宇宙（2007）

The Universe S01E02

Part 1 April 22, 2021, 8:10 p.m.

It takes its name from the Roman God of War,
它取名自罗马战神,
a distant, rusty orb in the night sky,
夜空一颗遥远的暗红色的星球,
a source of rampant speculations for centuries.
几百年来引起遐想的地方.
Could it be home to a rival civilization?
是另一个文明的所在吗?
Is there really a face on its surface?
它的表面真的有张人脸吗?
This intriguing planetary neighbor still captivates us.
这个迷人的行星邻居仍然迷惑着我们.
And as both a potential base for future colonization.
即是未来殖民的潜在基地,
And the keeper of 4 billion year old biological secrets.
还保持着40亿年古老的生命秘密.
Mars, the red planet
火星,红色的行星,
may hold the keys to both our future and our past.
可能掌握着我们未来和过去的关键.
宇宙1x02 -火星,红色行星
If human beings ever inhabited another world in our solar system,
如果人类曾经在我们太阳系另一个地方居住过的话,
this is the most likely candidate.
这是最有可能的候选之地.
The red planet, Mars.
红色行星,火星.
To a visitor from Earth, a tour of Mars
对一个地球来的访客,火星旅行
might be very reminiscent of places back home.
可能非常象让人想起家乡的地方.
Places like Southern California's Mojavi Desert.
象南加利福尼亚Mojavi沙漠.
Geo- and astro-biologist Ken Nealson,
地理和天文生物学家Ken Nealson,
find this desert area, so much like Mars,
发现这个沙漠如此象火星,
he comes here to try to better understand conditions on the red planet.
他来到这里试图更好地了解火星上的条件.
You travel around here in the doom baggy and you'll see
在着死亡之地周游,你会看到
features that look just like the doom features on Mars.
火星上的死亡之地一样的面貌.
If you go further and look in the background, and see all of this red hills,
如果你更深入的环顾周围,看到所有的这些红色的山丘,
full of iron oxydes that we see on Mars.
满是氧化铁,就象在火星上看到的一样.
Mars is filled with iron,
火星堆满了铁,
and its oxidized iron, basically rust, turns into dust particles
和氧化铁,基本上生了锈,化为了尘埃,
and in addition to the beautiful dunes, you have this red atmosphere
除了美丽的山丘外,还有红色的大气层,
sometime red all over the surface of the planet.
有时行星的表面充满了红色.
Huge dust storms.
巨大的尘埃风暴.
They don't call it the red planet for nothing.
不是随随便便叫它为红色行星的.
But while much of the martian terrain is similair to Earth,
然而火星的地形与地球相仿,
some geological features dwarf,
一些地理面貌完全就象
any of there kind on our home planet,
我们的地球上的某些特征.
a mountain named the Olympus Mons, latin for mount Olimpus,
一座山命名为Olympus Mons,拉丁文的奥林匹斯山.
is the tallest known peak in the solar system.
是太阳系里所知的最高的山峰.
It's a know dormed volcano, that rises fifteen miles above the martian surface.
是座着名的死火山,高耸在火星表面15英里.
If you took a picture of Olympus mons,
假如你把奥林匹斯山的照片,
an put it next to mount Everest, and
和珠穆朗玛峰放在一起,和
and the big island of Hawaii, even taken all the way down to the base of the ocean,
和夏威夷最大的岛,甚至把岛的海下部分一起拿上来,
they look like molehills, compared with Olympus Mons on Mars.
比较火星上的奥林匹斯山,简直就是小不点了.
That mount is so large you can be on its slopes
那座山如此之大,你在它的斜坡上时,
and you would not know that you're on a slope of a volcano
不会感觉是在火山的斜坡上,
because the based is so huge, before you get to its sommit.
在你登上山顶之前,这是因为它的基座实在是大.
Yet, as inspiring as the martian surface appears,
然而,受启发的是火星表面看来
it is a brutal, inhospitable zone for human beings.
对人类生存是个残酷荒凉之地.
Green board...
绿色航行...
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Engine start and lift off of the delta 2 rocket
点火,delta2号♥升空
carrying the Spirit from Earth to planet Mars.
携带着精神号♥从地球飞向火星.
It's cold, it's dry, it's desolated,
它是冰凉的,干燥的,荒凉的,
there are dust storms, that can darken the skies for weeks, even months at a time.
有尘埃风暴,一次可以遮盖天空几个星期,甚至几个月.
It goes down to a hundred degrees below zero
在晚上温度下降到零下100度,
at night, every night.
在每一个夜晚.
Compounding this cool conditions, is an atmosphere with no oxygen.
配合这个寒冷的环境是没有氧气的大气层.
Martian air and even occasional clouds formations
火星的空气和偶尔的云层
are made up almost entirely of carbon dioxide.
几乎充满了二氧化碳.
So it's not a nice place, you wouldn't enjoy it, if you're right there.
所以他不是个好地方,如果你正好在那里,不会喜欢它的.
Mars is small, relative to the Earth.
火星是地球的小的近亲.
Only about half the size of our planet.
只有地球的一半大.
Its distance from us it's never less than 34 million miles.
距离地球从没少于过3400万英里.
It appears as nothing more than a tiny red orb in our night sky.
它看起来只是天空上一颗小小的红色星球.
Even so, Mars has captivated human kind for centuries.
尽管如此,几百年来,火星还是迷惑了人们.
The planet takes its name from the Roman God of war.
它的名字取自罗马战神的名字.
The Romans associated this distant world with ostility and unrest,
罗马人将战争和动荡和这个遥远的地方联♥系♥在一起,
because of its blood-like colour, and because of its distinctive movement in the sky.
是因为它那血一般的颜色,而且还因为它在天上与众不同的运动.
Mars wonders. It doesn't do what the stars do.
火星奇迹.它不会做其他星球做的事情.
The red planet occasionally appears to be moving backward across the sky.
红色星球有时会在天上向后移♥动♥.
A behavior that confounded observers for centuries.
其举止迷惑了观察者几百年.
But in 1514, close study of this planetary movement,
然而在1514年,深入研究了这颗行星的运动后,
lead Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus
顶尖的波兰天文学家哥白尼
to a revolutionary understanding of the solar system.
革命性地定义了太阳系.
For much of recording history, people thought that Earth was at the center of the Universe,
在许多有记录的历史上,人们认为地球是宇宙的中心.
Along come Copernicus, and he says?
接着来了哥白尼,他说道,
No, maybe the Earth isn't at the center of the Universe.
不,地球不可能是宇宙的中心.
Maybe the explanation for all this is that, things are going around the Sun.
物体围绕着太阳运行也许可以解释这一切.
And if all the planets are going around the Sun, then we can explain why
如果行星围绕着太阳运行,那么我们能够解释为什么
as Earth passes Mars in the orbit,
当地球越过在轨的火星时,
Mars begins to wonder in our sky.
火星会往后倒♥退♥的原因.
Looks like it's going this way and then the source goes this way.
看上去往这边跑,接着就往那边跑.
By the time of Copernicus'observations,
哥白尼通过一段时间的观察,
Mars and the Earth had been passing each other and their respective orbit,
火星和地球相互在各自的轨道上运行,
for some 4.5 billion years.
有45亿年了.
Time enough for the two planets to evolved into very different worlds.
足够的时间让两颗行星发展成为两个非常不同的世界.
One warm, wet and oxygen rich.
一个温暖,潮湿,富含氧气.
The other cold, dry and oxygen depleted.
另一个则寒冷,干燥,没有氧气.
Yet it's now believed that the differences weren't always so stark.
但是现在相信,它们的差异并不完全如此.
Scientists today think that Mars was once warm enough
科学家现在认为火星曾经也很温暖,
for large amounts of liquid water to flow across its surface.
大量的水在其表面流淌.
When we look at Mars today, in our best satellite images,
当我们观察现在的火星时,卫星的最佳图象
they tell us the same message we heard from the first mission to Mars,
告诉了我们和第一次火星探测飞行看到的相同的信息,
and that there is no liquid water on the planet today
今天的火星上没有液态水,
but there's virtually incontrovertible evidence
但无可争辩的事实是
that there was water there in the past.
火星上曾经有过水.
Everybody knows that when water flows to any sort of dirt,
大家都知道,水流过任何一种土壤时,
there are caratteristic structures,
会有其特征的,
there are other functions of that water running through,
水流淌过还有其他的作用,
and when we look at the pictures of Mars, of satellites images,
而当看到卫星传回的火星的图象时,
we see very similar structures
我们看到非常类似的构造
leading us to the absolute conclusion
引导我们作出肯定的结论,
that Mars was once far warmer and wetter than it is now.
火星曾经比现在温暖和湿润得多得多.
Mars of course is a harsh desert today,
今天的火星当然是片荒漠之地,
so what could have happened?
那么曾经发生了什么?
What cosmic process could have brought about such a dramatic transformation
什么宇宙过程会给太阳第四颗行星
of the fourth planet from the Sun.
带来如此戏剧性的变化呢?
The story begins with the origin of the solar system.
故事还得从太阳系说起.
45亿年前的某个地方,
Somewhere in the range of 4.5 billions years ago,
our solar system sprang from a supernova.
我们的太阳系从一个超新星里诞生了.
A stellar explosion emitting a swirling mass
一个恒星的爆发喷发出
of molecular particles and gasses.
粒子和气体的旋涡状物质.
This swirling mass or "nebula" began to cool
这个旋涡状物质或"星云"开始冷却,
and, as it did, it condensed and separated into rings of particles.
而且,随着冷却开始聚集,并分开变成粒子环.
These particles began to accrete or gradually
这些粒子开始吸附或
come together to form planets.
逐渐结合形成行星.
The accretion process creates heat
增长的过程产生了热,
and heavier particles sink to the center of the accumulating mass.
较重的粒子下沉到物质团的中心.
So Mars eventually formed a molten iron core.
所以火星最终形成了一个熔化的铁核.
This churning molten core generated a powerful magnetic field.
这个熔核产生了一个强大的磁场.
The field projected outwards surrounding Mars like a protective shield,
磁场环绕着火星,就象保护盾一样,
blocking harmful emissions from the Sun.
阻挡了来自太阳的有害射线.
You have this constant pressure from the Sun which we call the solar wind.
来自太阳持续的压力我们称为太阳风.
The solar wind is made of protons, electrons, cosmic rays,
太阳由质量子,电子,宇宙射线组成,
all of these kinds of charged particles
所有的带电粒子
that could ionize the atmosphere,
会电离大气层,
as we call, sputter it away.
就象我们说的,把大气吹走.
But eventually Mars lost its protective shield
但是火星最终失去了它的保护盾
and most of its atmosphere.
和大部分的大气层.
The moment the accretion process ended the planet began to cool.
这个过程结束的时候,火星开始冷却.
The iron core was no longer able to generate this magnetic field
铁核不能再产生磁场,
and then the solar wind started pounding the surface of Mars.
接着太阳风开始重击火星表面.
That's a scenario that a lot of people believe.
这是大多数人相信的假设.
The loss of atmosphere stripped the martian surface of warmth and pressure