to deal more kindly with one another
共同保护和珍惜 and to preserve and cherish
这颗"暗淡蓝点" the Pale Blue Dot,
因为那是我们唯一的家园 the only home we've ever known.
像我们这样 How did we,
生活在一粒尘埃之上的微小生物 tiny creatures living on that speck of dust,
是如何做到把宇宙飞船 ever manage to figure out how to send spacecraft
送达银河系的恒星之间的呢 out among the stars of the Milky Way?
就在几个世纪之前 Only a few centuries ago,
或者说就在宇宙时间的一秒钟之前 a mere second of cosmic time,
我们对于自身处于何时何处一无所知 we knew nothing of where or when we were.
尚未觉察到宇宙的其他部分 Oblivious to the rest of the cosmos,
我们犹如生活在牢狱之中 we inhabited a kind of prison--
一个由果壳包裹的 a tiny universe
微小的宇宙 bounded by a nutshell.
我们是如何逃脱这所牢狱的呢 How did we escape from the prison?
那是几代人探索的成果 It was the work of generations of searchers
他们铭记五条基本原则 who took five simple rules to heart.
质疑权威 Question authority.
不要仅仅因为是某人说的所以就是真理 No idea is true just because someone says so,
包括我 including me.
独立自主地思考 Think for yourself.
质疑自己 Question yourself.
不要仅仅去相信自己愿意相信的 Don't believe anything just because you want to.
你相信的并不一定就是真理 Believing something doesn't make it so.
用观察和实验所获得的证据 Test ideas by the evidence gained
来检验真理 from observation and experiment.
广为接受的理论 If a favorite idea
如果不能通过恰当设计的实验 fails a well-designed test,
它就是错误的 it's wrong!
把它忘掉吧 Get over it.
跟随证据的指引 无论它将你引向何方 Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.
如果你没有证据 就不要妄加评判 If you have no evidence, reserve judgment.
或许其中最重要的原则是... And perhaps the most important rule of all...
记住 你可能会犯错 remember, you could be wrong.
即使最好的科学家 Even the best scientists
也曾在某些事情上犯错 have been wrong about some things.
牛顿 爱因斯坦 Newton, Einstein,
历史上每个伟大的科学家 and every other great scientist in history,
他们都曾犯错 they all made mistakes.
他们当然会犯错 人都会犯错 Of course they did-- they were human.
科学是防止我们欺骗自己... Science is a way to keep from fooling ourselves...
和欺骗他人的一种方法 and each other.
科学家们知道罪恶吗 Have scientists known sin?
当然 Of course.
我们曾误用科学 就像我们 We have misused science, just as we have
曾误用过手中的其他工具一样 every other tool at our disposal,
这也是为什么我们不能 and that's why we can't afford
让科学只掌握在少数权威的手中 to leave it in the hands of a powerful few.
科学只有越多地属于人民大众 The more science belongs to all of us,
才越不会被误用 the less likely it is to be misused.
这些原则可以杜绝 These values undermine the appeals
科学探索中的狂热和无知 of fanaticism and ignorance
毕竟 and, after all,
宇宙就是一片点缀着 the universe is mostly dark,
点点星光的黑暗 dotted by islands of light.
确定地球的年龄 恒星间的距离 Learning the age of the Earth or the distance to the stars or
或者了解生命的演化 how life evolves--
这些又有什么用呢 what difference does that make?
部分原因取决于你想要生活在 Well, part of it depends on how big a universe
一个多大的宇宙之中 you're willing to live in.
有些人喜欢小一些的 Some of us like it small.
这没关系 That's fine.
完全可以理解 Understandable.
但我喜欢一个更大的宇宙 But I like it big.
而当我全身心接受这个更大的宇宙的一切时 And when I take all of this into my heart and my mind,
我感到意气昂扬 I'm uplifted by it.
并且我想要确定我感受到的都是真实的 And when I have that feeling, I want to know that it's real,
那并不只是我自己头脑中的臆想 that it's not just something happening inside my own head,
因为那是否是真实的非常重要 because it matters what's true,
我们的想象力跟大自然 and our imagination is nothing
令人敬畏的现实相比苍白无力 compared with Nature's awesome reality.
我想要知道那些黑暗之中到底有什么 I want to know what's in those dark places,
宇宙大爆炸之前发生了什么 and what happened before the Big Bang.
我想要知道宇宙学视界之外还有什么 I want to know what lies beyond the Cosmic Horizon,
生命是如何起源的 and how life began.
宇宙中还有别的什么地方 Are there other places in the cosmos
那里的物质和能量变成了生命 where matter and energy have become alive...
拥有了意识呢 and aware?
我想要知道我的祖先 I want to know my ancestors--
所有的祖先 all of them.
我想要成为世代链条上 I want to be a good, strong link
坚强有力的一环 in the chain of generations.
我想要保护我的子孙 I want to protect my children
以及子孙万代 and the children of ages to come.
我们体现着宇宙局部的 We, who embody the local eyes and ears
眼和耳 思维和情感 and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos,
我们已经开始探索我们的起源 we've begun to learn the story of our origins--
追溯这漫漫长路 我们从最初的星屑 star stuff contemplating the evolution of matter,
成为能够推演物质演化进程的有意识生命 tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness.
我们和这颗星球上的其他生物 We and the other living things on this planet
承载着宇宙演化 carry a legacy of cosmic evolution
数十亿年的遗产 spanning billions of years.
如果我们真心接受这一事实 If we take that knowledge to heart,
如果我们如实地去了解和热爱自然 if we come to know and love Nature as it really is,
那么作为生命链条上坚强有力的一环 then we will surely be remembered by our descendants
我们一定会被子孙后代铭记于心 as good, strong links in the chain of life.
我们的子孙后代必将继续这一神圣的探索 And our children will continue this sacred searching,
正如我们为前人所见一样 seeing for us as we have seen
去见证我们之所未见的 for those who came before,
去发现宇宙中那些尚未梦想到的... discovering wonders yet undreamt of...
万千奇迹 in the cosmos.