了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

How the Universe Works S05E09

Part 1 April 18, 2021, 7:48 p.m.

25年来
For 25 years,
天文学家一直在夜空中搜寻着一座圣杯
astronomers have been scouring the night sky,
寻找终极的希望
looking for a holy grail,
像我们这样的星球
the ultimate hope ... a planet like our own.
他们已经发现了成千上万个其他的行星
They've found thousands of other worlds,
但大多数都不像我们预期的那样
but most are nothing like we expected...
而且很多都是非常奇异的世界
And many are truly bizarre.
宇宙是一个鲜活的幻想世界
WoThe universe has a vivid imagination.
没有恒星的孤儿行星
Orphan planets without stars,
由钻石构成的星球
worlds made from diamond
甚至还是围绕恒星旋转的
and perhaps even giant eyeballs
巨大眼珠星球
circling their suns.
如果人类能造访这样一个星球
If humans ever get to visit a planet like this,
我们一定会失去理智
we're gonna lose our darn minds.
这些星球中会不会有一个与地球相似的孪生兄弟
Could any of these worlds be an earth-like twin
生活着类似地球的生命呢？
with earth-like life?
还是真的没有比地球更好的地方了吗？
Or is there really no place like home?
奇异的外星世界
captions paid for by discovery communications
奇异的外星世界
400多年前
over 400 years ago,
一位勇敢的哲学家首先提出了这样一个问题
a brave philosopher first posed the question,
如果夜空中的星星和我们的太阳一样
if the stars in the night sky are like our sun,
那么它们也会有行星吗？
could they have planets, too?
上个世纪90年代
The modern hunt for exoplanets ...
人们开始热衷于寻找
alien worlds orbiting distant stars ...
那些绕着遥远的恒星运行的系外行星
began in earnest in the 1990s.
这些天文学家先驱希望能找到
Pioneering astronomers expected to find planetary systems
与我们类似的行星系统
much like our own.
但从一开始
But from the very first,
他们的发现就震惊了科学界
what they found shocked the world of science.
我们会想当然地以为
Of course, we thought,
“如果有其他的太阳系
"well, if there are other solar systems,
它们一定和我们一样，对吧？”
they've gotta be just like us, right?
现在我们却发现，其实
And now we're finding, actually,
宇宙中的行星系统有着非常广泛的多样性
there's a really wide diversity of planetary systems.
他们一点也不像我们
They are nothing like us.
我们发的一些行星
We're finding planets that I would've thought,
如果出现在电影里，我会说，哦，好
if I saw in a movie, I'd go, "oh, yeah.
这个很可爱，是一个美丽的地方
That's ... that's cute. That makes for a pretty scene.
但实际上是不可能的
But come on. That's not really gonna happen."
然后，砰，我们找到他们了
And then, boom, we're finding 'em.
当我们在太阳系外发现第一颗被确认的行星时
The shocks came early.
我们就被震憾到了
The very first confirmed planet
这颗行星并没有像我们的地球那样
found outside our solar system
绕恒星的轨道运行
wasn't orbiting anything like our sun.
它的运行轨道所围绕的物体
It was orbiting one of the most violent
是宇宙中最剧烈、最神秘的物体之一
and mysterious objects in the universe:
脉冲星
A pulsar.
这个很不符合逻辑
It defied logic.
如果你半夜把我叫醒
If you were to wake me up
然后对我说
in the middle of the night and say,
你觉得最最最不可能发现行星的地方
"where's the last place you would ever,
在哪里？
ever, ever find planets?"
我可能会说“在脉冲星的周围”
I probably would've said, "orbiting a pulsar."
脉冲星确实是
A pulsar is honestly one of
宇宙中最引人注目的东西之一
the most dramatic things the universe offers.
一茶匙的脉冲星质量
A teaspoonful of the star
和珠穆朗玛峰的质量差不多
has about as much mass as mount Everest.
它们可以每秒旋转数百次
And they can rotate hundreds of times a second.
你能想象这样的怪物吗
Can you imagine a monster like that?
脉冲星非常紧密
Pulsars are incredibly compact.
大致想象一下，整个太阳的质量
Imagine roughly the entire mass of the sun
被挤压成一个不大于曼哈顿的天体中
(曼哈顿59平方米)
squeezed down to an object no bigger than Manhattan.
当它们旋转时
As they spin, pulsars spit out light
脉冲星发出光和辐射光束
and beams of radiation.
但正是脉冲星的可怕诞生过程
But it's the birth of these violent stars
使它们成为行星最不太可能的家园
that makes them such an unlikely home for planets
因为脉冲星是在超新星爆♥炸♥的
because pulsars are born in the cosmic fires
宇宙烈焰中诞生的
of supernova explosions.
这些爆♥炸♥威力巨大
These explosions are so powerful
如果发生在像地球这样的
that if one occurs near an ordinary planet
普通行星附近
like the earth,
行星就会在爆♥炸♥中蒸发
it would be vaporized in the blast.
在超新星爆♥炸♥后
Finding planets orbiting a pulsar after
发现围绕脉冲星运行的行星
a supernova explosion
就像去了一个毁灭性的地震现场
is like going to the site of a devastating earthquake
然后找到一家瓷器店
and then finding a China shop
里面有所有的盘子和其他所有的东西
with all the plates and everything ...
一切都完好无损，没有一点划痕
everything is perfectly intact, not a scratch on 'em.
这根本说不通
It just doesn't make any sense.
要让一颗行星在超新星爆♥炸♥中幸存下来
For a planet to survive a supernova blast,
它必须由非常坚硬的物质构成
it would have to be made of incredibly tough material.
但，那是什么呢？
But what?
一条线索出现在2011年
A clue came in 2011,
当时天文学家发现了一颗奇怪的行星
when astronomers found a strange planet
它在巨蛇星座中
closely orbiting a rapidly spinning pulsar
一颗快速旋转的脉冲星附近运行
in the serpens constellation.
这颗行星很大
The planet is big,
是它所环绕的脉冲星的3000倍
3,000 times the size of the pulsar it orbits.
但真正令人惊讶的是它的成分
But the real surprise is its composition.
这颗行星似乎富含碳元素
The planet appears to be very rich in carbon
但由于密度太大，它只能以钻石的形式存在
but so dense it could only be in diamond form.
如果你20年前告诉我
If you told me 20 years ago we'd be talking about a ...
一颗巨大的钻石环绕着脉冲星
a giant diamond orbiting pulsar,
我会问“我们喝醉了吗？”
I would ask, uh, "what were we drinking?"
如果人类有机会访问这样的星球
If humans ever get to visit a planet like this,
我们一会失去理智
we're gonna lose our darn minds.
人们喜欢钻石
People love diamonds.
他们为此付出了巨额的金钱
They pay huge amounts of money for it.
现在，我们发现
And now, we're finding that there
整个星球都是钻石
is an entire planet that's a diamond.
钻石行星
The diamond planet
可能是宇宙中
could be one of the most spectacular places
最壮观的地方之一
in the universe,
像一个37000英里宽的脏迪斯科球一样闪闪发光
shining like a 37,000-mile-wide dirty disco ball.
对于行星地质学家贾尼·拉迪博来说
For planetary geologist jani radebaugh,
地球上最接近这颗钻石行星表面的地方
the closest thing we have to the surface
是在冰岛这个
of the diamond planet here on earth
闪闪发光的黑色火山平原
is the shimmering black volcanic flood plain in Iceland.
想象一下，我们正站在一个钻石星球的表面
WoImagine we're standing on the surface of a diamond planet.
你可以看到它非常平坦，非常均匀
You can see that it's really flat, really uniform.
并且有一点闪亮
And yet it's a little bit shiny.
我想那一定很美
I think it would be really beautiful.
无论多么美丽
However beautiful, a diamond planet
钻石星球都不是你想去的地方
is not a place you want to visit.
因为这颗行星巨大的密度产生的引力
The planet's immense density exerts a gravitational
比地球上的引力强15倍以上
pull over 15 times stronger
游客想在这个星球生活
than that on the earth,
都是极为不舒适的
making life extremely uncomfortable for any visitors.
所以我们站在一个质量非常大的物体上
So we're standing on a very high-mass body.
就意味着引力非常大
This means that the gravity is extremely large.
对于人体来说，它太大了
It's so big that we'd probably
甚至我们会被压扁成一摊肉泥
just be squished flat to a paste.
那么钻石行星是如何形成的呢？
So how did the diamond planet form?
科学家认为只有一种解释
Scientists believe there can only be one explanation.
它一开始肯定是一颗恒星
It must've started life as a star
并且是与一个大得多的伴星
but one in a binary partnership
形成双星关系
with a much larger companion.
实际上我们的情况很少见
We're actually sort of rare.
我们的太阳系只有一颗恒星