was the precise nature of the coming disaster. |
在于灾难的确切种类 |
"Dis-aster," As in the Greek word for "Bad star." |
灾难在希腊语中意为坏星星 |
To the Masai of East Africa, |
对于东非的马塞族来说 |
a comet meant famine. |
彗星意味着饥荒 |
To the Zulu in the south, |
对于南非的祖鲁人来说 |
it meant war. |
彗星则意味着战争 |
To the Eghap people of the west, |
对于西边的伊哥哈普人来说 |
it meant disease. |
彗星意味着疾病 |
To the Djaga of Zaire, |
对于扎伊尔国的贾伽人来说 |
specifically "Smallpox." |
彗星特指天花 |
To their neighbors, the Luba, |
对于他们的邻居卢巴人来说 |
a comet foretold the death of a leader. |
彗星预示着领袖的死亡 |
The ancient Chinese were remarkably systematic. |
中国古人则将其进行了系统分类 |
Starting in roughly 1400 BC, |
大约从公元前1400年起 |
they began recording and cataloguing the apparitions of comets. |
他们开始记录分类出现的彗星 |
A three-tailed comet |
三条尾巴的彗星 |
meant calamity for the state. |
意味着国之灾难 |
A four-tailed comet |
四条尾巴的彗星 |
signified an epidemic was coming. |
预示着瘟疫将至 |
The human talent for pattern recognition |
人类模式识别的天资 |
is a two-edged sword. |
是把双刃剑 |
We're especially good at finding patterns, |
我们特别善于寻找模式 |
even when they aren't really there-- |
即使根本就没有模式存在 |
something known as "False pattern recognition." |
人们称之为"错误模式识别" |
We hunger for significance, |
我们渴求真谛 |
for signs that our personal existence |
寻求我们个体的存在 |
is of special meaning to the universe. |
对于宇宙的特殊意义 |
To that end, |
为了这个目的 |
we're all too eager to deceive ourselves and others, |
我们太过热切以致欺人欺己 |
to discern a sacred image in a grilled cheese sandwich |
试图看出烤芝士三明治上的神迹 |
or find a divine warning in a comet. |
或是从彗星上找到神谕 |
Today, we know exactly where comets come from |
现今我们确切地知道彗星从何而来 |
and what they're made of. |
由什么构成 |
Our Ship of the Imagination, |
我们的想象号飞船 |
fueled by equal parts of science and wonder, |
由科学和奇迹供给能量 |
can take us anywhere in space and time. |
让我们到达时空中的任意位置 |
It can travel faster than light |
可以超越光速 |
and render visible those things that cannot be seen. |
让不可见事物显形 |
It's carrying us to a mysterious realm |
它带着我们前往一处 |
that lies one light-year from the Sun. |
距太阳一光年的神秘国度 |
What is this swarm of worlds? |
这些数不清的天体是什么 |
Was it organized by alien beings? |
是由外星生物布置的吗 |
No. |
不是 |
Just gravity. |
仅仅是因为引力 |
These are the snows of yesteryear, |
这些是古老的雪 |
完整版请点击 |
|
drifting mountains of ice and rock, |
漂移的冰块和石头 |
the preserved remnants of the birth of the Solar System. |
是太阳系诞生时遗留下来的遗骸 |
It's called the Oort Cloud, |
它被称为奥尔特云 |
after Jan Oort, the Dutch astronomer |
以荷兰天文学家扬·奥尔特命名 |
who foretold its existence back in 1950. |
他在1950年预言了它的存在 |
He was trying to solve a paradox. |
他本来是想解决一个悖论 |
There's so many ways for comets to die. |
彗星有很多种死亡的方法 |
Because they cross the orbits of planets, |
因为它们穿过行星的轨道 |
comets frequently collide with them. |
常常与行星相撞 |
Comets are largely made of ice, |
彗星的主要成分是冰 |
so every time they come near the Sun, |
因此每当它们靠近太阳时 |
they lose a part of themselves through evaporation. |
会因为蒸发而损失一部分 |
And after several thousand trips, |
几千次飞过太阳后 |
their ice is all gone, |
冰全部蒸发 |
and what remains of the comet is now an asteroid. |
剩下的部分成为了小行星 |
Comets can be gravitationally ejected from the Solar System |
彗星可以被引力从太阳系里弹射出去 |
and exiled into space. |
放逐于太空中 |
And yet, somehow, |
然而 |
the comets keep coming. |
这些彗星仍会不断出现 |
Oort and other astronomers wondered, |
奥尔特和其他天文学家想知道 |
"Where do all the comets come from?" |
这些彗星都从哪来 |
Oort calculated the rate at which new comets appear |
奥尔特计算了新彗星出现的几率 |
and concluded that there must be a vast, spherical swarm of them, |
他推断一定有球状的大彗星云团 |
a few light-years across, |
环绕在太阳周围 |
surrounding the Sun. |
在几光年之外 |
Oort's logic still holds up, |
即使在其后的几十年 |
even after all the discoveries we've made about comets |
我们对太阳系和彗星有了新的发现 |
and the Solar System in the many decades since. |
奥尔特的逻辑依然成立 |
And yet, the Oort Cloud is a sight |
但奥尔特云至今 |
that no one has ever seen. |
依然没有被观测到过 |
Nor could we. |
我们也不能观测 |
It's dark out here. |
这里一片漆黑 |
And each comet is about as far from its closest neighbor |
每两颗彗星之间最近的距离 |
as the Earth is from Saturn. |
都相当于地球离土星的距离 |
But science gives us special powers of our own. |
但科学赋予了每个人特殊的能力 |
It gave Jan Oort |
它赋予扬·奥尔特 |
the gift of prophecy. |
预言的能力 |
Oort was also the first to correctly estimate |
奥尔特同时也是第一个正确估计 |
the distance between the Sun |
太阳到 |
and the center of our galaxy. |
银河系中心距离的人 |
That's a big deal-- |
这非同小可 |
finding out where we are in the Milky Way. |
定位了我们在银河系中的位置 |
Our star is about 30,000 light-years from the center. |
我们的太阳距离银河系中心3万光年 |
Oort was also the first guy to use a radio telescope |
奥尔特同时也是第一个使用射电望远镜 |
to map the galaxy's spiral structure. |
描绘银河系螺旋结构的人 |
And he discovered that the center of our galaxy |
而且他发现我们银河系的中心 |
was a place of titanic explosions, |
是爆炸频发的地方 |
the first indication |
这是银河系中心 |
that there might have been a supermassive black hole lurking there. |
有超大质量黑洞存在的第一个证据 |
Does the fact that most of us know the names of mass murderers, |
我们大多数人从未听过扬·奥尔特 |
but never heard of Jan Oort, |
却知道很多连环杀手 |
say anything about us? |
很奇怪吧 |
The Oort Cloud is so enormous |
奥尔特云是如此巨大 |
that it takes one of its comets about a million years |
其中的彗星如果要绕太阳一圈 |
to complete a single trip around the Sun. |
需要花费大约一百万年的时间 |
Out here, at the far edge of the Solar System, |
在这遥远的太阳系边际 |