宇宙的奇迹（2011）

I mean, it really is beautiful to see that.
这场景真令人陶醉
On one night of many hundreds of
就如同穿越
millions of nights stretching back into the past.
回到了过去一亿年的某个夜晚
And she's gone.
她回去了
To witness a moment like this
捕捉这样一个瞬间
is to open up a connection to the deep past.
开启了通往遥远过去的道路
To experience timespans far longer than the history of our own species.
亲历那已远远超越了人类历史的时间旅程
Yet even the 100-million-year story of the turtles
然而即使是这有着一亿年历史的海龟故事
only begins to connect us with the vast sweep of cosmic time.
也仅仅为我们探寻浩瀚的宇宙史开了个头
Our entire solar system
整个太阳系
is travelling on an unimaginably vast orbit,
正绕着银河系的中心
spinning around the centre of our galaxy.
在一个无比庞大的轨道上行进
It takes 250 million years
要花上两亿五千万年
to make just one circuit of the Milky Way.
才能绕银河转一圈
In the entire history of the human race,
自人类出现以来
we've travelled less than a tenth of 1% of that orbit.
我们还未绕过这个轨道的千分之一
These cycles seem eternal and unchanging,
这些循环看似永恒不变
but as the story of time unfolds,
但随着时间之书徐徐展开
a fundamental truth is revealed.
一条真理跃然眼前
Nothing lasts forever.
没有什么能够永恒
This is the most profound property of time.
这是时间带给我们最宝贵的财富
And it plays out just as vividly here on Earth
在宇宙深处频繁上演的一幕
as it does in the depths of space.
也正在地球上生动地上演着
Well, this is the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia in southern Argentina.
这里是阿根廷南部巴塔哥尼亚地区的莫雷诺冰川
And it's one of the hundreds of glaciers
它是正向南美大♥陆♥推进
that sweep down the continent from the southern Patagonian ice fields.
源自巴塔哥尼亚南部地区冰原的数百条冰川之一
And, you know, if you carry on that way,
如果你继续朝这个方向行进
south about 1,000 kilometres,
往南大概一千千米
you get to the end of South America.
就将抵达南美洲的末端
From then on, there's nothing to the Antarctic.
从那开始 通往南极洲的道路将畅通无阻
And it feels like that today.
放佛就近在眼前
The glacier is such a massive expanse of ice,
川上之冰一望无际
that at first sight,
乍一看
just like the cycles of the heavens,
它就如同宇宙中的那些循环
it appears fixed and unchanging.
稳固不变
Yet, seen close-up, it's continually on the move.
但近距离观察便发现 它无时不刻不在运动
As it has been for tens of thousands of years.
且已持续了数万年
The whole face of the glacier is moving into the lake
整个冰川的表层一直在向湖中脱落
something like that much every day.
每天脱落大概这么多
That means that well over a quarter of a billion tonnes of ice
这意味着 每年都有2.5亿公吨♥的冰
drop off the face of the glacier into the lake every year.
从冰川表面脱落 融入湖中
That's about a million tonnes a day.
一天差不多就有一百万公吨♥
And you can hear it happening.
你能用耳朵捕捉到这一过程
Just every now and again,
时不时地
you hear this tremendous cracking sound.
听到雷鸣般的断裂声
It really is like the place is alive.
好像这个地方是活的一样
You know, it's quite disturbing
这些巨大的冰块
when these enormous chunks of ice fall into the lake.
掉进湖中着实令人不安
Although this thing seems stable
虽然冰川看上去很稳定
and the movement seems glacially slow,
运动也十分缓慢
actually there can be really violent collapses.
事实上 有可能发生非常剧烈的塌陷
It's an incredibly dynamic place to be.
这是个生机勃勃的地方
The movements of the glacier
冰川的运动
provide an insight into the nature of time.
让我们理解了时间的本质
It is simply the ordering of events into sequences.
时间便是将事件按顺序简单排好
One step after another.
一步接一步
As time passes, snow falls, ice forms,
随着时间流逝 雪花落地 冰块形成
the glacier gradually inches down the valley
冰川慢慢地沉入深谷
and huge chunks of ice fall into the lake below.
巨大的冰块逐渐掉进湖中
But even this simple sequence contains a profound idea.
但即使如此简单的顺序也包含着深刻的内涵
Events always happen in the same order.
事件发生的顺序总是相同的
They're never jumbled up and they never go backwards.
它们从不混乱 也不会逆向发生
Now that's something that you would never see in reverse.
你永远也不会见到这种景象逆向发生
But, interestingly, there's nothing in the laws of physics
但有趣的是 没有任何一条物理定律
that describe how all those water molecules are moving around
能描述这些水分子如何运动
that prevent them from all getting together on the surface of the lake,
为何这种运动不能使它们在湖面凝聚
jumping out of the water, sticking together into a block of ice
再跃出水面 进而凝结成冰块
and then gluing themselves back on to the surface of the glacier again.
重新粘合回冰川的表面
But, interestingly,
但有趣的是
we do understand why the world doesn't run in reverse.
我们却理解世界为什么不会逆向发展
There is a reason.
这是有原因的
We have a scientific explanation.
我们有科学的解释
And it's called the arrow of time.
被称为"时间箭头"
We never see waves travelling across lakes,
我们从没见过浪花离开湖面
coming together and bouncing chunks of ice back onto glaciers.
聚集在一起 组成巨大的冰块重回冰川
We are compelled to travel into the future.
我们被迫前往将来
And that's because
那是因为
the arrow of time dictates that as each moment passes,
时间箭头规定 随着时间流逝
things change.
万物也在发生变化
And once these changes have happened, they are never undone.
变化一旦发生 就无法更改
Permanent change is a fundamental part of what it means to be human.
永恒的变化是人类生命中最基本的部分
We all age as the years pass by.
随着时间流逝 我们都会变老
People are born, they live, they die.
人们出生 成长 死亡
I suppose it's part of the joy and tragedy of our lives.
我想这只是生命中悲悲喜喜的一部分
But out there in the universe,
但纵观宇宙
those grand and epic cycles appear eternal and unchanging.
那些宏伟的如史诗般的循环好像永恒不变
But that's an illusion.
然而这只是错觉
You see, in the life of the universe, just as in our lives,
宇宙长河就如同我们的生命一样
everything is irreversibly changing.
一切都在不可逆转地变化
By building change upon change,
通过在变化中变化
the arrow of time drives the evolution of the entire universe.
时间箭头带动了整个宇宙的演变
And as we look out deep into the cosmos,
若我们留意那深邃的宇宙
we can see that story unfold.
便可以慢慢将故事展开
This is an image of a tiny piece of night sky in the constellation of Leo.
这是狮子座一部分的缩小图
It's actually where the mouth of the Lion would be.
其实就是狮子嘴所在的位置
And, despite appearances,
尽管表面平淡无奇
it is one of the most interesting images taken in recent astronomical history.
但它却是近些年来天文史上最有趣的图像之一
The interesting thing is this little red blob here,
有趣之处就在于这个红斑
which looks very unremarkable.
看起来很普通
But what that red blob is is the afterglow of an enormous cosmic explosion.
但那红斑却是一次巨型宇宙大爆♥炸♥的余辉
It's the death of a star.
象征着恒星的死亡
That was about...
大约是
40 or even 50 times the mass of our sun.
太阳质量的四十到五十倍
Poetically named GRB 090423,
它被诗意地命名为GRB 090423
it was once a Wolf-Rayet star.
曾是一颗沃尔夫-拉叶星
Shrouded by rapidly swirling clouds of gas,
它被快速旋转的气体云覆盖
it burned 10,000 times more brightly than our sun.
其亮度是太阳的一万倍
But because it burned so brightly, it was extremely short-lived.
但正是因为它如此明亮 其寿命异常短暂
As it died, the giant star collapsed in on itself.
这种巨星衰竭时自身也会塌缩
That caused massive jets of light and stellar material
导致大质量的光线和星体物质
to be ejected from its poles,
从磁极喷射而出
in an explosion that shone with the light of 10 million billion suns.
爆♥炸♥中放射出的光芒是太阳的一万亿倍
And it's the afterglow of this catastrophic explosion
这便是此次灾难性爆♥炸♥的余辉
that is just visible from our planet as a faint red dot.
从地球上看 它只是一个暗淡的红点
But that's not what's so interesting about GRB 090423.
这还不是GRB 090423的最有趣之处
You see, when we look up into the sky,
当我们仰望天空
at distant stars and galaxies,
望向遥远的恒星和星系时
then we're looking back in time
我们其实是在仰望过去
because the light takes time to journey from them to us.
因为光从那些遥远天体到达地球需要时间
And the light from that red dot has been travelling to us
而光从那个红点处传播到我们这里
for almost the entire history of the universe.
差不多历经了整个宇宙史
You see, what we're looking at here is an event that happened
我们看到的是一百三十亿年前
13 billion years ago.
发生的事件
That's only about 600 million years after the Big Bang, after the universe began.
大约只是大爆♥炸♥宇宙形成之后的六亿年
So this is something incredibly early in the universe's history.
所以这是宇宙历史中非常早的一个时期的产物
In fact, this is the oldest single object that we've ever seen.
事实上 这便是我们观察到的最古老的天体
What we're looking at here is the explosive death
我们看到的是宇宙初期的一颗恒星
of one of the first stars in the universe.
爆♥炸♥灭亡的景象
As it evolves, the universe passes through distinct eras.
在不断进化中 宇宙经历了不同的纪♥元♥
Vast ages, whose beginnings and endings
在这漫长的岁月中 每一段起始和终结