宇宙时空之旅：未知世界（2020）

Cosmos: Possible Worlds S01E06

Part 2 Aug. 24, 2022, 10:55 a.m.

柯伊伯问自己，是我们的世界，
Kuiper asked himself, was our world,
我们的月亮和我们太阳系的所有行星
our Moon and all the planets of our solar system nothing
不仅仅是一个失败的双星系统？
more than a failed binary star system?
如果那是我们太阳系的创造方式，
And if that's how our solar system was created,
整个宇宙中其他恒星周围发生了同样的事情吗？
had the same thing happened around other stars throughout the cosmos?
杰拉德·库珀（Gerard Kuiper）具有特殊的力量，
Gerard Kuiper had a special power,
他能看到的比任何人都远
he could see farther than anyone else.
他是第一个设想我们现在生活的宇宙的人
He was the first to envision the universe we now live in.
没有孩子般繁星点缀的贫瘠广阔，
Not a barren vastness meagerly dotted by childless stars,
但是一个充满可能世界的地方，
but one overflowing with possible worlds,
无数的行星和卫星
countless planets and moons.
1949年，库珀宣布世界震惊
In 1949, Kuiper astonished the world by declaring that
我们的太阳系毕竟不是那么特别
our solar system was not so special after all,
每个其他的星星都有自己的世界大家庭
that every other star had its own family of worlds.
也许是一个世界？
A world perhaps?
但是科学还没有为那个宇宙做好准备，
But science wasn't ready for that universe,
它甚至还没有准备好迈出第一步
it wasn't even ready to take its first baby steps off the planet.
为什么不？
Why not?
科学被雕刻成小王国，
Science was carved up into little kingdoms,
各种科学学科和科学家
the various scientific disciplines and scientists of
一门学科没有与另一门学科合作
one discipline didn't collaborate with anyone from another.
但这必须改变，我们才能冒险超越地球
But this had to change for us to venture beyond Earth.
在库珀与
It all came to a head in a feud between Kuiper and
另一个伟大的科学家
another great scientist.
就像接触双星系统的两颗星一样，
Like two stars of a contact binary system,
他们无法脱离
they could not disengage.
但是尽管他们互相憎恶，
But despite their loathing for each other,
他们设法创造了一种新的科学，
they managed to create a new kind of science and they
开创了太空时代，
pioneered the Space Age,
指导其最大的远见和声音
mentoring its greatest visionary and voice.
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有时候，宇宙刚闯入
Sometimes, the cosmos just barges right in
像今晚一样打倒你的门
and breaks down your door, like tonight.
这里发生了什么？
What's going on here?
我们的星球正在穿越彗星的史诗遗迹，
Our planet is passing through the epic remnants of a comet,
一个数百万英里长的碎片场
a debris field millions of miles long.
这就是为什么看起来今晚正在下雨星
That's why it looks like it's raining stars tonight.
但是他们根本不是星星
But they're not stars at all,
在地球大气层中燃烧的只是少量的岩石和冰块
just bits of rock and ice burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
这被称为流星雨
It's called a meteor shower.
每年的同一时间都会发生一次
And this one happens at the same time every year.
为什么？
Why?
因为地球绕太阳公转需要一年的时间，
Because it takes a year for Earth to orbit the Sun and
回到彗星所在的那个地方
return to that same place where the comets
很久以前就已经裸奔了
streaked by so long ago.
那是一年
That's what a year is.
这可能是那颗彗星的一块，也可能是
This could be a piece of that comet or possibly
小行星的碎片
a fragment of an asteroid.
它来自另一个世界
It came from another world,
太阳系创建过程中的剩余物
a leftover from the creation of our solar system.
但是如何理解呢？
But how to understand it?
好吧，回到Gerard Kuiper的时代，
Well, back in Gerard Kuiper's time,
在20世纪中叶，
during the middle of the 20th century,
这取决于你是什么样的科学家
it depended on what kind of a scientist you were.
地质学家会把锤子砸碎
The geologists would bring their hammers and break this
吸盘分开，并在显微镜下观察其灰尘
sucker apart and look at its dust under a microscope to
研究其晶体结构
study its crystalline structure.
这是他们找出其中缺少的部分的方法
It was their way of finding out which missing piece in
陨石可以提供的地球难题
this puzzle of Earth the meteorite could provide.
化学家们正在寻找相同的答案，
The chemists were searching for the same answers,
但是他们会把它放在酸里看是否可以
but they would drop it in acid to see if it could be
从一种化合物转变为另一种化合物
transformed from one compound into another,
折磨它看是否会放弃
torturing it to see if it would give up
关于自然的秘密
its secrets about nature.
物理学家们希望看到它最裸♥露♥的地方
The physicists would want to see it at its most naked.
剥去其质量，密度和硬度
Stripped down to its mass, its density, its hardness.
其耐热性
Its resistance to heat.
这位生物学家甚至都不会停下来捡起它
The biologist wouldn't even stop to pick it up.
那时，他们会一直走下去，因为
Back then, they would've walked right by it because
他们认为没有陨石的机会
they didn't think there was any chance that a meteorite
来自太空与他们有任何关系
from space had anything to do with them.
生命只能来自一个地方，就在这里，地球
Life could only be from one place, right here, Earth.
您想知道最疯狂的事情吗？
And you want to know the craziest thing?
那时候
Back then,
天文学家也将过去
the astronomers would've walked right by it, too.
他们的视线集中在距离上，我们不能
Their sights were focused on the distance and we can't
真的怪他们
really blame them.
那时天文学发生了什么？
What was happening in astronomy back then?
关于我们太阳系以外的事物的大想法，
Big ideas about things far beyond our solar system,
爱因斯坦的相对论
Einstein's theory of relativity,
带着光束穿越宇宙的愿景
with its vision of riding a light beam across the cosmos
埃德温·哈勃（Edwin Hubble）发现宇宙在膨胀，
and Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding,
遥远的星系正在彼此飞离
that distant galaxies were flying away from one another.
那就是引发鸡皮b，而不是看着愚蠢的岩石
That's what raised goosebumps, not looking at a dumb rock
躺在自己的后院
lying in your own backyard.
研究我们自己的行星，卫星，彗星和流星
Studying the planets, moons, comets and meteors of our own
微小的太阳系似乎就像一个小联盟
tiny solar system seemed like little league.
直到Kuiper敢于冒险进入领土
Until Kuiper dared to venture into territories
天文学的禁区
off-limits to astronomy.
夜复一夜，他会留在这里...
Night after night, he would stay up here...
演奏小提琴的45吨♥乐器的演奏家
A virtuoso playing the 45-ton instrument like a violin.
在太阳系中寻找其起源的线索
Searching the solar system for clues to its origin.
他独自认识的一个谜是无法解决的
A mystery that he alone recognized was insoluble
没有所有科学学科的合作企业
without the cooperative enterprise of all the scientific disciplines.
但是科学家们并不知道他们彼此需要
But the scientists didn't know they needed one another.
没有一个大学系
There wasn't a single university department where
多学科的科学家可以研究行星天文学
scientists of multiple disciplines could study planetary astronomy.
所以在这茫茫荒野中
So here, in the middle of nowhere,
在西得克萨斯州的一个角落，柯伊伯指挥了他的一个人
in a corner of West Texas, Kuiper conducted his one-man
探索太阳系
exploration of the solar system.
他看着土星的卫星之一泰坦（Titan），
He looked at Titan, one of Saturn's moons,
发现它有气氛，
and discovered that it had an atmosphere,
它充满了甲烷
it was thick with methane.
天空的光点突然变成了真实的地方
A point of light in the sky had suddenly become a real place.
柯伊柏（Kuiper）用分光镜探测了
Kuiper used the spectroscope to probe the acrid clouds in
木星的高层大气，看看它们是由什么组成的，
the upper atmosphere of Jupiter to see what they were made of,
它们的化学和原子结构
their chemical and atomic structures.
当他看着火星时，
And when he looked at the red planet, Mars,
他在大气中发现了二氧化碳，他想知道，
he found carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and he wondered,
“我在看我星球的未来还是过去？”
"Am I looking at my planet's future or its past?"
但是对于某些人来说，柯伊伯所做的不过是侵入
But to some people, Kuiper was doing nothing more than trespassing.
与天文学家接触化学物质
Butting into chemical matters where an astronomer
没有生意
had no business.
Harold Urey是一名化学家
Harold Urey was a chemist.
像Gerard Kuiper一样，
Like Gerard Kuiper,
他还必须努力进入科学领域
he also had to fight his way into science.
Urey的家人像Kuiper一样贫穷
Urey's family was poor like Kuiper's.
所以他在一家
So he took a job teaching grammar school in a
蒙大拿州的采矿营地
mining camp in Montana.
他的一位学生的父母敦促他
The parents of one of his students urged him to
找到一种上大学的方法
find a way to get to college.
Harold Urey一直采纳该建议，
Harold Urey took that advice all the way to a
诺贝尔化学奖
Nobel Prize in chemistry.
到1949年，他高高在上，
By 1949, he was riding high,
芝加哥大学的杰出教授
a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago.
然后，现在
Then, and now,
世界上最伟大的科学之都之一
one of the world's great capitals of science.
但是当Urey读早报时，
But when Urey read his morning paper,
东西开始凝结在他体内，
something began to curdle inside him,