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AndrewConnolly_2014-_探索深邃宇宙的下一个窗口_
So in 1781, an English composer , technologist and astronomer called William Herschel noticed an object on the sky that didn't quite move the way the rest of the stars did. 1781 年,一位英国作家、工程师兼天文学家 名叫威廉赫歇尔, 在浩瀚的夜空中观测到一个天体, 其运行方式与其他恒星大相径庭。
composer:n.作曲家;作家,著作者;设计者; technologist:n.技术专家;工艺学家; astronomer:n.天文学家;
And Herschel's recognition that something was different, that something wasn't quite right, was the discovery of a planet, the planet Uranus , a name that has entertained countless generations of children, but a planet that overnight doubled the size of our known solar system . 赫歇尔觉得这个天体不同寻常, 有些不太对劲, 事实上他发现的是一颗行星, 也就是我们熟知的天王星。 天王星这个名字 让一代又一代年轻人兴趣盎然, 然而,这颗高悬于天际的行星 一经发现便让人类已知的太阳系范围整整扩大了一倍。
recognition:n.识别;认识;承认;认可; Uranus:n.[天]天王星; countless:adj.无数的;数不尽的; overnight:adj.夜间的; v.在夜间; n.(美)前一天的晚上; solar system:[天]太阳系;
Just last month, NASA announced the discovery of 517 new planets in orbit around nearby stars, almost doubling overnight the number of planets we know about within our galaxy . 就在上个月,美国太空总署 (NASA)宣布其又发现了 517 颗环绕近地恒星 运行的行星, 几乎在一夜间使银河系中 已知的行星数量翻了一倍。
orbit:n.轨道;眼眶;势力范围;生活常规;vi.盘旋;绕轨道运行;vt.绕…轨道而行; nearby:adj.附近的,邻近的;adv.在附近;prep.在…附近; galaxy:n.银河;[天]星系;银河系;一群显赫的人;
So astronomy is constantly being transformed by this capacity to collect data, and with data almost doubling every year, within the next two decades, me may even reach the point for the first time in history 人类收集的资料资讯为天文学的不断进步 注入了源源不断的动力, 而这些资料资讯几乎以每年翻一倍的速度增长, 未来二十年内,人类甚至可以 首次实现有史以来的一个梦想:
astronomy:n.天文学; constantly:adv.不断地;时常地; transformed:v.使改变形态;使改变外观(或性质);(transform的过去分词和过去式) capacity:n.能力;容量;资格,地位;生产力;
where we've discovered the majority of the galaxies within the universe. 探索浩瀚宇宙中 的大部分星系。
majority:n.大部分:大多数:多数票:成年人: galaxies:n.银河; (galaxy的复数)
But as we enter this era of big data, what we're beginning to find is there's a difference between more data being just better and more data being different, capable of changing the questions we want to ask, 但是,人类开辟的是一个大资料资讯的时代, 我们开始探究的是 资料资讯越多越好 与资料资讯越多差别越大,两者之间有何差异, 这足以改变我们想问的一些问题,
era:n.新时期;纪元;年代;新时代; capable:adj.能干的,能胜任的;有才华的;
and this difference is not about how much data we collect, it's whether those data open new windows into our universe, whether they change the way we view the sky. 这个差异并不在于我们收集多少资料资讯, 而是,那些资料资讯是否可以为人类开启一扇通往深邃宇宙的窗户, 那些资料资讯是否有助于改变人类对观测天空的方式。
So what is the next window into our universe? 下一扇通往宇宙的窗户会有何奥秘呢？
What is the next chapter for astronomy? 人类将如何谱写天文学的下一个篇章？
Well, I'm going to show you some of the tools and the technologies that we're going to develop over the next decade, and how these technologies, together with the smart use of data, may once again transform astronomy by opening up a window into our universe, the window of time. 好,我会向诸位介绍一下 未来十年内人类将开发的一些工具与技术, 这些先进技术,连同人类 在运用资料资讯上展现的聪明才智, 将再一次开启一扇通往宇宙的窗户 使天文学发生革命性的变化, 时间之窗。
technologies:n.技术;科技(technology的复数); opening up:n.解禁;开放;供开发;启用;
Why time? Well, time is about origins , and it's about evolution . 为什么是时间？好,时间与起源 和进化息息相关。
origins:n.起源; (origin的复数) evolution:n.演变;进化;发展;渐进;
The origins of our solar system, how our solar system came into being, is it unusual or special in any way? 太阳系的起源、 太阳系是如何形成的、 有什么不同寻常或独特之处吗？
About the evolution of our universe. 关于宇宙的演化。
Why our universe is continuing to expand , and what is this mysterious dark energy that drives that expansion ? 为什么宇宙处于不断的膨胀中？ 促使宇宙膨胀的 神秘暗能量是什么呢？
expand:v.扩张;使膨胀;详述;发展;张开,展开; mysterious:adj.神秘的;不可思议的;难解的; expansion:n.扩张;膨胀;扩展;扩大;
But first, I want to show you how technology is going to change the way we view the sky. 首先,我要向诸位介绍科学技术 将有望改变人类对观测天空的方式。
technology:n.技术;工艺;术语;
So imagine if you were sitting in the mountains of northern Chile looking out to the west towards the Pacific Ocean a few hours before sunrise . 不妨设想一下,如果你在 智利北部山区 仰望西天, 面向太平洋方向, 就在日出前几个小时。
sunrise:n.日出;朝霞;
This is the view of the night sky that you would see, and it's a beautiful view, with the Milky Way just peeking out over the horizon . 这便是你将亲眼目睹的夜空, 景色美丽动人, 银河悬挂于天际。
Milky Way:na.[天]银河; peeking:v.窥视;偷看;微露出;探出;(peek的现在分词) horizon:n.地平线;(欲望、知识或兴趣的)范围;
but it's also a static view, and in many ways, this is the way we think of our universe: eternal and unchanging . 但眼前是一幅静止的美景, 而很多时候这也正是我们脑海中勾勒出的宇宙: 永恒不灭且一成不变。
static:adj.静止的; n.[物]静电(干扰); eternal:adj.永恒的;不朽的; unchanging:adj.不变的;
But the universe is anything but static. 但宇宙绝不是静止的。
It constantly changes on timescales of seconds to billions of years. 宇宙处于永恒的变化中,变化时间各不相同 有短短几秒,也有几十亿年。
timescales:n.时标;时间量程(timescale的复数);
Galaxies merge , they collide at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. 不同的星系 在以几十万英里的时速融合、碰撞。
merge:vt.合并;使合并;吞没;vi.合并;融合; collide:vi.碰撞;抵触,冲突;vt.使碰撞;使相撞;
Stars are born, they die, they explode in these extravagant displays . 恒星不断诞生,也不断消亡, 这些绚丽多彩的画面展示了恒星的爆炸。
explode:v.爆炸;爆裂;勃然(大怒);突然发生(危险); extravagant:adj.奢侈的;浪费的;过度的;放纵的; displays:v.陈列; n.陈列;
In fact, if we could go back to our tranquil skies above Chile, and we allow time to move forward to see how the sky might change over the next year, the pulsations that you see are supernovae , the final remnants of a dying star exploding , brightening and then fading from view, each one of these supernovae five billion times the brightness of our sun, so we can see them to great distances but only for a short amount of time. 事实上,如果可以回到 智利遥望宁静的夜空, 我们让时间长河向前流淌 一览未来十年的天空,会呈现出什么模样, 你会观察到宇宙的脉动 正是超新星,恒星在消亡中留下的残余, 爆炸、发出耀眼的光芒,然后逐渐消失在视野中, 任何一颗超新星 都比太阳亮上五十亿倍, 因此,人类在相当遥远的地方就能发现它们的踪迹 但其光芒转瞬即逝。
tranquil:adj.安静的,平静的;安宁的;稳定的; pulsations:n.绝热脉动(pulsation的复数形式); supernovae:n.超新星; remnants:n.残余;残留物(remnant的复数);adj.残存的; exploding:v.爆炸;爆裂;勃然(大怒);突然发生(危险);(explode的现在分词) brightening:v.(使)更明亮;(使)快活起来;(使)有希望;(brighten的现在分词) fading:v.(使)变淡,变暗;逐渐消失;衰退,衰落(fade的现在分词) brightness:n.[光][天]亮度;聪明,活泼;鲜艳;愉快;
Ten supernova per second explode somewhere in our universe. 宇宙中每一秒都会有十颗超新星发生爆炸。
If we could hear it, it would be popping like a bag of popcorn. 如果我们可以听见爆炸声, 会同一袋爆米花爆开的声音一样。
Now, if we fade out the supernovae, it's not just brightness that changes. 超新星的光芒逐渐暗淡, 这不只是亮度的变化。
fade:v.褪色; adj.平淡的; n.[电影][电视]淡出;
Our sky is in constant motion . 天空处于永恒的运动之中。
motion:n.动作;移动;手势;请求;意向;议案;v.运动;打手势;
This swarm of objects you see streaming across the sky are asteroids as they orbit our sun, and it's these changes and the motion and it's the dynamics of the system 你会看到大量天体源源不断地掠过天空 这些是环绕太阳运行的小行星, 正是这些变化与运动 以及天体系统的动态变化
swarm:n.一大群(蜜蜂等昆虫); vi.成群地来回移动; asteroids:n.[天]小行星(asteroid的复数); dynamics:n.动力学,力学;
that allow us to build our models for our universe, to predict its future and to explain its past. 让我们得以创建宇宙的模型, 便于我们解读过去,展望未来。
predict:v.预报;预言;预告;
But the telescopes we've used over the last decade are not designed to capture the data at this scale. 然而,过去十年里,我们使用的望远镜 其设计初衷并非用于收集如此大规模的资料资讯。
telescopes:n.望远镜; v.套叠; (telescope的第三人称单数) capture:v.俘虏;捕获;攻占;夺得;刻画,描述;n.(被)捕获;(被)俘获
The Hubble Space Telescope: for the last 25 years it's been producing some of the most detailed views of our distant universe, but if you tried to use the Hubble to create an image 哈伯太空望远镜: 在过去二十五年内, 已为人类生成了部分宇宙深处 最生动具体的画面, 不过,若要使用哈伯太空望远镜去还原一幅天空全景图,
distant:adj.遥远的;远处的;久远的;
of the sky, it would take 13 million individual images , about 120 years to do this just once. 则需要彙聚 1300 万个独立的景象, 即使一次也得历时 120 年之久。
individual:n.个人;有个性的人;adj.单独的;个别的; images:n.印象;声誉;形象;画像;雕像;(image的第三人称单数和复数)
So this is driving us to new technologies and new telescopes, telescopes that can go faint to look at the distant universe but also telescopes that can go wide to capture the sky as rapidly as possible, 面对这一形势,我们必须开发新技术 并建造全新的望远镜, 这些望远镜不仅观测距离更远, 让人类深入宇宙腹地。 而且观测视野更宽, 可迅速拍摄天空中的一举一动,
faint:n.昏厥;v.昏厥;adj.昏眩;(光,声,味)微弱的;微小的;可能性不大的;
telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or the LSST, possibly the most boring name ever for one of the most fascinating experiments in the history of astronomy, in fact proof , if you should need it, 像大口径全景巡天望远镜之类的望远镜 又称为 LSST。 纵观天文学历史, 在所有最有趣的科学实验中 这个名称算是最最无聊的, 事实上,你如果非得有个名称,
Synoptic:adj.天气的;概要的;对观福音书的; Survey:n.调查;测量;审视;纵览;vt.调查;勘测;俯瞰;vi.测量土地; boring:adj.无聊的;令人厌烦的;n.钻孔;v.使厌烦;钻孔;(bore的现在分词) fascinating:adj.极有吸引力的;迷人的;v.深深吸引;迷住;(fascinate的现在分词) proof:n.证据;证实;adj.能抵御;可防护;
that you should never allow a scientist or an engineer to name anything, not even your children. (Laughter) 那千万别让科学家或工程师来命名, 甚至不要让他们为你的孩子起名字。（笑声）
We're building the LSST. LSST 工程已开工建设。
We expect it to start taking data by the end of this decade. 有望于2020年年底前开始收集资料资讯。
I'm going to show you how we think it's going to transform our views of the universe, because one image from the LSST is equivalent to 3,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope, each image three and a half degrees on the sky, seven times the width of the full moon . 我将为诸位解读一下我们的思维方式 这将转变我们对宇宙的认识, 因为 LSST 拍摄的每个图像 相当于哈伯太空望远镜拍摄的 3000 个图像, LSST 的每个图像覆盖了天空中 3.5 度的区域, 相当于七个满月的宽度。
equivalent:adj.等价的,相等的;同意义的;n.等价物,相等物; width:n.宽度;广度;某一宽度的材料;(游泳池两长边之间的)池宽; full moon:n.满月;圆月;
Well, how do you capture an image at this scale? 如何拍摄这么大的图像呢？
Well, you build the largest digital camera in history, using the same technology you find in the cameras in your cell phone or in the digital cameras you can buy in the High Street , 那就得制造有史以来最大的数位相机, 采用的技术与你的手机镜头 或在大街上购买的数位相机采用的技术完全相同,
digital:adj.数字的;手指的;n.数字;键; High Street:n.大街(城镇的主要街道);
but now at a scale that is five and a half feet across, about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle , where one image is three billion pixels . 而眼下这个数位相机的镜头足足宽5.5英尺, 相当于一辆福斯金龟车的长度, 这个镜头拍摄的每个图像有30亿个图元。
Volkswagen:n.大众汽车(财富500强公司之一); Beetle:n.甲壳虫;adj.突出的;愁眉苦脸的;v.快速移动 pixels:n.像素(组成屏幕图像的最小独立元素);(pixel的复数)
So if you wanted to look at an image in its full resolution , just a single LSST image, it would take about 1,500 high-definition TV screens. 因此,如果你想一睹LSST 全解析度图像的风采, 也得用 1500 个高清电视萤幕。
resolution:n.解决;分辨;解析;决议; high-definition:高清晰度;
And this camera will image the sky, taking a new picture every 20 seconds, constantly scanning the sky so every three nights, we'll get a completely new view of the skies above Chile. 这台相机将用于拍摄天空的全景, 每隔 20 秒钟拍摄一张照片, 永不停息地扫描天空。 这样只要三个夜晚,我们就能扫描一次天空, 重新绘制一幅智利上空的天空全景图。
Over the mission lifetime of this telescope, it will detect 40 billion stars and galaxies, and that will be for the first time we'll have detected more objects in our universe than people on the Earth. 这台望远镜会在其生命周期内 探测 400 亿恒星与星系, 这也会是我们首次 能探索的宇宙天体数量 超过地球上的人口数。
mission:n.使命,任务;代表团;布道;v.派遣;向…传教; detected:v.发现;查明;侦察出;(detect的过去分词和过去式)
Now, we can talk about this in terms of terabytes and petabytes and billions of objects, but a way to get a sense of the amount of data that will come off this camera 目前,我们可以按 百万位元组与十亿位元组,通过研究数十亿个天体 来解读宇宙, 但如果想要亲身感受一下 这款相机收集的讯息量,
terabytes:n.兆兆字节(信息量度单位,terabyte的复数); petabytes:n.[计]拍字节;(petabytes是petabyte的复数);
is that it's like playing every TED Talk ever recorded simultaneously , 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 10 years. 好比同时播放已录制的每一个 TED 演讲, 一天二十四小时, 一周七天不停地播放,可以长达连续十年。
simultaneously:adv.同时地;
And to process this data means searching through all of those talks for every new idea and every new concept, looking at each part of the video to see how one frame may have changed from the next. 若要处理这些资料资讯,则如同 在所有访谈节目中搜索 每一个全新的观点与理念, 关注影片中的每个细节。 查看每一帧内容 有何变化。
process:v.处理;加工;列队行进;n.过程,进行;方法,adj.经过特殊加工(或处理)的; frame:n.框架; v.设计; adj.有木架的;
And this is changing the way that we do science, changing the way that we do astronomy, to a place where software and algorithms have to mine through this data, where the software is as critical to the science as the telescopes and the cameras that we've built. 我们正在开辟一个科学研究的新纪元, 顛覆天文学研究的传统模式, 在全新的模式下人们将运用软体技术与演算法则 挖掘隐藏在资料资讯中的无穷奥秘, 届时软体技术对科学研究至关重要, 其重要性并不亚于这些尚未问世的望远镜与相机。
critical:adj.鉴定的;[核]临界的;批评的,爱挑剔的;危险的;决定性的;评论的;
Now, thousands of discoveries will come from this project, but I'm just going to tell you about two of the ideas about origins and evolution that may be transformed by our access to data at this scale. 目前,这个专案将为人类 开启成千上万的探索发现之门, 但我今天只向诸位讲述 有关起源与进化的两个理念 这两个理念也会随着人们 对大规模资料资讯的研究而不断发展。
In the last five years, NASA has discovered over 1,000 planetary systems around nearby stars, but the systems we're finding aren't much like our own solar system, and one of the questions we face is 过去五年内,NASA 已在近地恒星 附近发现了 1000 多个行星系, 但我们力求探寻的这些行星系 并不十分类似于我们的太阳系。 我们面临的一个问题是
planetary:adj.行星的;
is it just that we haven't been looking hard enough or is there something special or unusual about how our solar system formed? 究竟是人类对宇宙的观测还不够全面, 还是我们太阳系的起源 本来就与众不同？
And if we want to answer that question, we have to know and understand the history of our solar system in detail, and it's the details that are crucial . 如果我们要解答这一问题, 就得深入瞭解 太阳系的前世与今生, 这些具体资讯十分重要。
crucial:adj.重要的;决定性的;定局的;决断的;
So now, if we look back at the sky, at our asteroids that were streaming across the sky, these asteroids are like the debris of our solar system. 因此,时下当我们仰望星空, 无数小行星掠过天际, 彷佛是太阳系中遗落的残骸。
debris:n.碎片,残骸;
The positions of the asteroids are like a fingerprint of an earlier time when the orbits of Neptune and Jupiter were much closer to the sun, and as these giant planets migrated through our solar system, they were scattering the asteroids in their wake. 小行星所处的位置 就像海王星与木星早期运行轨道, 离太阳更近的时候在 宇宙中留下的指纹, 这些体积巨大的行星在太阳系中迁徙, 一路遗落不计其数的小行星。
fingerprint:n.指纹;手印;vt.采指纹; orbits:n.[天][航]轨道(orbit的复数); v.环绕…的轨道运行; Neptune:n.海王星;海神; Jupiter:n.[天]木星;朱庇特(罗马神话中的宙斯神); giant:n.巨人;伟人;巨兽;adj.巨大的;特大的 migrated:v.(随季节变化)迁徙;移居;迁移;移动;转移;(migrate的过去分词和过去式) scattering:n.散射;分散;adj.分散的;v.散射;散布;驱散(scatter的ing形式);
So studying the asteroids is like performing forensics , performing forensics on our solar system, but to do this, we need distance, and we get the distance from the motion, and we get the motion because of our access to time. 因此,探究小行星就像 在进行法医鉴定, 对整个太阳系的法医鉴定。 但为此,我们需要距离, 通过天体的运行,可以得知距离, 而由于对时间掌握,我们才瞭解了天体的运行。
performing:adj.表演的;演奏的;v.做;执行;演出;运转(perform的现在分词) forensics:n.辩论术;辩论练习;
So what does this tell us? 我们可以从中得到什么启示呢？
Well, if you look at the little yellow asteroids flitting across the screen, these are the asteroids that are moving fastest, because they're closest to us, closest to Earth. 你是否注意到一些黄色小行星 匆匆掠过萤幕, 这些小行星的运行速度很快, 是因为它们距离地球最近。
flitting:v.轻快地从一处到另一处;掠过;迁移;迁居;搬家;(flit的现在分词)
These are the asteroids we may one day send spacecraft to, to mine them for minerals , but they're also the asteroids that may one day impact the Earth, like happened 60 million years ago with the extinction of the dinosaurs, or just at the beginning of the last century, when an asteroid wiped out almost 1,000 square miles of Siberian forest, 有朝一日人类或许会派太空船造访这些行星 开发上面的矿产资源, 但这些小行星或许会在未来的某一天 撞击地球, 就像 6000 万年前的那次撞击 造成了恐龙的灭绝, 也像上世纪初叶 一颗小行星径直坠落于西伯利亚, 1000 平方英里的森林顿时化为乌有,
spacecraft:n.[宇]宇宙飞船;航天器; minerals:n.矿物;矿产,矿产品(mineral的复数);矿物质; impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响; extinction:n.绝种; at the beginning of:在…的开始; Siberian:adj.西伯利亚(人)的;来自西伯利亚的;
or even just last year, as one burnt up over Russia, releasing the energy of a small nuclear bomb. 甚至就在去年,有一颗小行星在俄罗斯上空的大气层内烧毁, 释放的能量相当于一个小型核弹。
releasing:n.释放;松释动作;脱扣释放;v.释放;排放;(release的现在分词); nuclear:adj.原子能的;[细胞]细胞核的;中心的;原子核的;
So studying the forensics of our solar system doesn't just tell us about the past, it can also predict the future, including our future. 因此,对太阳系进行法医鉴定 不只能让我们瞭解过去, 更可以展望未来,包括人类自身的未来。
Now when we get distance, we get to see the asteroids in their natural habitat , in orbit around the sun. 眼下只要我们得知距离, 就能观察到小行星以其自然的方式, 环绕太阳运行。
habitat:n.[生态]栖息地,产地;
So every point in this visualization that you can see is a real asteroid. 所以,诸位在这幅景象中看到的每一个亮点
visualization:n.形象化;清楚地呈现在心;
Its orbit has been calculated from its motion across the sky. 凭藉这颗小行星在空中的运行状况,就能计算出其运行轨迹。
The colors reflect the composition of these asteroids, dry and stony in the center, water-rich and primitive towards the edge, water-rich asteroids which may have seeded the oceans and the seas that we find on our planet when they bombarded the Earth at an earlier time. 这些小行星的颜色显示了其组成物质, 中心部分是干燥的岩石, 而表面却粗糙不平,富含水分, 含水量较高的小新星上可能会有 和地球上一模一样的海洋, 地球上的海洋正是小行星早年撞击地球后留下的。
reflect:v.反映;映出(影像);反射;表明,表达; composition:n.成分;作文;构成;创作; stony:adj.无情的;多石的;石头的; water-rich:多水的; primitive:adj.原始的,远古的;简单的,粗糙的;n.原始人; seeded:adj.已播种了的;去籽的; bombarded:v.轰炸(bombard的过去分词); adj.被轰击的;
Because the LSST will be able to go faint and not just wide, we will be able to see these asteroids far beyond the inner part of our solar system, to asteroids beyond the orbits of Neptune and Mars , to comets and asteroids that may exist almost a light year from our sun. 由于 LSST 不仅观察视野更宽, 而且探测距离更远。 我们将在远离太阳系中心的区域 一窥这些小行星的身影, 观察木星与火星轨道之外的小行星, 跟踪距离太阳 几乎一光年之遥的彗星与小行星。
inner:n.内部;射中接近靶心部分的一发;adj.里面的;向内的;内部的;接近中心的; Mars:n.火星 comets:n.[天]彗星(comet的复数);
And as we increase the detail of this picture, increasing the detail by factors of 10 to 100, we will be able to answer questions such as, is there evidence for planets outside the orbit of Neptune, to find Earth-impacting asteroids long before they're a danger, and to find out whether, maybe, 我们会更加详细地解读这些照片 将解读细节从 10 个提高到 100 个, 就能找到一些问题的答案,例如 是否有证据显示木星轨道之外还存在行星, 在可能撞击地球的小行星威胁地球之前很久 便锁定它们的行踪, 并解答太阳只有一个
factors:n.因素(factor的复数); v.做代理商; evidence:n.证据,证明;迹象;明显;v.证明;
our sun formed on its own or in a cluster of stars, and maybe it's this sun's stellar siblings that influenced the formation of our solar system, and maybe that's one of the reasons why solar systems like ours seem to be so rare. 还是宇宙中存在一大把这样的恒星, 或许正是太阳的姊妹星 对太阳系的形成产生了巨大的影响, 或许这正是太阳系在宇宙中如此罕见的原因之一。
cluster:n.群;簇;丛;串;vi.群聚;丛生;vt.使聚集;聚集在某人的周围; stellar:adj.星的;星球的;主要的;一流的; siblings:n.兄;弟;姐;妹;(sibling的复数) influenced:v.影响;对…起作用;支配;左右;(influence的过去分词和过去式) formation:n.形成;编队;组成;队形;
Now, distance and changes in our universe — distance equates to time, as well as changes on the sky. 宇宙中的距离与变化, 距离等于时间, 以及天空中的变化。
equates:vt.使相等;视为平等;vi.等同; as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且;
Every foot of distance you look away, or every foot of distance an object is away, you're looking back about a billionth of a second in time, and this idea or this notion of looking back in time has revolutionized our ideas about the universe, not once but multiple times. 你的目光每延伸一英尺 或某一个天体运行每一英尺, 其实在诸位眼睛中留下的景象是之前十亿分之一秒发生的事情, 眺望宇宙就是眺望过去的时光 这个观点或概念让我们对宇宙的认识发生了革命性的变化, 这种变化不止一次,而是多次。
billionth:adj.十亿分之一的;第十亿的;n.十亿分之一;第十亿; notion:n.观念;信念;理解; revolutionized:adj.革命化的;被彻底改革的;v.彻底改革(revolutionize的过去式); multiple:adj.数量多的;多种多样的;n.倍数;
The first time was in 1929, when an astronomer called Edwin Hubble showed that the universe was expanding , leading to the ideas of the Big Bang . 第一次发生在 1929 年, 一位名叫爱德文·哈伯的天文学家 指出宇宙处在不断的膨胀中, 形成了宇宙大爆炸观点。
expanding:v.扩大,增加,增强细谈;详述;(expand的现在分词) Bang:n.猛敲; v.猛敲; v.正好;
And the observations were simple: just 24 galaxies and a hand-drawn picture. 观察结果非常简单: 只有 24 个星系 和一张手工绘制的图片。
observations:n.观察,观察值;观察结果;(observation的复数形式); hand-drawn:抽花刺绣品;
But just the idea that the more distant a galaxy, the faster it was receding , was enough to give rise to modern cosmology . 但星系的距离越远, 它远离我们的速度就越快, 这一观点足以促成现代宇宙学的诞生。
receding:v.逐渐远离;逐渐减弱;(头顶前部)头发停止生长;(recede的现在分词) give rise to:使发生,引起; cosmology:n.[天]宇宙论,[天]宇宙学;
A second revolution happened 70 years later, when two groups of astronomers showed that the universe wasn't just expanding, it was accelerating , a surprise like throwing up a ball into the sky and finding out the higher that it gets, the faster it moves away. 第二次革命发生在 70 年后, 两组天文学家指出 宇宙不仅在不断地膨胀, 而且正在加速膨胀。 这个观点令人惊讶,好比将一个球抛到空中, 你会发现这个球离地面越高, 飞行的速度也越快。
astronomers:天文学家; accelerating:adj.促进的,[物]加速的;催化的;
And they showed this by measuring the brightness of supernovae, and how the brightness of the supernovae got fainter with distance. 他们展示研究结果的方法是 通过测量超新星的亮度, 和超新星的亮度 如何随着距离增加而不断减弱。
fainter:微弱的;无力的;模糊的(faint的比较级);
And these observations were more complex . 这些观察结果更加复杂。
complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施;
They required new technologies and new telescopes, because the supernovae were in galaxies that were 2,000 times more distant than the ones used by Hubble. 于是新技术与全新的望远镜呼之欲出, 由于超新星存在于一些星系中 而这些星系比哈伯望远镜 拍摄到的星系还要远 2000 倍。
And it took three years to find just 42 supernovae, because a supernova only explodes once every hundred years within a galaxy. 经过三年锲而不舍的观察,只发现了 42 颗超新星, 由于一个星系中的超新星 几百年中才爆炸一次。
explodes:v.爆炸,爆发;激增;
Three years to find 42 supernovae by searching through tens of thousands of galaxies. 整整三年才发现了 42 颗超新星, 搜索了成千上万个星系。
And once they'd collected their data, this is what they found. 收集了这些资料资讯, 这是他们发现的。
Now, this may not look impressive , but this is what a revolution in physics looks like: a line predicting the brightness of a supernova 11 billion light years away , and a handful of points that don't quite fit that line. 这一研究成果可能看上去不起眼, 但可以堪称物理学上的一次革命: 这条直线预测距离地球110 亿光年之遥的超新星亮度, 一些小点与这条直线并不十分吻合。
impressive:adj.感人的;令人钦佩的;给人以深刻印象的; predicting:v.预言;预告;预报;(predict的现在分词) light years away:光年以外;似水流年;个光年已过去;
Small changes give rise to big consequences . 细微的变化往往会催生重大结果。
consequences:n.后果,结果;影响(consequence的复数);
Small changes allow us to make discoveries, like the planet found by Herschel. 细微的变化让我们实现突破,探索发现, 就像赫歇尔当年发现天王星一样。
Small changes turn our understanding of the universe on its head. 细微的变化顛覆了 我们对浩瀚宇宙的理解。
So 42 supernovae, slightly too faint, meaning slightly further away, requiring that a universe must not just be expanding, but this expansion must be accelerating, revealing a component of our universe which we now call dark energy, a component that drives this expansion and makes up 68 percent of the energy budget of our universe today. 因此,42 颗超新星,十分昏暗, 可见其距离地球稍远, 由此可推断宇宙肯定不只是在膨胀, 而是在加速膨胀。 揭示了宇宙的一个组成部分 就是我们目前所称的暗能量, 正是暗能量在加速宇宙的膨胀, 已知宇宙中的能量预计有68%为暗能量。
slightly:adv.些微地,轻微地;纤细地; revealing:adj.暴露的;发人深省的;v.揭示;露出;显示;展示;(reveal的现在分词) component:n.成分;部件;组成部分;adj.构成的; budget:n.预算,预算费;v.安排,预定;把…编入预算;adj.廉价的;
So what is the next revolution likely to be? 下一次革命可能会发生在哪个领域？
Well, what is dark energy and why does it exist? 暗能量是什么,暗能量为什么会存在？
Each of these lines shows a different model for what dark energy might be, showing the properties of dark energy. 每一条直线为我们展现了 一种不同的暗能量可能存在的模式 揭示了暗能量的各种属性。
They all are consistent with the 42 points, but the ideas behind these lines are dramatically different. 已发现的 42 个亮点完全符合这些属性, 但隐藏在这些直线背后的理念 则截然不同。
consistent:adj.始终如一的,一致的;坚持的; dramatically:adv.戏剧地;引人注目地;adv.显著地,剧烈地;
Some people think about a dark energy that changes with time, or whether the properties of the dark energy are different depending on where you look on the sky. 有人设想暗能量 随着时间的流逝而变化, 或是暗能量的属性是否不同, 取决于你观察天空时所处的地点。
Others make differences and changes to the physics at the sub-atomic level. 其他人则在亚原子的层面 厘定物理学上的差异与变化。
sub-atomic:次原子;亚原子;
Or, they look at large scales and change how gravity and general relativity work, or they say our universe is just one of many, part of this mysterious multiverse , but all of these ideas, all of these theories, 或者,他们关注 重力与广义相对论作用的规模与变化, 或他们觉得我们的宇宙只是 这个神秘莫测的多元宇宙中的一部分而已, 但是所有这些观点、理论
relativity:n.相对论;相关性;相对性; multiverse:n.多元宇宙;
amazing and admittedly some of them a little crazy, but all of them consistent with our 42 points. 非常不可思议,毋庸置疑其中一些稍稍有些疯狂, 但所有这些观点与理论都于我们发现的 42 个亮点相互印证。
admittedly:adv.公认地;无可否认地;明白地;
So how can we hope to make sense of this over the next decade? 因此,我们如何在未来十年内 理解其中的奥秘？
make sense of:搞清…的意思;
Well, imagine if I gave you a pair of dice , and I said you wanted to see whether those dice were loaded or fair. 设想一下,如果给你两个骰子, 我问你如何知道这两个骰子 是不是被人做了手脚。
dice:n.骰子;色子;掷骰游戏;掷骰赌博;v.将(肉、菜等)切成小方块;将…切成丁;
One roll of the dice would tell you very little, but the more times you rolled them, the more data you collected, the more confident you would become, not just whether they're loaded or fair, but by how much, and in what way. 只投一次骰子,你得不出什么结论, 但多投几次, 积攒起数据, 就会对自己更有信心, 不仅知道这些骰子有没有被人做过手脚, 而且还知道做了多少手脚,而且怎么做的。
confident:adj.自信的;确信的;
It took three years to find just 42 supernovae because the telescopes that we built could only survey a small part of the sky. 我们历时整整三年才发现了 42 个超新星, 因为我们已建造的望远镜 只能探索天空中的很小一部分。
With the LSST, we get a completely new view of the skies above Chile every three nights. 有了 LSST,每三个夜晚我们就可以观察到 智利上空的一个全新景象。
In its first night of operation, it will find 10 times the number of supernovae used in the discovery of dark energy. 观测的第一个夜晚, 发现的超新星的数量,就会是当初发现暗能量时 所用的超新星数量的整整十倍。
This will increase by 1,000 within the first four months: 1.5 million supernovae by the end of its survey, each supernova a roll of the dice, each supernova testing which theories of dark energy are consistent, and which ones are not. 最初的四个月内的观测数字将提升 1000: 这次观察后会发现 150 万颗超新星, 每一颗超新星就像投一次骰子 每一个超新星测试哪些暗能量理论吻合, 哪些不吻合。
And so, by combining these supernova data with other measures of cosmology, we'll progressively rule out the different ideas and theories of dark energy 所以,这些超新星资料资讯会 与宇宙学的其他措施相结合, 我们会逐步筛除 不同的暗能量观点与理论
progressively:adv.渐进地;日益增多地;
until hopefully at the end of this survey around 2030, we would expect to hopefully see a theory for our universe, a fundamental theory for the physics of our universe, to gradually emerge . 此次观察有望在 2030 年左右结束, 我们希望届时发现 一种宇宙理论, 一种宇宙物理的基本理论 渐渐显出雏形。
fundamental:n.基础; adj.十分重大的; gradually:adv.渐渐地;逐步地; emerge:v.浮现;显现;暴露;露出真相;
Now, in many ways, the questions that I posed are in reality the simplest of questions. 我在许多领域提出过一些问题 实际上都是最简单的问题。
posed:v.造成;引起;产生;提问;质询;摆好姿势;(pose的过去分词和过去式)
We may not know the answers, but we at least know how to ask the questions. 但答案至今无从知晓, 但我们至少知道该如何提问。
But if looking through tens of thousands of galaxies revealed 42 supernovae that turned our understanding of the universe on its head, when we're working with billions of galaxies, how many more times are we going to find 42 points that don't quite match what we expect? 但是如果纵观成千上万个星系 结果只发现了 42 颗超新星, 足以转变我们对茫茫宇宙的理解, 当我们专注于研究数十亿星系, 我们费尽周折只发现了 42 个亮点, 这显然不符合我们的期望值,
revealed:v.揭示;显示;露出;(reveal的过去分词和过去式)
Like the planet found by Herschel or dark energy or quantum mechanics or general relativity, all ideas that came because the data didn't quite match what we expected. 就像赫歇尔发现天王星 或暗能量, 或量子力学或广义相对论, 这些理论的产生,都是因为资讯 并不符合我们的期望,
quantum mechanics:n.量子力学;
What's so exciting about the next decade of data in astronomy is, we don't even know how many answers are out there waiting, answers about our origins and our evolution. 天文学资讯的下一个十年 激动人心的一面正是 我们甚至不知道会有多少问题 等待着我们去解答, 这些解答关乎宇宙起源与演化。
How many answers are out there that we don't even know the questions that we want to ask? 还有多少解答已经摆在面前, 但我们甚至不知道 要问些什么？
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）