了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

On July 2, 1967,
卫星侦测到伽玛射线爆
The Satellites Detect A Burst Of Gamma Rays,
伽玛射线是能量最强
The Most Energetic And Destructive Form
破坏力最大的电磁波
Of Electromagnetic Radiation.
美国国防部当场就慌了
Immediately There Was Panic In The Pentagon.
也许这意味着
Perhaps The Russians Are Testing
苏联已经抢先他们一步
Super-gigantic Hydrogen Bombs In Outer Space.
在太空测试超大型氢弹
And We're Just Caught Flat-footed.
然而那不是氢弹
But It's Not Bombs.
而是更致命的东西
It's Something Far Deadlier.
后来他们才发现
And Then The Realization Sunk In.
天啊
"oh, My God.
这些闪光来自银河系之外
"these Flashes Are Coming From Outside The Milky Way Galaxy.
距离我们绝对有几十亿光年的地方
They Must Be Billions Of Light-years Away."
他们发现了
A New Source Of Energy,
威力仅次于大爆♥炸♥的新能量来源
Second Only To The Big Bang Itself Had Been Discovered.
大家发现伽玛射线暴时
When Gamma Ray At First Were First Discovered,
都以为它一定离地球很近
People Assumed That They Must Be Fairly Close By.
常规来说当然是在附近
"of Course They Have To Be Close By.
因为这是我们在天上看到过最亮的景象
They're The Brightest Thing That We See In The Sky."
现在我们知道 伽玛射线暴
And Now We Know That Gamma Ray Burst,
并不在附近
Not Only Are They Not Nearby,
它不在我们的星系 也不在附近的星系
They're Not In Our Galaxy, They're Not In Nearby Galaxies,
而是在宇宙边缘的附近
But They're Close To The Edge Of The Universe.
这是我们能观察到最远的景象
They're As Far Away As Anything Else That We Observe,
这听起来很荒谬
And That's Completely Ridiculous.
这么远的距离 光就会变得昏暗
Over Distance, Light Gets Dimmer.
普通的光经过长距离的旅行都会变得暗淡
The Further Light Has To Travel, The Dimmer The Light Should Be.
如果光从遥远的银河来到地球
If Light From A Distant Galaxy Comes To Earth
并且它带有伽玛射线能量
And It Has Gamma-ray Energies,
那么产生它的爆♥炸♥能量必须非常强大
Then That Explosion Must've Been Incredibly Powerful,
因为它在太空旅行时会变成光
Because It Turns Out That As Light Travels Through Space,
它的波长会变长
The Wave Length Of The Light Gets Stretched Out.
这种波长伸展导致光失去能量
And This Stretching Caused The Light To Lose Energy.
并且由于通过宇宙达到我们
And Since The Light Rays Have Traveled A Very Great Distance
运行的距离非常长
Through The Cosmos To Reach Us,
尽管如此 它仍然是伽玛射线
And They're Still Gamma Rays,
他们一开始就必须具有强大的
They Must've Started Out With A Great Deal Of Energy.
不可思议的能量
And The Amount Of Energies Are Unbelievable.
就拿我们熟悉的太阳来说
You're Talking About The Entire Energy Budget Of The Sun
让它整个一生的全部能量
Over Its Whole Lifetime
在短短几秒爆发出来
Emitted Over The Course Of Just A Few Seconds.
这些能量强大到不可想象的
These Are Amazingly Violent, Amazingly Powerful Events.
在2008年7月
In June 2008.
美国太空总署发射费米太空望远镜
Nasa Launches The Fermi Space Telescope.
它的任务是
Its Mission --
探索这种强大爆发的源头
Discover The Source Of These Huge Blasts.
费米望远镜
What Fermi Does
让我们大开眼界
Is Open Our Eyes To The Universe That's There
也让我们以不同的角度
But Gives Us Such A Different View
更深入的了解宇宙的情况
That We Really Get A Deeper And Greater Understanding of What's Going On.
如果你能看到伽玛射线
If You Had Gamma-ray Eyes,
夜空的中♥央♥会出现
The Milky Way Would Be Blazingly Bright
一道光芒万丈的银河
Across The Center Of The Sky.
你只会看到密集
Your Vision Would Be Dominated
和闪亮的恒星
By These Very Dense, Pulsing Stars
还有超大质量黑洞
And Super-massive Black Holes.
而黑洞
And It's Black Holes
有可能解开伽玛射线暴之谜
That May Solve The Mystery Of Gamma-ray Bursts.
真正巨大的恒星死亡时
When A Truly Gigantic Star Dies,
也就是体积比太阳大25倍的恒星
One At Least 25 Times More Massive Than Our Own Sun,
死亡时会坍缩形成黑洞
It Collapses To Form A Black Hole.
科学家认为黑洞
Scientists Believe Black Holes
是宇宙间少数几个体积和能量都大到
Are One Of The Few Things In The Universe
足以产生伽玛射线暴的天体
Large Enough And Powerful Enough To Generate Gamma-ray Bursts.
伽玛射线暴是黑洞诞生时的啼哭
Gamma-ray Bursts Are The Birth Cries Of Black Holes.
巨大恒星爆♥炸♥形成超新星时
When A Massive Star Explodes And Becomes A Supernova,
它的核心会坍缩成黑洞
The Core Collapses And Forms A Black Hole.
物质会落到它的周围 旋转形成巨大圆盘
Material Falls Around It, Swirls Into A Huge Disk,
并变得炽热无比
It Gets Incredibly Hot.
物质掉进黑洞时
As It's Falling Into The Black Hole
还会形成极大的磁场
It Forms A Tremendous Magnetic Field, As Well.
恒星的剩余物质
The Remains Of The Star
会盘旋冲进黑洞
Spiral Towards The Black Hole.
巨大的电磁力
Enormous Electromagnetic Forces
将剩余物质往外抛
Fling Some Of This Matter Outwards.
这些物质沿黑洞的巨大磁场上下飞驰
Hurtling Up And Down the Black Hole's Huge Magnetic Fields,
并撞上最初爆♥炸♥产生的碎屑
The Matter Collides With Debris From The Initial Explosion,
速度越来越快 直逼光速
Accelerating To Close To The Speed Of Light,
温度飙到几百万度
Heating To Millions Of Degrees.
高速碰撞
These High-speed Collisions
释放出难以想象的浩大能量
Unleash Unimaginable Amounts Of Energy.
这就是伽玛射线暴
This Is The Gamma-ray Burst.
伽玛射线暴非常迷人
Gamma-ray Bursts Are Fascinating.
在宇宙各处都能看到
You Can Study Them Throughout The Universe
因为它太亮了
Because They're So Bright.
但是如果你把它移到地球附近
But If You Move Them In Really Close To The Earth,
例如地球六千光年以外的地方
Let's Say Within 6,000 Light-years Of The Earth,
它会造成极大的破坏
They Become Extremely Destructive.
这种能量如此强大以至于伽玛射线暴
The Beams Are So Huge That If A Gamma-ray Burst
要是离我们100光年远
Occurs, Say, 100 Light-years From Us,
它射到地球的时候 会将
By The Time It Reaches The Earth, The Beam Will Be
整个太阳系全部吞没
Wide Enough To Engulf Our Entire Solar System.
基本上 要是你在地球往上看
Basically, If You Were Standing On The Earth And You Looked Up,
你会看到一道闪光
You Would See A Flash Of Light,
你还来不及说那是什么
And Before You Could Even Say, "what's That?"
你就消失了
You'd Be Gone.
这种穿越太空的光线能量太强
The Amount Of Energy In The Beam That Travels Across Space
以至于从那种距离都可以可以让
Is So Intense It Would Basically Light The Earth On Fire
地球起火
From That Distance.
它会破坏地球的大气层
It Would Strip Off The Earth's Atmosphere,
让海洋沸腾 岩石熔化
It Would Boil The Oceans, It Would Melt The Rock.
那时会是终极世界末日
It Would Be Apocalyptic Beyond Apocalyptic.
这是最糟的情况
This Is The Worst-case Scenario.
但如果伽玛射线暴从更远的地方射到地球呢
But What If A Gamma-ray Burst Hit The Earth From Further Out?
我们能逃过一劫吗
Would We Survive?
有人问要是伽玛射线暴出现在
People Ask What Would Happen If There Was A Gamma-ray Burst
地球六千光年的范围内会怎么样
Within 6,000 Light-years Of The Earth.
其实这样问不对
It's Actually Not The Right Question.
这个范围早就出现过伽玛射线暴了
There Have Been Gamma-ray Bursts That Close To The Earth,
或许因为伽玛射线暴还造成了
And There Probably Have Been Extinctions Of Life On Earth
地球生物的大灭绝
Due To Gamma-ray Bursts.
雪球地球时期结束两亿年后
200 Million Years After Snowball Earth,
海洋充满了复杂的生物
The Oceans Are Teeming With Complex Life.
但是在四亿五千万年前
But 440 Million Years Ago,
这些生物有85%都灭亡了
85% Of All Those Creatures Died.
凶手可能就是毁灭性超强的
And The Killer May Have Been
伽玛射线暴
A Single Devastating Gamma-ray Burst.
伽玛射线暴穿透海洋的上层
The Blast Penetrates The Oceans' Upper Layers,
杀死了活在海面附近的生物
Killing The Creatures That Live Near The Surface.
活在底层的生物逃过了这场血腥屠♥杀♥
Creatures Living Further Down Survive The Initial Onslaught,
但他们撑不了太久
But Not For Long...
因为这场爆发损坏了地球的臭氧层
Because The Blast Also Damages The Earth's Ozone Layer,
地球因而暴露在太阳致命的紫外线之下
Exposing The Planet To The Sun's Deadly Uv Radiation,
造成酸雨和全球气温下降
Triggering Acid Rain and Lowering Global Temperatures.
之后的50万年
Over Half A Million Years,
逃过伽玛射线暴的生物
The Creatures That Survived The Gamma-ray Burst
纷纷死于它的后续效应
Get Taken Out By Its After s.
如果伽玛射线暴曾经造成大灭绝
If A Gamma-ray Burst Has Wiped Out Life In The Past,
它就有可能在未来发生
It Could Happen In The Future.
天文学家认为下一次的爆发