行星（2019）

点火20秒
T plus 20 seconds.
他们提议建造“卡西尼”号♥探测器的时候
Even when they were proposing Cassini, I thought,
我就觉得不可能 根本就不可能
"No, no, this is never going to happen."
卡尔·穆雷教授 伦敦玛丽女王大学
感觉太不现实了
It's, like, maybe too ambitious or something.
很难算出有多少人参与
It's difficult to put a number on how many people
米歇尔·杜啥提教授 “卡西尼”号♥首席调查员
“卡西尼”号♥的计划
were involved in Cassini.
我觉得至少是上万人
Tens of thousands, I would say.
这是一项极其复杂的工程
This is a very, very complex effort.
线路总长超过了16公里
There's over ten miles of wiring
而且每根线都必须检查
and you have to check out every wire.
所以我们花了两年半才把它组装起来
So it took us two and a half years to put the thing together.
朱莉·韦伯斯特 “卡西尼”号♥首席工程师
我们所有人为了那一刻投入了大量的心血
All of us spent a lot of effort to get to that moment
卡罗琳·博尔克 “卡西尼”号♥成像科学分系统团队负责人
所以对它的感情是非常深的
so there's a lot of emotion attached to it.
当我们看到它发射升空时
And then you see it launch
我们知道它要前住一个非常非常遥远的地方
and you know that it's on a journey to a very, very distant place...
感觉好像自己的心也跟着去了
and so you feel like you're going too.
当“卡西尼”号♥首次向地球发送近距离照片时
When Cassini first began to send close-up pictures back to Earth...
对整个团队来说 那是个非常特别的时刻
it was a special moment for the whole team.
他们第一次接收传回的数据时
I was sitting in what they call the Blue Room
我正在所谓的蓝室里面接受采访
being interviewed while they were beaming for the first time
杰夫·库奇 “卡西尼”号♥土星环科学家
然后其中一张照片出现了 我喊道
and then one of these pictures came on and I just went,
哇 快看
"Wow, look at that!"
那一刻我真是高兴得要跳起来了
That was really the jumping out of the chair moment for me.
而那不过是第一天
And it was just the first day.
我们看到的是从未有过的最高分辨率的图像
What we were seeing was the highest resolution that had ever been seen.
我看到了一些现象
I saw phenomena that I'd only seen
以前只在计算机模拟中看到过
in, kind of, computer simulations before
那是我第一次亲眼看见
and now I was seeing it for the first time
才意识到这一切都是真的
and realising all this was real.
我们在土星环上看到的细节
And we were seeing details in the rings
实在是太震撼了
that were shocking... shocking.
我们根本没有那种想象力
We just lacked the imagination that it would require
去预判它会是什么样子
to predict what it would look like.
对我而言 当那张背光照片出现的时候
For me, when that great backlit picture came out,
给我的触动是非常大的
that's when it hit for me.
天呐 我们做到了非常独特而美妙的事情
"Oh, my God, we've done something really unique and wonderful."
那是个了不起的成就
It was like, "This is going to be... This is going to be huge."
在“卡西尼”号♥长达13年的土星之旅期间
Over Cassini's 13 years at Saturn...
它探索了土星上不可思议的风暴
it explored the planet's incredible storms.
研究了土星环的形成
The formation of its rings.
还发现了土卫二上的地下海洋
And discovered the oceans of Enceladus.
但“卡西尼”号♥最伟大的成就或许还在后面
But Cassini's greatest insights may be yet to come.
数据中有极其丰富的信息
There's such a wealth of information in the data.
我想我们只解读了冰山一角
I think we've just skimmed the top of the data.
我相信在未来的30到40年间 我们还会从“卡西尼”号♥的数据中
I think people will continue to make discoveries from Cassini data
取得更多的发现
for another 30 to 40 years.
“卡西尼”号♥在它的最后时刻所收集到的数据
The data Cassini collected in its final moments
已经改变了我们对这颗行星的认知
is already changing our understanding of the planet.
它揭示了土星环正在消失
It has revealed the rings are disappearing.
每秒有多达10吨♥的物质
As much as 10,000 kilograms of material
在落向土星
is falling into the planet each second.
现在看来 也许一亿年之后
It now seems likely that just 100 million years from now,
美丽的土星环就将不复存在了
Saturn's great rings will be no more.
“卡西尼”号♥向我们证明了 我们能看到如此神奇的美景
Cassini has shown us that we have been uniquely fortunate
是多么的幸运
to behold this great beauty.
下集预告
我们朝黑暗进发
We head into the darkness.
前往冰巨行星 天王星和海王星
To the ice giants - Uranus and Neptune.
在更远处
And beyond,
一个距离太阳45亿公里的世界
to a world 4.5 billion kilometres from the sun.
冥王星
Pluto.