与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman S02E09

Part 7 April 19, 2021, 2:37 p.m.

to detect things like atmospheric pollution
或我们城市的热特征
or the heat signatures of our cities.
读取我们星球以及
Reading the colors of our world
宇宙间数以百万计的类似的其它星球的颜色
and the millions of others like it out in the Universe
对先进的外星文明来说易如反掌
would be easy for an advanced alien civilization.
不幸的是这对我们来说还不是很容易
Unfortunately, it is not yet easy for us.
找出日外行星
Spotting exoplanets
推动了目前科技的限制
pushes the limits of current technology.
如果我们想看到颜色我们就需要一套新的手段
If we want to see colors, we need a new set of tools.
天体物理学家迪米塔·萨瑟罗夫
Astrophysicist Dimitar Sasselov
想做点那方面的事情
wants to do something about that.
这些是小圆行星
These are little round planets.
我要投下几颗来表示凌日行星
I'm gonna just drop a few on to show transiting planets.
我猜有两颗凌日
I guess there's two transiting.
迪米塔的太太希拉画的深太空场景
Dimitar's wife, Sheila, paints scenes of deep space
灵感来自他对开普勒行星探测器的研究
inspired by his research on the Kepler planet-finding probe.
这就是我们想用开普勒去探索的东西
This is the kind of thing we want to discover with Kepler.
有凌日行星有一个卫星围绕着它
A transiting planet, and there is a moon around it.
那就太好了
That would be great.
这就是
So, there it is.
那就是载有生命的行星——就在这里
That's the planet with life on it -- right here.
我们有个大问题
We have a big problem.
这个挑战涉及到我们无法分开测量
This challenge relates to our inability to measure
恒星与行星的颜色
the colors of the star or the planets separately
到极高的精度
to very high precision.
面临的是10到100倍的挑战
And the challenge is about the factor of 10 to 100
超越了当前科技水平
beyond what current technology works.
我们最大的障碍
The biggest barrier we have
是观察其它行星颜色时
to seeing the colors of other planets
每个摄影师都会遇到的情况
is something every photographer has run into --
相机抖动
camera shake.
如果你要拍摄黑暗中的图像
If you take a picture in the dark,
你就需要有尽可能多的光
you need as much light as possible,
这就意味着你无法挪动相机
which means you can't move the camera
即你会获得模糊的图像
or you'll get a blurry image.
类地行星非常小极其遥远
Earth-like planets are so small and so far away
它们的图像只够得上数码相机单个像素的
that their images only fill one thousandth of a single pixel
千分之一
of a digital camera.
如果那个像素稍有移♥动♥
If that pixel moves even slightly,
相机抖动将会破坏相片
the camera shake will ruin the picture.
但是你又如何能够保持一个像素完全静止
But how can you possibly keep one pixel perfectly still
数日乃至数年
over the days and years it takes
来跟踪遥远太空里的对象呢？
to track an object in distant space?
迪米塔的解决方案是太空激光梳滤波器
Dimitar's solution is the astro-comb.
它利用激光维持望远镜的相机传感器
It uses lasers to keep a telescope's camera sensor
在几十年间的精确校准
precisely calibrated over a period of decades.
你这里所看到的太空激光梳滤波器
The astro-comb that you see here
是个技术突破
is the technological breakthrough
用来弥补那个不足
which was needed to bridge that gap.
一旦我们看到了其它星球的真正本色
When we see the true colors of other worlds,
我们就将会知道在整个宇宙间生命在哪里
we will know where and how life is distributed
又是如何分布的
across the Universe.
我们寻求外星生命的下一个阶段就即将开始
And the next phase of our quest for alien life will begin.
它将把我们带向何方？
Where will it take us?
何种刺♥激♥的新世界将被我们发现呢？
What exciting, new worlds will we see?
何种新的意想不到的生物会居住在上面呢？
What new and unexpected creatures might live on them?
生物学家认为那里的生命可能看上去类似地球上的
Biologists think that life out there might look earth-like,
但它看上去不会是人类
but it won't look human.
外面有如此多的行星生命有如此多的机会
With so many planets out there, so many chances at life,
我们可能有类人的亲属在遥远的地球上
we could have human-like relatives on a far-away earth.
类似我们这样的生物
Creatures like us,
或许如我们这样急于了解
perhaps as anxious as we are to know
它们在宇宙间是否是孤独的
if they are alone in the Universe.
随着我们手段的改进我们发现它们的机会也增大了
As our tools improve, so do our odds of finding them.
显然我们已经进入了
It is clear that we're in a new age
探索与发现的新纪♥元♥
of exploration and discovery.
500年来
It hasn't been for 500 years
人类一直试图寻找
that people have tried to discover planets
围绕其它恒星的行星
around other stars.
现在我们发现了它们
Now we have them.
我们还有更多的探索好事还在后头呢
We have much more to explore, and the best is yet to come.
1千年后
1,000 years from now,
人们回顾我们这代人时会问
when people look back at our generation and ask,
最大的成就是什么？
"What are the biggest accomplishments?"
我觉得这些人开展星际旅行
I like to think of these people making interstellar journeys
回头一想
and looking back and thinking
我们就是开始这一切的人
we were the ones who started it all.
外星人究竟是何模样？
What do aliens look like?
我们想象力的极限在哪里？
What are the limits of our imagination?
外星人真正面目
The true face of an alien
可能会无视我们的科学猜测
will probably defy our scientific speculations.
但我们的努力不会白费
But our efforts won't be wasted,
即使我们所得到的所有细节都是错误的
even if we do get all the details wrong.
我们关于外星生命的永恒好奇
Our eternal intrigue about alien life
我们对它的持久恐惧
and our persistent fear of it
全都出自同一个源头
both rise from the same source --
寻求了解
the quest to understand our place
我们在宇宙的生命大家族里所处的位置
in the family of life-forms that populate the cosmos.
知道了那个
Know that,
我们就会知道人类的命运
and we'll know the destiny of humankind.