了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

And that's why i believe
我们应该至少生活在两个星球上
We should be at least a two-planet species.
第一个目标是迄今为止最容易的
The first target was by far the easiest.
我们的太空方舟使用核聚变发动机
It took 42 years for our space ark to reach proxima centauri
花了42年到达比邻星
Using fusion-powered engines.
但现在方舟必须继续前进寻找更遥远的世界
But now the ark must move on to find even more distant worlds.
航♥天♥员可以保持在休眠状态
The crew can be held in suspended animation,
但随着时间的流逝 他们终会衰老
But they'll still deteriorate with each passing year.
我们的速度必须更快 更接近光速
We need to go faster, closer to the speed of light.
但是有个小问题 就是物理定律
But there's a small problem ... The laws of physics.
爱因斯坦发现
What albert einstein figured out
如果你的速度接近光速
Is that if you start traveling near the speed of light,
情况就会变得有点诡异
Things get a little bizarre.
你接近光速时 质量会增加
As you get near the speed of light, your mass increases,
也就是需要更多能量才能继续前进
Meaning that you have to have more energy to keep you going.
等到你接近光速时
By the time you get to near the speed of light,
燃料全都会转为增加质量
All the fuel turns into increasing the mass.
因此原本用来
So all the fuel
增加速度的原料
That, before, would've increased the speed a lot,
不会增加速度
Doesn't increase the speed at all.
只会增加质量
It just increases the mass.
最后 你完全无法加速
Eventually, you don't speed up at all.
在你不断喷出推进剂时 只会变得更重
You just get heavier and heavier as you shoot out propellant.
物理学不准我们
Physics won't allow us
用理想的速度穿越太空
To travel through space at the kind of speeds we need.
但是或许有个漏洞
But there's a loophole
能让我们穿越空间
That may allow us to cut through hyperspace
以更快的速度抵达遥远的星球
And reach distant planets a whole lot faster.
爱因斯坦告诉我们
Einstein showed us that space itself
空间扩展的速度可以超过光速
Can expand faster than the speed of light.
空间和时间并不是虚无的
Space and time is not nothing.
它是有实体的 是一种丝状结构
There's a substance to it ... A fabric, if you will.
而且你可以拉伸它 还可以扭曲它
And you can stretch it, and you can bend it.
在科幻小说中
In science fiction, galactic travelers
星际旅行者会用曲速引擎扭曲时空的丝状结构
Manipulate the fabric of space-time using warp drives,
在几分钟内跨越千年的宇宙旅程
Crossing the cosmos in minutes, not millennia.
想象你在一个由地毯的房♥间里
Imagine you're in a room, and there's a carpet.
你需要到房♥间的另一端
And you need to get to the other side of the room.
你可以把前面的地毯折叠起来
One thing you can do is you can take the carpet and fold it up
让整张地毯更靠近你
And bring all of it close to you,
然后跨过折叠的部分
Then step over the folded carpet
让后面的地毯拉平
And then let it unfold behind you.
这样就能很快移♥动♥到房♥间的另一端
And now you've moved across the room really quickly.
这需要极为庞大的能量
It would take a colossal amount of energy
才能扭曲你和你的目的地之间的所有空间
To warp all the space between you and your destination,
远远超出人类所能制♥造♥的能量
Far more than we could ever hope to generate.
但是现代物理学曲速引擎可能成真的
But modern physics says the warp drive is possible,
只需扭曲宇宙飞船周围的空间即可
If you only warp the space surrounding the ship.
我们知道空间可以延伸 还可以收缩
So, we know that space expands, and space can also contract.
如果你有一艘宇宙飞船
So, if you have a ship,
只要收缩前面的空间
And you contract space in front of you
并且延伸后面的空间 就可以制♥造♥出曲速泡
And expand space behind you, you could create a warp bubble.
而且理论显示
And it's been theoretically shown
你可以以光速的十倍前进
That you could move to up to 10 times the speed of light.
这种新一代的曲速引擎 会创造时空波
This new-generation warp drive creates a wave in space-time
这种波比光速更快
That travels faster than the speed of light,
它可以像冲浪一样带着宇宙飞船前进
Carrying the ship along with it like a surfer riding a wave.
数学家们计算过相关数字
Mathematicians have looked at the numbers,
理论上来说 新一代的曲速引擎行得通
And a new-generation warp drive would work on paper.
现在NASA希望在实验室进行测试
Now nasa wants to get it to work in the lab.
这种技术能不能成真
Is it impossible, or is it plausible?
就目前来说 曲速引擎
I think we're in that category of starting to think about,
的确有点科学上的道理
"We've got some plausibilities here.
所以我们想用实验试试看
"Let's go see if we can't do some scientific efforts
验证数学和物理的假设
And see validation of the math and physics."
哈罗德·怀特正在筹备未来的实验
Harold white is planning a future experiment
他想尝试以微小的规模扭曲空间
To see if he can warp space on a microscopic scale.
他会把能量集中在空间中的一个点
He hopes to concentrate energy into a single point in space
然后测量激光通过这个点的速度
And then measure the progress of laser light crossing it.
如果光通过的速度高于正常值
If the light completes the journey faster than normal,
那么他就成功地扭曲了时空
He'll have succeeded in warping space-time.
大家一直在问我
Everybody always asks me about,
宇宙飞船何时能用曲速引擎
"When's this gonna be ready to bolt onto a spacecraft?"
我们得先做很多科学实验
And there's a lot of science we need to do first.
目前我们才刚开始起步
We're only just now starting to look into this.
我们甚至不知道行不行得通
We don't know if it's gonna work or not.
不如就把答案找出来
We might as well figure it out. If it does ... Boom.
如果行得通 那真的非常棒
And if it doesn't ... Well, we've learned something interesting
我们还能学到数学和宇宙的有趣知识
About math and science and the way the universe works.
用曲速引擎
A warp-drive would fire us
只要五个月就能到达比邻星
To proxima centauri in just five months...
只要几年就能到达比邻星外的50个恒星
And to the 50 stars beyond in just a few years.
但这只是我们银河系的一小块
But that's still just our galactic backyard.
用曲速引擎飞到银河系的远处
A warp trip to the far side of the milky way
需要一万年
Would take 10,000 years,
如果要到距离我们最近的星系
And a trip beyond it to the closest galaxies,
则需要数十万年
Hundreds of thousands of years.
在宇宙的尺度下
On the scale of the universe,
即使曲速引擎也是慢得可怜
Even a warp-drive seems pathetically slow.
但还有一个最后的希望
But there is one last hope.
另一种超越光速的方法
Another way to go faster than the speed of light
就是在时空的丝状结构钻洞
Is to drill a hole in the fabric of space and time.
这就是所谓的虫洞
This is called a wormhole.
虫洞是理论上的通道
A wormhole is a theoretical tunnel,
它可以穿透时空
A rip through the fabric of space-time,
连接遥远的两地
Connecting two distant points.
这是用
It's created
庞大而集中的质量扭曲时空造成的
By huge concentrations of mass warping space-time.
想想爱丽丝镜中奇遇
Think of alice's looking glass.
你把手伸进镜子
You put your hand through the looking glass,
它会出现在星系的另一端
And your hand winds up on the other side of the galaxy.
如果我们的宇宙飞船能够进入这个宇宙的快捷通道
If our spacecraft could enter this cosmic shortcut,
我们就能在瞬间穿越几千光年的距离
We could jump thousands of years in an instant.
唯一的麻烦是天文学家从未发现过虫洞
The only trouble is astronomers have never seen one,
而试图制♥造♥虫洞会有致命的后果
And attempting to create one would be fatal.
在虫洞两端扭曲空间 制♥造♥通道
To bend space at either mouth of the wormhole to make a tunnel,
必须制♥造♥极大的质量
You have to produce huge amounts of mass.
但是质量是有引力
But mass is attractive.
我们可以证明如果你用正常质量的话
And we can prove that if normal mass is all you have,
那么虫洞的两端
That either end of the wormhole
都会极短的时间内 坍缩形成黑洞
Will collapse to form a black hole in a time-scale
你根本来不及穿越虫洞
Shorter than it would take you to go through the wormhole.
我不认为虫洞是可行的
I don't think wormholes are ever gonna work
交通方式
As a way of transportation.
但是你知道吗 通常情况下
But you know what? Typically, those people who said
说某件事在科学上行不通的人
That something couldn't happen in science
到最后都是错的 所以我收回那句话
Turned out to be wrong. So i take that back.
虫洞不太可能发生 但还有可能的
I think it's unlikely, but it may happen.
曲速引擎和虫洞任是遥远的梦想
Warp drives and wormholes are distant dreams.
现在核聚变引擎比较有可能带我们去其他星球
For now, fusion is the likely fuel to take us to the stars.
但是巨大的空间方舟得花几百万年
But it may take millions of years for a giant space ark
才能到足够多的行星进行殖民
To colonize enough planets to guarantee our survival.
若要用核聚变引擎飞得更快
The only way to go faster with fusion
就只能把太空方舟做得更小
Is to make our space ark much smaller ...
小到没有人类生存的空间
So small, in fact, there'd be no room for people inside.
所以人类玩完了
So is this really game over,
或者我们不用人也能保住人类命脉？
Or could we save humanity without humans?
不久前 天文学家还不确定
Not so long ago, astronomers weren't sure
夜空中的恒星周围
If the stars they saw in the night sky
有行星环绕它们。
Had planets orbiting them.
或许在银河系里