了解宇宙是如何运行的（2010）

How the Universe Works S01E03

Part 4 April 18, 2021, 7:56 p.m.

held the galaxy together.
暗物质作为星系的保护骨架
Dark matter acts as a sort of
protective scaffolding for galaxies
令牠们维持稳定的结构
that really holds them
up and holds them in place
不会散开
and prevents them from falling apart.
科学家如今发现了暗物质…
Now scientists are discovering that
不只是把星系拉在一起
dark matter doesn't just
hold galaxies together,
还可能为星系带来生命
it might have sparked them into life.
我们相信暗物质在大爆♥炸♥下形成
We think that dark matter was
created out of the big bang.
暗物质开始凝集成团
And dark matter began to clump.
这团暗物质最后变成核心
And these dumpings of dark matter
eventually became the nuclei,
那是我们银河系的种子
the seeds for our galaxy.
不过科学家仍不知道暗物质是甚么
But scientists still have no
idea what dark matter actually is.
暗物质很古怪, 我们对它毫无认识
Dark matter is weird because
we don't understand it at all.
那显然不是构成我或你的物质
It's clearly not made of the same
stuff that you or I are made of.
你不能推它, 不能感觉到它
You can't push against
it. You can't feel it.
可是它却在我们的周围
Yet, it's probably all around us.
这像鬼魅般的物质能穿过你
It's a ghost-like material
that will pass right through you
就像你不存在那样
as if you didn't exist at all.
我们对暗物质一无所知
We might not know
much about dark matter,
暗物质却充斥宇宙
but the universe is full of it.
以重量的比例计算
So the dark matter, weight for weight,
跟构成我们的普通物质相比
makes up at least six times
as much of the universe
暗物质占宇宙成分至少多六倍
as does normal matter, the
stuff that we're all made from.
若没有它
And without it,
宇宙根本不能运作
the universe just wouldn't work
the way that it seems to work.
宇宙在运作, 所以暗物质或是真的
But the universe does work,
so maybe dark matter is real.
很奇怪的东西
Strange stuff.
最近在深太空探测到暗物质
And recently, it's been
detected in deep space,
非直接地, 而是观察它对光的影响
not directly, but by
observing what it does to light
它令光弯曲, 这过程叫引力透镜
It bends it in a process
called gravitational lensing.
引力透镜让我们探测暗物质的存在
Gravitational lensing really allows us
to detect the presence of dark matter.
当来自遥远星系的光束
And the way they works is that as a
beam of light from some distant galaxy
向我们传过来的时候
is travelling towards us,
若经过一大团暗物质
if it passes by a large
collection of dark matter,
在暗物质的引力影响下
its path will be deflected
around that dark matter
光的路径会出现偏斜
by the gravitational pull.
用哈勃望远镜遥望宇宙深处的时候
When the Hubble telescope
looks deep into the universe,
一些星系的确像变形和被拉长了
some galaxies do seem
distorted and stretched.
那是因为暗物质令影像弯曲
That's caused by the dark
matter which warps the image.
就像看着一个金鱼缸那样
It's sort of like looking
through a goldfish bowl.
探索那些星系的形状和扭曲程度
By probing the shapes of those
galaxies and the degree of distortion,
就能准确地量度那里的暗物质份量
we car really measure very accurately
the amount of dark matter that's there.
现在知道暗物质是宇宙的主要成分
It's clear now that dark matter is
a vital ingredient of the universe.
由天地初开就在运作
It's been working since the dawn of time
影响一切, 无处不在
and affects everything, everywhere.
它触发星系诞生, 令它们不会散开
It triggers the birth of galaxies
and keeps them from falling apart.
我们无法看见或探测它
We can't see it or detect it
暗物质却是宇宙的主宰
But nevertheless, dark matter
is the master of the universe.
星系看似孤立
Galaxies look isolated.
事实如此, 它们相隔几万兆英里
It's true, they are
trillions of miles apart
不过它们是一个群体, 叫星系团
But actually they live
in groups called clusters.
几万个星系团聚合在一起
And these clusters of galaxies are
linked together in super clusters
连结成超星系团
containing tens of
thousands of galaxies.
我们的银河系在哪里?
So where does our
Milky Way galaxy fit in?
若你看这幅大图画就会知道
If you take a look at the big picture,
银河系是本地星系群的一部分
you realise that our galaxy is
part of a local group of galaxies,
为数大约30个
perhaps 30.
银河系和仙女座是这本地群之中
And our galaxy and Andromeda
最大的两个星系
are the two biggest
galaxies in this local group.
不过若你望向更遥远的地方
But if you look even farther out,
就见到我们属于室女座超星系团
we are part of the Virgo
super cluster of galaxies.
科学家在绘制宇宙的完整结构图
Scientists are now mapping the
overall structure of the universe
标示星系团和超级星系团的位置
and the position of clusters
and super clusters of galaxies.
这是位于新墨西哥的阿帕奇天文台
This is Apache Point
Observatory in New Mexico,
在这里进行斯隆数字巡天探测SDSS
home to the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey or SDSS.
这小望远镜价值不菲, 有特别任务
It's a small telescope with a big
price tag and it has a unique mission.
SDSS在绘制第一幅夜空立体地图
SDSS is building the first
3-D map of the night sky.
这过程要辨认数千万个星系的位置
A process that's identifying the exact
positions of tens of millions of galaxies.
SDSS在太空里搜寻星系
To do it, SDSS goes
galaxy-hunting way out into space,
远远超越了我们的银河系
far beyond our Milky Way.
它指出星系的位置
It pinpoints the positions of galaxies
这数据被复♥制♥到铝盘上
and this information is
copied onto aluminium disks.
这些铝盘阔大约30吋
These aluminium disks
are about 30 inches across
每块上面6♥4♥0个洞
and they have 6♥4♥0 holes each.
这些洞代表天空里的目标物体
And these holes correspond to the
objects of interest in the sky.
每一个物体就是一个星系
Each object is a galaxy.
星系的光会被引导
Light from the galaxy is channelled
经过一个洞, 沿光纤电缆向下传送
through a hole and down
a fibre optic cable.
这方法记录数千个星系的…
This method records data
距离和位置数据
on distance and position
from thousands of galaxies
然后标示它们的立体♥位♥置
and plots their location in 3-D.
我们由此得知它们的形状
It's telling us about their shape.
得知它们的结构
It's telling us about their makeup.
得知它们的分布
It's telling us how they're distributed.
这些在天文学上和对宇宙的了解
And all of this is very
important to astronomy
者非常重要
and understanding our universe.
他们在绘制最大的立体地图
And this is what they're
creating, the biggest 3-D map ever.
这地图让我们看到从没看过的东西
The map is showing us things
we've never seen before.
它标示出星系团和超星系团
It shows galaxies in
clusters, in super clusters.
再扩大范围就会见到这些超星系团
But pull back even more, and
we see that these super clusters
互相连结成丝状结构
are connected into
structures called filaments.
SDSS找到一个阔140亿光年的结构
SDSS has found one that's 1.4
billion light-years across.
它叫做斯隆宇宙巨墙
It's called the Great Sloan Wall
是在科学史上发现的最大单一结构
and it's the largest single structure
ever discovered in the history of science.
你感觉到置身一个很辽阔的地方
You get a sense that, that you
are in something quite vast.
星系团和丝状结构的数据呈现眼前
You could see the clusters and
filaments as the data would scroll by.
每一个模糊的小斑点
And. and, you know, each one
of these little fuzzy spots
其实是星系, 不是恒星, 是星系
were, were actually galaxies,
not stars, but galaxies.
你见到的是整个星系团