宇宙时空之旅：未知世界（2020）

Cosmos: Possible Worlds S01E08

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

系统这里是推进小组我已抵达...
Systems this is prop, I reach..
收到了吗？
do you read me?
这些人正看着耗费他们毕生心力的作品步入终结
These people are watching their life's work come to an end.
小组正在前往目标...
MAN (over radio): The team is on its way to point.
在另一个星球上
On another world.
好的收到
MAN (over radio): All right. Roger that.
送她升空时他们还都很年轻
They were all young when they sent her on her way.
通过她这些人已间接在宇宙旅行了二十多年
These men and women have been traveling vicariously with her for more than two decades.
现在她的任务已经完成所以她必须死去
And now, her work is done, so she must die.
但在她陨落之前
But before she takes the fatal plunge,
他们给了她一个终极挑战
they've given her one final, epic challenge.
宇宙未知世界
引力有许多花招
Gravity has a big bag of tricks,
其中没有比行星环更可爱的了
none lovelier than the ring systems of worlds.
仅我们所在的太阳系就有四颗环状行星
Our own solar system, alone, has four ringed planets.
这颗环状行星有着一个浪漫的名字 J-1407B
This one, with the romantic name J-1407B,
它是我们发现的第一颗绕另一颗恒星旋转的环状行星
is the first we've found circling another sun.
为什么我们没在银河系中找到更多环状行星？
Why haven't we found more ringed planets in our galaxy?
是不是行星环本身就很稀有？
Is it that the rings are so unusual,
还是我们用来寻找系外行星的方法
or are the methods we use to find exoplanets not very
很难看出可能围绕着它们的行星环？
good at seeing the ring systems that may surround them?
J-1407B的行星环非常庞大
J-1407B's ring system is so vast,
甚至会让它的恒星连续几天出现食相
that it eclipsed its star for days.
这些环横跨惊人的一亿一千两百万英里
These rings extend across an astonishing 112 million miles.
比太阳和地球之间的距离还要长
They would more than fill the distance between Earth and the sun.
尽管巨大无比但这些行星环却出奇的薄
But as enormous as they are, they're shockingly thin.
如果J-1407B的环跟餐盘一样大
If the ring system of J-1407B were the size of a dinner plate,
那么它的厚度要比餐盘薄100倍
it would have to be 100 times thinner,
跟人的头发一样细
as thin as a human hair.
行星环的巨大范围和它的薄如蝉翼
This surprising contrast between the immense territory
形成的这种惊人对比
of a ring system, and its thinness,
在我们的太阳系中同样显著
is just as striking in our own solar system.
海王星最外层的星环十分细致
The outermost ring of Neptune is so dainty,
一开始被认为是行星环的碎片
that it was first thought to be the fragments of a ring.
它不是圆环而是弧形的集♥合♥
Not a ring, but a collection of arcs.
直到NASA的旅行者2号♥飞船揭示
That was, until NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft revealed
所谓的弧形是团块
that the so-called arcs were clumps,
是整个薄弱行星环中较厚的一部分
the thicker parts of a fainter, complete ring.
这很有趣太阳系中最奇怪的行星
It's funny that the weirdest planet in the solar system has
吸引的关注反而最少
attracted the least attention.
旅行者2号♥是唯一一艘
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft that has ever been
被送往天王星执行勘测任务的太空船
sent on a reconnaissance mission to Uranus,
天王星是太阳系的两颗冰巨行星之一
one of the two ice giant planets that circle the sun.
在长达二十年的夏季中
During its 20-year-long summers,
天王星从不日落
the sun never sets on Uranus.
冬天同样漫长
The winters are equally as long,
黑夜整整持续二十年
20 years of unbroken night.
与其他气态行星不同天王星拥有冰冷的核心
Unlike its fellow gas planets, Uranus is cold-hearted.
不会产生任何内部热量
It doesn't generate any internal heat.
天王星是一个疯狂的星球
Uranus is one crazy world.
大气层的外缘温度极高
The outer edge of Uranus's atmosphere is so hot,
超过华氏500度（摄氏260度）
it's hotter than 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
但天王星也有太阳系中最冷的云
But Uranus also has the coldest clouds in the solar system,
将近零下400华氏度（零下204摄氏度）
I'm talking nearly 400 degrees below zero.
这是什么样的海洋？
What kind of ocean is this?
是氨组成的？
Is it made of ammonia?
还是水？
Water?
一些科学家认为它可能由液态钻石组成
Some scientists think it may be an ocean of liquid diamonds.
各国太空机构请注意这里也许值得再来一趟
Note to space agencies, might be worth another visit.
还有一件事就是关于它的偏斜
Then there's that thing about it being sideways.
天王星以跟自己的轨道面约呈九十度的角度绕行太阳
Uranus revolves around the sun at a roughly 90 degree angle to its own orbital plane.
天王星上到底发生了什么才使它这么偏斜？
What could have happened to Uranus that it got knocked on its ass?
我们推测最有可能是发生了这样的事
Our best guess is that it went something like this.
天王星遭遇了一场严重的意外
Uranus was in a terrible accident.
在第二次撞击后天王星的自转轴倾斜了98度
After the second blow, the rotational axis of Uranus tipped 98 degrees.
在太阳系中还有另一个星球
There's another world in our solar system that we don't
我们曾经以为它没有行星环
think of as having a ring.
木星的行星环十分黯淡
The rings of Jupiter were so dim
所有的地面望远镜都不曾看见过
that no ground-based telescope ever saw them.
直到在旅行者1号♥飞过时才被发现
They were discovered when Voyager 1 came flying by.
土星拥有太阳系中最可爱最大
Our Saturn is graced by the loveliest, largest,
并且最亮的行星环
and brightest ring system of any around our sun.
它是我们肉眼可见的最远行星
It's the most distant planet that can be seen with the naked eye,
给我们的祖先留下了深刻印象
and it made quite an impression on our ancestors.
当我想到3500年前的巴比伦人
When I think of the Babylonians of 3,500 years ago looking up
抬头仰望行星和恒星
at the planets and stars,
我觉得他们一定无法想象
I wonder how unlikely it would have seemed that one of their
人类会派出使者
species would actually send an emissary to that
前往那些遥远光点
distant point of light.
这里是NASA喷射推进实验室的深空网络室
We are in the Deep Space Network room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
最具雄心的探索都是在这里进行指挥和监控
In this place, the most ambitious voyages of discovery are directed and monitored.
为什么这些人这么难过？
Why are these people so emotional?
他们投入整个职业生涯
They have committed their professional lives to
同这台机器人合作
a collaboration with this robot.
现在这段几十年的合作关系
And now that partnership of decades is about to end
将以一钟最激烈的方式结束
in a most violent way.
曾经我们只能困守地球
The pathway from our Earthbound helplessness to
如今一条通往土星的道路正在铺设
our presence in Saturn's skies is about to unfold.
我们看到的那个发出微光一直颤动的东西是什么？
What is that shimmering, unsteady thing we're looking at?
伽利略·伽利莱在1610年就这么问自己
That's what Galileo Galilei asked himself in 1610 when he
他是第一个不只是将土星视为一个光点的人
became the first human to see Saturn as more than just a point of light.
这是使现代科学革命成为可能的望远镜
So, this is the telescope that made the modern scientific revolution possible.
你真的开启了一个新纪♥元♥
You know, you really started something.
你通过那台望远镜发现了宇宙的存在
You looked through that thing and found the cosmos.
这并不是说你没有犯错误
That's not to say you didn't make your share of mistakes.
你猜错了自己看到的东西
You guessed wrong at what you thought you saw,
你以为在土星两侧
believing that Saturn sported two symmetrical moons
各有一颗对称的卫星
on either side of it.
两年后当你再次观测
Two years later, when you took a second look,
却震惊的发现那些卫星消失了
you were shocked to find that your "moons" had vanished.
这是因为地球和土星都在运动
This was because both worlds, Earth and Saturn,
两个星球跟彼此的相对位置已经改变
were in motion, and the two worlds had changed in position to each other.
你现在看到的是土星环边缘
You were now looking at Saturn's rings, edge-on.
土星环的直径为175000英里
The Saturn ring system is 175,000 miles across,
但平均只有几百英尺厚
but on average only a few hundred feet thick.
薄到你这种早期的望远镜看不见
They were too thin for your fledgling telescope to see.
但两年后你又进行了第三次观测
But two years after that, you took a third look.
这次你认为这个星球有手臂
Now, you thought that the planet had arms.
40年后荷兰天文学家克里斯蒂安·惠更斯
40 years passed, until a Dutch astronomer named
用他自己大幅改进的望远镜
Christiaan Huygens took another look at Saturn with
再次观测土星
his own greatly improved telescope.
惠更斯是第一个知道有些星球被圆环围绕的人
Huygens was the first to know that worlds could
土星就是其中之一
be circled by rings, and Saturn was one of them.
他还发现了土星最大的卫星
He also discovered Saturn's largest moon,
后来被称为泰坦
which would later be known as Titan.
当我们终于能够造访土星的时候
When it finally came time for us to visit that world,
我们用惠更斯的名字来给太空船命名
our spacecraft bore Huygens's name.
在科学界有伽利略牛顿
In science, there are the Galileos, the Newtons,
达尔文爱因斯坦这些大♥师♥
the Darwins, the Einsteins.
还有另一种伟大的科学家
And then there's another kind of great scientist.
不是那种能描绘出全新自然法则的大♥师♥
Not the kind that paints a whole new picture of nature,
而是像克里斯蒂安·惠更斯一样
but, like Christiaan Huygens,
做出很多贡献
someone who has much to contribute,
在科学的巨大画布上填满一两处空白
filling in a blank or two on that vast canvas.
乔凡尼·多梅尼科·卡西尼就是这种科学家
Such a scientist was Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
他出生于17世纪初
He was born early in the 17th century
在现在的意大利的佩里纳尔多镇
in the town of Perinaldo, in what is now Italy.
卡西尼起初并不是科学家
Cassini didn't start out as a scientist.
他以伪科学的身份展开职业生涯：占星师
He began his career as a pseudo-scientist, an astrologer.
占星术是各种观念的集结
Astrology is a collection of ideas based on the notion that
以星球具有特定人格特征为基础