宇宙时空之旅：未知世界（2020）

Cosmos: Possible Worlds S01E06

Part 1 Aug. 24, 2022, 10:55 a.m.

约翰·古德里克（John Goodricke）是一个只获准
John Goodricke was a man who was permitted only the
最简短的瞥见星星
briefest glimpse of the stars.
然而，可以说他是其中一位
And yet, it could be said that he made one of the
最伟大的发现
greatest discoveries of all.
他因儿童时期的疾病而完全失聪
He had been left completely deaf by a childhood illness.
也许这就是为什么他这么仔细地看着
And maybe that's why he looked so carefully.
在1784年一个晴朗的夏日之夜，
On a clear summer night in 1784,
他出去看看是否还有一颗恒星
he went outside to see if a particular star was still
做某事使他神秘
doing something that mystified him.
以前没有其他天文学家曾报道过的东西
Something that no other astronomer had ever reported before.
古德里克不敢相信自己的眼睛
Goodricke couldn't believe his own eyes.
这颗叫做Beta Lyrae的星星
The star, called Beta Lyrae,
在很短的时间内亮度会定期变化
changed regularly in brightness over a very brief period of time.
只有几天
Only days.
有什么可能使一颗星星做到这一点？
What could possibly make a star do that?
更令人惊讶的是，古德里克发现他可以
Even more surprising, Goodricke found that he could
高度准确地预测其变化
predict its variations with high accuracy.
是什么原因导致恒星亮度发生这种变化？
What could cause such a change in a star's brightness?
我想到的所有情景都无法解释
None of the scenarios that came to mind explained the
在他面前的证据
evidence before him.
然后，他想到了另一种可能性
And then, he thought of another possibility.
假设有东西绕着Beta天琴座飞行
Suppose there was something orbiting Beta Lyrae
经常使恒星黯然失色
that eclipsed the star on a regular basis.
但是那会是什么呢？
But what could it be?
“也许是一个世界？”
"A world perhaps?"
一万亿呢？
How about a trillion?
♪♪
♪ ♪
♪♪
♪ ♪
当John Goodricke的发现引起注意时
When John Goodricke's discovery came to the attention
在1786年享有盛誉的英国皇家学会
of the prestigious British Royal Society in 1786,
他立即被选为会员
he was immediately made a member.
这种荣耀的消息从未传给他，
Word of this honor never reached him,
几天后，他死于肺炎
days later he was dead of pneumonia.
他只有21岁
He was only 21.
距离另一位天文学家150年
It would be 150 years before another astronomer
将解决古德里克的奥秘
would solve Goodricke's mystery.
在此过程中，永远改变我们的宇宙
And in the process, change our cosmos forever.
即使在小时候，杰拉德·彼得·库珀（Gerard Peter Kuiper）仍然可以
Even as a child, Gerard Peter Kuiper could
看得比谁都远
see farther than anyone else.
他看到星星对其他人来说太遥远而晕倒
He saw stars too distant and too faint for others
不用望远镜就能找到
to find without a telescope.
这是一个多世纪前的荷兰
This was in the Netherlands more than a century ago.
那时，裁缝的儿子无法
Back then, the son of a poor tailor could not
希望成为一名天文学家
hope to become an astronomer.
但是这个男孩不会被阻止
But the boy would not be stopped.
那时，天文学家认为宇宙是由
Back then, astronomers thought that the cosmos consisted of
只有少数几个行星，就是我们自己的太阳系的行星
only a handful of planets, those of our own solar system.
许多其他恒星只是荒芜之地
The great multitude of other stars were just barren points
从未生出世界的光
of light that had never given birth to worlds.
我们在地球上仍然可以感到特别
We on Earth could still feel special.
科学家告诉我们，我们的恒星系统
Our star system, the scientists told us,
是所有世界中最稀有的，有世界和月亮祝福的人
was the rarest of all, one blessed by worlds and moons.
库珀渴望了解我们的太阳及其行星
Kuiper yearned to know how our Sun and its planets
成为
came to be.
然后去了莱顿大学，
And made his way to the University of Leiden,
在那儿他迅速出众
where he quickly distinguished himself.
他应邀加入了动态天文学界
He was invited to join the dynamic astronomical community
在美国，但是柯伊伯（Kuiper）边缘粗糙，
in the United States, but Kuiper had rough edges,
他很有争议，很容易陷入冲突
he was argumentative and easily drawn into conflict
和他的同事们
with his colleagues.
指引遥远的天文台的前景
The prospect of directing a remote observatory far away
来自科学文化之都的必须
from the capitals of scientific culture must have
吸引了他
appealed to him.
而且，您可以在那里看到更好的星星
And besides, you could see the stars better there
而不是其他任何地方
than just about anywhere else.
库珀在麦当劳天文台获得任命，
Kuiper was given an appointment at the McDonald Observatory,
位于西德克萨斯州的一角
situated in a corner of West Texas.
在世纪之交，已经发现一半
At the turn of the century, it had been discovered that half
可见的恒星确实是引力对
the visible stars were really gravitational pairs.
大多数双星就像双胞胎，
Most binary stars are like twins,
由同一个气体和灰尘的子♥宫♥形成
forming from the same womb of gas and dust.
其他人分别成年并在万有引力下
Others come of age separately and become gravitationally
在以后的发展中彼此参与
involved with each other later in their development.
而另一半则一生都保持单身
And the other half remain single throughout their lives.
柯伊伯选择专注于双星
Kuiper chose to concentrate on the binary stars.
他想知道他们是否可以阐明
He wondered if they could shed light on the way that the
我们太阳系中的行星形成并成为
planets in our solar system formed and came to be
万有引力地绑定到我们的太阳
gravitationally bound to our Sun.
明亮的提升 18小时50分钟
Bright ascension. 18 hours, 50 minutes.
偏角加33度
Declination plus 33 degrees.
2175分钟
2175 minutes.
嗯
Mm-hmm.
库珀看着同一颗恒星
Kuiper looked at the very same star that
150年前让John Goodricke感到困惑
had baffled John Goodricke 150 years before,
但是柯伊伯当时正用更大的望远镜观察它
but Kuiper was looking at it with a much bigger telescope.
Kuiper拥有强大的力量
And Kuiper was armed with an awesome power that didn't
存在于古德里克时代，光谱学
exist in Goodricke's time, spectroscopy.
光谱学是一种分解任何物体的光的方法
Spectroscopy is a way to dissect the light of any
单颗恒星找到其特定原子
single star to find its particular atomic and
分子组成
molecular composition.
库珀观察了产生的光的光谱
Kuiper looked at the spectrum of the light produced
贝塔·里拉（Beta Lyrae）的作品，与所有星星一样，
by Beta Lyrae and saw that, as with all stars,
那里有很多氢和氦，
there was plenty of hydrogen and helium,
但也有铁钠和硅
but there was also iron sodium and silicon.
到目前为止，没有任何惊喜
So far, no surprises there.
现在，转过来了
Now, here comes the twist.
亮线？
Bright lines?
那些亮线从哪里来？
Where were those bright lines coming from?
当时，没有天文学家理解为什么亮线
At that time, no astronomer understood why bright lines
会出现在恒星的光谱中
would appear in the spectrum of a star.
柯伊伯跃升为两颗星的结论
Kuiper leapt to the conclusion that the two stars
如此亲密，以至于他们交换事物，
were so close that they were exchanging matter,
会产生这种特征的超高温气体
super-hot gases that would produce such a signature.
为了了解他那天晚上所见，
In trying to understand what he had seen that night,
库珀发现并命名为最星际
Kuiper discovered and named the most interstellar
宇宙中的关系
relationship in the cosmos.
被恒久的恒星物理锁定的恒星，
Stars that are physically locked in everlasting oneness,
被引力和火桥束缚在一起
bound together by gravity and a bridge of fire
由明星的东西制成
made of star stuff.
一座八百万英里长的桥，
A bridge eight million miles long,
连接两颗星，
connecting two stars,
比我们的太阳大三倍
one three times more massive than our Sun,
其他13倍更大
the other 13 times greater still.
接触双星系统
A contact binary star system.
他们为什么不像我们自己的明星一样圆呢？
Why aren't they round like our own star?
他们是如此亲密，
They are so closed to one another,
引力的潮汐力将它们拉在一起并拉伸
tidal forces of gravity pull them together and stretch them
燃烧的泪珠
into flaming teardrops.
Beta Lyrae系统距离地球约1,000光年
The Beta Lyrae system is about 1,000 light-years from earth.
20世纪中叶最大的望远镜
The largest telescopes of the mid-20th century were just not
足以将它们分解为独♥立♥的恒星
powerful enough to resolve them as individual stars.
您需要光谱学的新功能
You needed that new power of spectroscopy
解开他们
to disentangle them.
柯伊伯想象着如何形成联♥系♥
Kuiper imagined how the formation of the contact
双星系统可能发生了
binary star system could have happened.
他推论说，它们是在
He deduced that they were formed when a vast cloud of
气体和尘埃变得如此稠密，以至于形成了引力漩涡
gas and dust become so dense that gravitational whirlpools formed.
在考虑这些联♥系♥二进制文件时，
In thinking about these contact binaries,
库珀忍♥不住想知道这些恒星中的任何一个
Kuiper couldn't help but wonder if any of these stellar
求爱从来没有成功
courtships ever failed to catch on fire.