恒星七纪（2012）

If you look at the night sky and you look up at a twinkling star,
你会觉得这个小小的亮点
you think of this little pinpoint of light,
史蒂夫·考利
英国原♥子♥能♥机♥构♥
就像是圣诞树上的彩灯
almost like a Christmas tree light.
事实上
And, actually, what it is
那里正释放着巨大的能量
is this incredible cauldron of energy being released.
要想了解亮点里在发生什么
To witness what's going on inside these points of light,
BBC的片子 指离伦敦更近
那就要到离家近一点的地方
you have to go somewhere closer to home.
到牛津郡的欧洲联合环形加速器
To the Joint European Torus, JET, in Oxfordshire.
那里专门研究恒星内部的反应
Where they study what happens in the heart of stars,
那就是点亮恒星的核聚变
the hydrogen fusion that brings them to life.
用欧洲联合环形加速器
What we're trying to do in JET
我们想在地球上创造一颗小恒星
is essentially to make a little star on Earth.
我们试图创造满足核聚变的条件
We're trying to create the conditions necessary
然后依靠核聚变
to create the fusion of hydrogen, and with it,
产生大量的能量
to create copious amounts of energy, lots and lots of energy.
如果想在地球上创造恒星
If you're going to attempt to create a star on Earth,
使用的仪器
you need something able to withstand
要能承受极高能量
the incredible energies involved.
你需要一个回旋加速器
You need a torus,
一个能够承受一亿度高温的
a giant, doughnut-shaped structure
巨大的环形结构
where temperatures can reach over 100 million degrees.
在它内部 极强的磁场
Inside, an incredibly powerful magnetic field
束缚着氢燃料
holds the hydrogen fuel.
好了 启动吧
OK. Right, trigger, please.
所需条件如此极端 每一次造星
The conditions are so extreme that each attempt at star creation
都非常紧张
is a tense event.
九 八 七...
Nine, eight, seven...
现在欧洲联合环形加速器
So what's happening now on JET
正在启动磁铁
is that they are powering up the magnets,
在启动过程中
and as they power up the magnets,
会让电流通过环路
it will be pushing the electric current round the loop.
你能看到那里逐渐变红
If you can see that red colour beginning to be there,
那是等离子体在形成
that's the beginning of the plasma firing up.
首先要把构成物质的
First, they have to pull apart
最小微粒分解
the basic building blocks of matter,
原子
atoms.
然后再让它们高速撞击 发生聚变
Then hurl them together again so they fuse
产生星光
and create starlight.
你可以看到等离子体在容器底部撞击
You can see the plasma hitting the bottom,
所以底部会开始发光
and so the lighting up on the bottom there...
现在颜色很鲜艳了
Oh, now it's really in full bloom.
里面大概是三千万度
This is probably about 30 million degrees right now.
这就是地球上形成的一颗小恒星
This is a little bit of a star, here on Earth.
看来流经等离子体的电流
And, yes, it seems like that was about 2.5 million amps
有250万安培
going through that plasma right there,
大家这么兴奋 看来这次是成功了
and I think we had a successful shot because of all the excitement.
虽然只持续了很短的时间
It lasted just a brief moment,
但是在这里 他们成功的复♥制♥了
but at JET, they've managed to replicate
宇宙中最大物体的内部反应
what happens in the biggest objects in the universe,
恒星的内部反应
the stars.
他们的成功
And they've done it because
是因为史蒂夫·考利博士这样的科学家
scientists like Professor Steve Cowley
了解最小的微粒
understand the smallest.
在每个氢原子中心有一个质子
At the centre of each hydrogen atom is a proton.
在质子周围
And around that proton
是一个电子 沿某种轨道环绕质子运动
is an electron going round in a sort of an orbit.
在足够的热量与压力作用下
With enough heat and pressure,
绕转的电子
the orbiting electron
会被从中心质子旁剥离
will be stripped away from the proton at the centre.
足够多原子被剥离电子
Do it to enough atoms,
你就创造了一团等离子体
and you create a plasma,
分离粒子熬成的一锅汤
a soup of unattached particles.
如果能符合一些极端条件
And if the conditions are intense enough,
不可思议的事情将会发生
something extraordinary happens.
一个链式反应开始了
A chain reaction begins.
质子们四处乱窜
The protons are running around
由于它们带正电荷
and because they're positively charged
它们互相排斥 彼此保持距离
and they repel each other at distance,
多数时候它们只会擦身而过
most of the time, they just glance off each other.
当能量足够高时 它们会狠狠撞向对方
At high energy, they bump into each other hard enough
有些时候 可以合为一体
that, occasionally, they'll stick.
那便是聚变反应
That's the fusion process.
当四个氢质子最终发生聚变
When four hydrogen protons ultimately fuse,
它们创造出一种新元素
they create a new element.
氢元素变成了氦元素
Hydrogen becomes helium,
释放出巨大的能量
and an enormous amount of energy is released.
这始于恒星诞生之初
This is what happens when a star is born,
一切都归结于质量
and it's all down to mass
以及物理学中最著名的公式
and the most famous equation in physics.
新造的氦核
That helium nucleus that you just made
质量比用于创造它的
weighs less than the four hydrogens
四个氢原子小
you used to make it.
不知何故 反应中损失了部分质量
Somehow, mass has disappeared in the process.
任何知道一点物理公式的人
Anybody who knows any equation from physics
都明白能量与质量
knows that mass and energy
能用爱因斯坦最著名的公式联♥系♥在一起
are linked by Einstein's most famous equation,
质能方程 能量等于质量乘上光速的平方
his equation E equals mc squared.
因此丢失的质量便是能量
So that missing mass is energy.
但由于光速的平方是一个很大的数
But because c squared is such a large number,
一点点质量便能创造出巨额的能量
a tiny little bit of mass creates a phenomenal amount of energy.
太阳每天只需要
The Sun only needs to use
燃烧它九牛一毛的质量
an infinitesimal amount of its colossal mass each day
就能产生数以百万瓦特计的能量
to generate vast megawatts of energy.
核聚变并不只是
Nuclear fusion is the process
赋予了恒星生命
that not only brings stars into being,
同样维持它们的生存
it's what keeps them alive.
当一颗恒星诞生 开始自己的生命旅程
But when a star is born and starts its life story,
科学家们发现
scientists have discovered
一些别的重要事情 也随之展开
that something else very important can begin.
第一个看出
The first person to get an inkling
下一个创世故事个中端倪的
of this second story of creation
是尼古拉·哥白尼
was Nicholas Copernicus,
现代天文学之父
the father of modern astronomy.
他也带来了出人意料的社会革命
And accidental social revolutionary.
1543年间 他出版了一本书
In 1543, he published a book
颠覆了一千多年的天文思想
that overturned more than 1,000 years of astronomical thought.
即相信太阳围绕地球旋转
The belief that the Sun revolved around the Earth.
这真的令人振奋
Well, this is exciting.
这是科学史上
This is one of the most
斯蒂芬·庞弗里教授
科学史学家 兰卡斯特大学
最重要的书籍之一
important books in the history of science.
你能从扉页读到这是哥白尼的
You can see from the title page that it's Copernicus's
六卷科学巨著 《天体运行论》
Six Books On The Revolution Of The Heavenly Spheres,
这不仅对天文学界具有爆♥炸♥性影响
and as well as being astronomically explosive,
也同样改变了人们的观念
it was also explosive in terms of changing
重新认识了地球在宇宙中位置
humankind's understanding of its place in the universe.
我们可以看得很清楚
And we can see that, I think, quite clearly
如果我们仔细瞧瞧这张著名的图片
if we look at the famous diagram here,
我们能看到在中心
and you can see that here at the centre
不是地球 虽然几千年来人们一直这样想
is not the Earth, as people had thought for thousands of years,
而是拉丁语的太阳
but Sol, Latin for Sun,
根据这革命性的新宇宙观
and here is the Earth going around the central Sun
地球围绕着中心的太阳旋转
in this revolutionary new conception of the universe.
地球的地位从宇宙的中心
Earth had been relegated from the centre of the universe
降为第三块绕着太阳转的大石头
to just the third rock circling the Sun.
关于宇宙如何形成的传统观点
The traditional story of how the cosmos was constructed
其基石已被动摇
had been shaken to its foundations.
对于十六世纪而言
And, in the 16th century,
这蕴含着一种颠覆性的含义
this had deeply subversive implications.