了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

How the Universe Works S06E01

Part 4 Dec. 22, 2021, 7:22 p.m.

They're deadly rays from space.
它们听起来几乎像科幻小说里的东西
They almost sound like
science-fiction objects.
为了产生那么多能量
In order to generate
that much energy,
你需要什么样的物理过程呢？
what kind of physical
process do you need?
几乎我们唯一的答案就是一个巨大的黑洞
And pretty much the only answer
we have is a giant black hole.
喷流绝对是
Jets are absolutely
黑洞存在的
really, really convincing
smoking-gun evidence
确凿证据
for the existence
of black holes.
黑洞的惊人力量
The awesome power
of a black hole
可以解释九头蛇星系团中
can explain the vast
mysterious cavities
巨大而神秘的空洞
in the galaxy cluster hydra "a."
那么，案子算了结了吗？
So, is the case closed?
我们能确定地说黑洞是存在的吗？
Can we say conclusively
that black holes are real?
尽管有大量证据证明黑洞存在
Although there's great
evidence for black holes,
但我们必须不断质疑它们是否存在
we have to keep questioning
whether they are real.
作为一名科学家，我宁愿有我不能回答的问题
As a scientist, I'd much rather
have questions I can't answer
也不愿有我不能质疑的答案
than answers I can't question.
科学家们正在努力回答的一个问题是
One question scientists
are struggling to answer
黑洞是如何工作的
is how black holes work.
宇宙学上最伟大的智慧有被淘汰的危险吗？
Are cosmology's greatest minds
in danger of flunking out?
总有一些细节
There's always going
to be details
我们还没弄清楚
that we still have
yet to figure out.
现在的黑洞确实是这样
That's true for black holes
right now
有很多问题，且都是大问题
and a lot of the problems
are big ones,
比如它们是如何存在的，它们是如何运动的？
like how do they even exist,
how do they behave?
我的意思是，我们发现数学计算似乎行不通
I mean, we're seeing that the
math doesn't seem to work out,
所以这里有个问题
so there is an issue here.
为了证明黑洞的存在
To show that black holes exist,
科学家们需要解决数学问题
scientists need
to solve the math.
如果不能
If they can't,
他们可能根本无法证明黑洞的存在
they might fail to prove
that black holes exist at all.
宇宙学家说宇宙中充满了黑洞
Cosmologists say the universe
is filled with black holes...
大的和小的
Big and small.
但证据并不确凿
But the evidence for them
is not conclusive.
即使有 9/10 的证据
Even if there's 9 out of 10
pieces of evidence
证明黑洞存在，但仍然有一个证据不足
for black holes, there's still
one piece of evidence left.
这让我们有可能认为
That can open it up
to the possibility
黑洞并不存在
that maybe
black holes don't exist.
于是专家们开始转而关注
Experts instead look to
the theoretical science
黑洞如何工作的理论科学
of how black holes work.
黑洞的中心被认为是一颗恒星的
They're thought to have
the superdense collapsed core
超密度崩塌核
of a star at their center.
围绕着它的是一个被称为视界的球体
Around this is a sphere
known as the event horizon,
在这里，物理规则不再适用
a place where the rules
of physics go out the window.
事件视界，在很多方面
The event horizon, in many ways,
切断了黑洞与宇宙的其他部分
cuts a black hole off
from the rest of the universe.
进来的永远不能出来
Whatever comes in
can never come back out.
它就像太空中一条看不见的线
It's almost like
an invisible line in space.
直到你想转身离开
It's not until you try
to turn around and leave
你才意识到你永远无法逃脱
that you realize
you're never going to escape.
爱因斯坦的广义相对论告诉我们
It's Einstein's theory
of general relativity
任何东西都不能离开黑洞
that tells us
nothing can leave a black hole.
这套规则
This set of rules
支配着宇宙的巨大结构……
governs the giant structures
of the universe...
星系、恒星系统和行星
Galaxies, star systems,
and planets.
广义相对论是爱因斯坦的引力理论
General relativity is
Einstein's theory of gravity.
它是一个包罗万象的理论
It is the
all-encompassing theory
描述了我们所知道的关于引力的一切
that describes everything
we know about gravity
以及宇宙在大尺度上是如何运作的
and how the universe
on large scales functions.
但是宇宙也在小尺度上运行
But the universe functions
on small scales, too.
宇宙中的一切……包括我们……
Everything in the universe...
Including us...
是由微小的物质组成的
Is made up of
tiny bits of matter.
这些是由另一套规则支配的
These are governed
by another set of rules,
被称为量子力学
known as quantum mechanics.
量子力学可以让你
Quantum mechanics
allows you to understand
在最小的层次上
at the smallest levels
理解构成我们宇宙的最小尺度
the smallest scales
of what builds our universe.
量子世界里会发生奇怪的事情
Weird stuff happens
in the quantum world.
它违背了所有的直觉
It defies all intuition,
而且可能发生的一件奇怪的事情
and one of the weird things
that can happen is you can have
你可以在一个真空的空间中产生粒子
the empty space of a vacuum
creating particles.
在量子世界里
In the quantum world,
微小的粒子可以自发地突然出现
tiny particles can pop
spontaneously into existence.
它们像磁铁一样相互吸引
They're drawn to each other
like magnets.
但当它们碰撞时，它们会相互湮灭
But when they collide,
they annihilate each other.
所以，如果有两个粒子……它们可以从真空中跳出来
So, you've got two particles...
They can pop out of the vacuum,
然后又会很快地消失
and they annihilate
very quickly.
这并没有违反任何定律
That doesn't break any laws.
但在黑洞附近
Now in the vicinity
of a black hole, though,
情况就复杂了
things get kind of complicated.
引力通常太弱
Gravity is usually too weak
无法影响量子世界中的粒子
to affect the particles
in the quantum world.
但英国物理学家史蒂芬·霍金提出一个理论
But British physicist
Stephen Hawking theorized
在黑洞的视界
that at the event horizon
of a black hole,
正常的规则并不适用
the normal rules don't apply.
斯蒂芬·霍金意识到
What Stephen Hawking
realized is that
如果有一对粒子
if you have a pair of particles
在黑洞边缘突然出现
that pop up at the edge
of a black hole
其中一个被吸进了黑洞
and one gets sucked
into the black hole,
那么另一个就被迫成为
then the other is forced
to become
我们宇宙中的一个真实粒子
a real particle in our universe.
为了做到这一点，它必须从黑洞中吸收能量
In order to do so, it takes
energy from the black hole,
在这种机制下
and in that mechanism,
黑洞会随着时间慢慢失去质量
black holes very slowly
over time lose mass.
在霍金的研究中
With Hawking's work, we see
我们看到黑洞最终会蒸发
that the black hole