了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

How the Universe Works S01E01

Part 3 April 18, 2021, 7:55 p.m.

understanding the early universe.
科学家相信, 在百万分之一秒的…
Scientists think it took less
than a millionth of a millionth
百万分之一又百万分之一
of a millionth of a
millionth of a second
又百万分之一之内
for the universe to expand from the size
宇宙由原子大小膨胀成棒球般
of an atom to a baseball.
乍听这变化似乎微不足道
That may not sound like much,
但高球般大的宇宙亦以相同时间
but it's like a golf ball
expanding to the size of the earth
膨胀成地球这么大
in the same amount of time.
换言之, 它以超出光的速度膨胀
That means it was expanding
faster than the speed of light.
无比的快
That's fast.
太初宇宙的变化发生在转瞬之间
So many things were happening
so fast in the early universe
皆因万物都紧挤在一起
because everything was so close together
需要用新的时间单位来描述
that we need a, a new unit
of time to describe things.
它称为普朗克时间
It's called Planck time.
要理解普朗克时间有多短
To understand just how
short a Planck time is.
不妨这样想
consider this.
一秒包含的普朗克时间
There are more units of
Planck time in one second
远远超出大爆♥炸♥以来秒数的总和
than all the seconds since the big bang.
数字非常惊人
The math is mind-blowing.
一年有超过3100万秒
There are more than 31
million seconds in a year,
大爆♥炸♥发生距今已140亿年
and it's been 14 billion
years since the big bang.
将31,556,926乘以140亿
So multiply 31,556,926 by 14 billion
得出的是天文数字
and what you get is a really big number.
这个时间标准小得人类难以想象
It's a timescale that's so small that
all human intuition goes out the window.
如果用腕表计算一秒, 我们可以问
If we look at our watches
and measure one second.
它相等于多少个普朗克时间
we can ask, how many
Planck times is that?
是10亿乘10亿, 再乘10亿…
Well, it is a billion, billion, billion,
再乘10亿, 再乘10亿个普朗克时间
billion, billion Planck times.
大爆♥炸♥只持续了几个普朗克时间
So now the big bang is
only a few Planck times old,
这次纯能量爆♥炸♥比光速还要快
an exploding mass of pure energy
expanding faster than the speed of light.
在往下几个普朗克时间中
In the next few Planck times,
我们熟悉的宇宙将会诞生
the universe as we know it will be born
大爆♥炸♥发生不足一秒内
A fraction of a second
after the big bang,
宇宙小得可以放在你的掌中
the universe is so small, it
can fit in the palm of your hand.
但它不足一秒就膨胀成地球这么大
But in another tiny fraction of a second,
it expands to the size of the Earth.
然后以超越光的速度膨胀
Then, moving faster
than the speed of light,
成为比我们的太阳系还要大
it grows larger than our solar system.
此时宇宙仍是一团狂暴的超热能量
And it's still just a raging
storm of superheated energy.
它愈来愈灼热, 愈来愈密
It would be hotter and denser...
比我们在现今宇宙中…
and more violent than anything
所体会过的一切
that we can experience
更为狂暴
in the universe today.
与大爆♥炸♥初期的狂暴状态相比
Even the interior of a star is
calm and serene by comparison
星球内部可以说是波平如镜
to the violence of the earliest
moments of the big bang.
温度极高
Temperatures were so hot
即使是人体里的原子
that even the atoms of your body
亦会分解
would disintegrate.
事实上, 灼热到一个地步
So hot, in fact,
连原子本身亦会裂开
that the atoms would be ripped apart.
究竟有多灼热? 有几万亿度
How hot? Trillions of degrees hot.
宇宙不断膨胀期间, 亦逐渐冷却
But as the universe continues to
expand, it also begins to cool.
温度下降, 触发起宇宙下一轮进化
Dropping temperatures trigger the
next stage in the universe's evolution.
爆♥炸♥能量转化成细小的亚原子粒子
The raw energy of the explosion
transforms into tiny, subatomic particles.
它们是宇宙中的第一批物质
It's the first matter in the universe.
早在人们未开始谈论大爆♥炸♥以前
This conversion of energy into matter
was predicted by Albert Einstein
爱因斯坦已预测能量会转化成物质
years before anyone started
talking about the big bang.
他那条科学程序, 连小孩也懂
It's the one scientific
equation every school kid knows.
一条无人不知的程序
There is one very familiar formula,
就是E=mc2
and that is E=mc2.
它指出宇宙诞生的过程
It says something about the
creation of the universe.
它指出, 即使宇宙是由…
It says even if the universe is created
纯能量所形成
just out of pure energy that...
由于能量可以转变成物质
because energy can
be converted to matter
物质能够产生能量
and matter to energy,
因此, 我们所见的宇宙万物
that you can get all of the
stuff that we see in the universe
都可以从这椿能量事件中产生出来
from this pure energetic event.
爱因斯坦的小程序带来了巨大影响
Einstein's little
equation had a big impact
第一枚核弹因而诞生
It led to the first nuclear bombs.
核爆中
In a nuclear explosion,
微量物质转化成巨大能量
a small amount of matter is converted
into an enormous amount of energy.
宇宙形成之时, 情况则怡好相反
As the universe was forming,
the exact opposite happened.
纯能量转化为物质粒子
Pure energy transformed
into particles of matter.
起初无需创造物质
You don't need to create
matter in the beginning.
只需要有能量
You just need energy.
单靠能量便能造出整个宇宙
And energy alone can lead to the
creation of an entire universe.
大爆♥炸♥后的一瞬间
In just a fraction of a
second after the big bang,
宇宙的基本结构开始成形
the building blocks of our
universe begin to take shape.
但最初的物质有别于今天的物质
But this first matter is
like nothing we see today.
物质在宇宙的进化中不断改变
The stuff of matter has been very
different over the age of the universe.
现在看为正常的物质
What we now think is normal matter
在大爆♥炸♥初期并不正常
was not at all normal in the
earliest moments of the big bang.
因为当时情况恶劣, 未产生原子
That's because conditions were so
extreme. There were no atoms yet.
但当时有细小的亚原子粒子
But there were tiny subatomic particles.
大爆♥炸♥后不久
In the earliest moments of the big bang,
宇宙温度密度都极高, 含极多能量
the universe was so hot and dense,
there were great amounts of energy.
常常有粒子制♥造♥出来
And so particles were
being created all the time.
能量与物质经常互相转变
And energy and matter were transferring
back and forth in this hot, dense soup.
最早期的物质非常不稳定
That earliest matter was too unstable
因此未能形成今天的宇宙
to start forming the
universe as we know it.
打个比方
Think of it like this.
纽约市繁忙时段的中♥央♥车站
Imagine rush hour at Grand
Central in New York City
像温度极高的太初宇宙
as that super-heated early universe.
匆匆走过大堂的人
The commuters racing
through the main concourse
则是亚原子粒子
are subatomic particles.
你不妨去观察一群人
If you look at a crowd of
people, a large crowd of people,
他们的活动可能缺乏规律
they may appear random.
而那些毫无规律的活动
That random, quirky
motion is very similar
与大爆♥炸♥最太初宇宙中的粒子
in what was happening to
the particles in the universe
非常相似
in the earliest moments of the big bang.
太初宇宙温度极高
The extreme temperature
of the early universe
为亚原子粒子提供能量
energises the subatomic particles.
它们时而出现, 时而消失
They appear. They disappear.
它们以极速飞来飞去, 乱作一团
They race around at incredible
speeds. It's pure chaos.
就像人一样