与摩根·弗里曼一起穿越虫洞（2010）

Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman S01E02

Part 2 April 19, 2021, 2:23 p.m.

这一现象，我们称之为超新星
and that's the phenomenon we call supernova.
巨大星球的临死阵痛
The death throes of giant stars
是天文学家目击的最戏剧性事件
are the most dramatic events astronomers have ever witnessed.
中国占星家在1054年看到了一次超新星
Chinese stargazers saw one explode in 1054.
它如此之亮，即使在白昼也清晰可见
It was so bright, they could even watch it by day.
400年前，又有2次爆发
Another two blew up around 400 years ago.
巨大的爆♥炸♥
These colossal explosions
留下了大量的气体和灰尘
leave debris fields of gas and dust
分布于几光年半径的空间内
hundreds of light-years across,
即使今天仍然可见，并且仍在扩展
still visible and still expanding today.
但是，让黑洞研究者感兴趣的
But what interests black-hole researchers
并不是大爆♥炸♥
is not the explosion.
而是在死亡恒星中心发生的事情
It's what happens at the very center of the dying star.
现代天文学家
Modern astronomers
还无缘看到在我们星系里的超新星爆发
have never witnessed a star in our own galaxy explode.
但是理论物理学家预言，如果一个恒星足够大
But theoretical physics predicts that if a star is large enough,
它的核心
its collapsing core
会坍塌成为黑洞
should shrink down to form a black hole.
想象这个气球是一个恒星
So, imagine the balloon is a star.
这个恒星依靠热核反应保持活力
And the star stays alive by burning thermonuclear fuel,
在它活动的时候
and as it does so,
更重的元素产生，像这海绵
you get heavier elements like the sponge
能量释放
and all that energy released,
就像炸♥弹♥里的能量释放
like the energy released in a bomb.
当恒星耗尽燃料，它开始变凉
So, as a star runs out of fuel, it begins to cool.
在这过程中，压力下降，无法再支撑自身引力了
And as it cools, it's no longer supported by all that pressure,
于是坍塌开始了
and so it starts to collapse under its own weight.
坍塌持续，直到半径缩小到这个程度
And it will continue to collapse until it gets so small
物质被压碎
that now you're running up against the pressure
挤作一团
of crushing the matter together.
在这个阶段
And at this stage,
它的体积比地球稍大一点
it's a little bigger than the size of the Earth,
电子被挤压出来
and it's supported by pushing all of the electrons
原子越来越接近
in the atoms closer and closer together.
如果这个恒星的质量是太阳的几倍
than a couple of times the mass of the sun,
那它就会继续坍塌
it will start to collapse even further.
没有任何压力能够阻止这一过程
And there is no form of pressure that can resist this collapse.
坍塌继续，直到
And it will continue to collapse down
恒星变成黑洞
until it forms a black hole.
但是，如此怪异的坍塌过程
But do such strange crushed corpses of stars
真的存在宇宙之中？
really exist out in the cosmos?
它们真的藏身于
Could they be lurking at the center
超新星爆发产生的
of some of those clouds of gas and dust
灰尘和星云之中？
thrown off in a supernova?
克里斯蒂安·奥特和他的加州理工学院
Christian Ott and his theoretical-astrophysicist group
理论天文研究团队
at caltech
致力于确定爆♥炸♥的恒星
are trying to discover whether exploding stars
是否真的会产生黑洞
really do form black holes.
呃，我只是——你知道
Well, I just generally -- you know,
实际上，我对爆♥炸♥的星星感到十分兴奋
I'm really excited about stars that blow up, actually.
首先，要造成黑洞
First of all, to get a black hole,
你需要很低的，特定的角动量
you need low, specific angular momentum.
要造成急速旋转的黑洞
To have a critically spinning black hole,
就需要很大的角动量，这样
you need a lot of angular momentum, so...
有2个办法来确定
There are two ways to find out
黑洞是否真的由恒星爆♥炸♥产生
whether black holes really form when stars blow up.
一个是等，等到我们星系里来一次超新星爆发
One is to wait for a supernova to go off in our galaxy
然后用所有的现代天文学工具研究它
and use every tool of modern astronomy to pick it apart.
银河系内的超新星爆发会提供大量的信息
A galactic supernova would provide us so much information,
我们会几周都不睡觉叻
we wouldn't sleep for weeks.
不过，很不幸
But, unfortunately, it happens
这种事儿每个世纪就来一两次
only maybe once or twice per century.
于是，克里斯蒂安和他的团队开始尝试用另一种方法
So, Christian and his team are trying a different approach --
用超级计算机模拟恒星爆♥炸♥
blowing up stars inside powerful supercomputers.
简单任务不存在
This is no easy task.
实际上，没人能够圆♥满♥完成
In fact, no one has pulled it off.
克里斯蒂安是成功路上第一人
But Christian is on his way to being the first.
模拟超新星爆发
So, simulating supernovae stellar collapse
和黑洞产生的过程
and black-hole formation
如此困难，因为牵扯到很多物理学理论
is so hard because it brings together a lot of physics.
和引力有关系
It's general relativity for gravity.
坍塌的气体涉及流动力学
It's fluid dynamics for the gas that collapses.
粒子物理学
It's particle physics.
做这种模拟
Doing the simulations,
有点像做一个非常好的天气预报
it's like trying to do a really good weather forecast.
截至目前，克里斯蒂安进行的一次
So far, Christian has failed
模拟超新星爆♥炸♥的模拟实验
to make a virtual star explode
失败了
in a way that looks like a real supernova.
不过在多年的完善物理和数学模型后
But after years of refining the physics and the math,
他现在认为，他可能会是第一个
he now thinks he may be the first
完全明了黑洞诞生过程的人
to fully understand how a black hole is born.
伙计，那是一个事件界限
Man, that is an event horizon right there,
这个黑洞在中间
and this black hole in the center.
哇噢，我们第一次看到
Wow, that's the first time that we do see this.
令人惊奇的是
What's surprising is
最有希望成功的模拟
that the most promising simulations
并不是爆♥炸♥
don't actually explode.
只不过是简单的坍塌
They simply collapse.
不是巨大的“砰！”，而是婉约的“嗯～～”
It's not a bang but a whimper.
它的名字——不是超新星，而是暗新星
Its name -- not supernova, but unnova.
基本上，这就是最终
It's basically just everything
沉入黑洞的所有东西
eventually sinks into a black hole,
缓慢但又命中注定，星球消失了
and the star slowly but surely just disappears.
它可能是真实的，多数恒星
It could be true that most stars,
或者较大的恒星碎片都会消失
or a large fraction of stars, just disappear.
我们没有任何数据，我们从未见过暗新星
We don't have any data on that. We have never seen an unnova.
如果克里斯蒂安是对的，黑洞很低调，在静默中产生
If Christian is right and black holes form silently,
那么，这些太空中的食人族
then these cosmic cannibals could be hidden
也许就藏身我们周围
in plain sight all around us,
面目普通，永不为我们所知
and we might never know it.
寻找黑洞是非常非常困难的
Finding black holes is terribly, terribly difficult.
即使它不是黑的，在辐射能量
Even if it wasn't black and would be radiating energy,
它的直径也只有，大概20英里
it would still be only, let's say, 20 miles across.
即使，你知道，他在10光年之外
And even, you know, at 10 light-years away,
即使是用我们最好的望远镜去找
it would be impossible to find
那也是不可能看到的
even with the best telescopes we have.
黑洞极其难以找到
But if black holes are almost completely elusive,
却没人告诉他这个事实
no one told this man.
过去30年，他都在全力寻找一个，一个巨大的
He's spent the past 30 years hunting one, a giant one,
就在我们银河系的心脏部位
right at the heart of our own Milky Way galaxy.
他的发现会推♥翻♥关于宇宙运行
And his discovery will overturn all our ideas
的现有观念
about how the universe really works.
1931年
In 1931,
一个贝尔电♥话♥研究员，卡尔·詹斯基
a bell telephone researcher, Karl Jansky,
在测试一个新系统
was testing a new system for sending radio messages
发射跨大西洋，到欧洲的广播信♥号♥♥
across the Atlantic to Europe.
他要被背景噪声搞死了
He was plagued by background noise.
在2年的细致工作后
After two years of careful work,
詹斯基剔除了大部分干扰
Jansky stripped out most of the interference.
但是一个奇怪的信♥号♥♥一直存在
But one strange signal never went away.
只要他的天线指向人马座
It was loudest whenever his antenna was pointed
这个噪声都是最大的
at the constellation Sagittarius
人马座位于银河中心
at the very heart of the Milky Way.
噪声不像是恒星造成的
It was a signal unlike anything a star would make.
天文学家开始猜测噪声来源
Astronomers began to wonder whether it might come
认为那是一个理论上已经预测但从未被观测的物体
from an object theorists had predicted but never detected --
黑洞
a black hole.
可无法证实
But there was no way to find out.
我们银河系的中心
The center of our galaxy is hidden from view
被灰尘面纱所遮掩
by a thick veil of dust.