英文名称：The Sun
年代：2006
推荐：千部英美剧台词本阅读
| 时间 | 英文 | 中文 |
|---|---|---|
| [00:07] | It is dawn and the sun is rising | 黎明，朝阳升起 |
| [00:10] | as it has every day for the last 5 billion years. | 五十亿年如一日 |
| [00:15] | For millennia it has been a constant golden disk | 千万年来，太阳一直有如 一个金色圆盘般地 |
| [00:19] | shining its unchanging light onto the Earth. | 照耀着地球 |
| [00:24] | But look through the glare and the true face of the sun is revealed. | 但在眩目的外表下 藏着太阳的真面目 |
| [00:29] | Not constant, but constantly changing. | 不是恒常，而是瞬息万变 |
| [00:33] | Turbulent, and violent. | 动荡而狂暴 |
| [00:37] | Its worst tantrums can wreak havoc on the Earth. | 太阳的暴烈变化 会让地球陷入混乱 |
| [00:42] | To understand the sun is to understand | 想了解太阳 |
| [00:45] | the forces that drive the universe. | 就得了解推动宇宙运行的力量 |
| [00:48] | If we can control those forces we can unlock the power of the stars. | 若能控制这些力量 就能解开恒星的力量 |
| [00:57] | The power of our sun. | 解开我们太阳的力量 片名：太阳之谜 (雅骏影业） |
| [01:10] | The story of the sun | 太阳的故事始于 |
| [01:11] | starts 13 billion years ago with the Big Bang. | 130亿年前的大爆炸 |
| [01:20] | In an instant the universe was born | 宇宙在瞬间诞生 |
| [01:22] | and since then it’s been expanding at the speed of light. | 后此便以光速不断扩张 |
| [01:27] | Within the universe there are a hundred billion galaxies. | 宇宙里有一千亿个星系 |
| [01:31] | Our galaxy is but one of them. | 我们的银河系只是其中一个 |
| [01:34] | In it there are 100 billion stars. | 银河系中有一千亿颗恒星 |
| [01:38] | And towards the edge of one of the spiral arms | 在其漩涡结构的边缘 |
| [01:40] | is an almost insignificant dot. | 有一个微乎其微的小点 |
| [01:43] | A medium-sized, not very bright, undistinguished star. | 那是一个大小、亮度中等的 平凡恒星 |
| [01:50] | Up close it is a different story. | 但近看就不是那么回事了 |
| [01:54] | On the planets closest to the sun, | 最靠近太阳的行星 |
| [01:56] | Mercury and Venus, the heat is intense, | 金星和水星 |
| [01:59] | their surfaces scorched. | 表面因高热而成为一片焦土 |
| [02:05] | Further out through the solar system the sun’s rays weaken. | 太阳光在太阳系中 随着距离拉长而减弱 |
| [02:09] | Until they are powerless against the chill of space. | 直到无法抵挡太空的凛冽 |
| [02:15] | The outer planets are frozen. | 外行星上是一片冰封景象 |
| [02:19] | But in the middle lies the Goldilocks planet. | 所谓的“金发行星”位置适中 |
| [02:23] | Not too hot, and not too cold. | 不太热，也不太冷 |
| [02:26] | In fact it’s just right, | 事实上是恰到好处 |
| [02:29] | and life has flourished in the warm glow. | 生物在这里的和煦阳光下 生生不息 |
| [02:40] | All life on Earth owes its existence to the sun. | 地球上所有生物 皆因太阳而存在 |
| [02:44] | It powers every natural system. | 太阳是自然界 所有系统的能量来源 |
| [02:47] | And sustains every plant and animal. | 是所有动植物的命脉 |
| [02:53] | Without the sun the planet would be a barren, | 少了太阳 |
| [02:56] | lifeless ball of rock. | 地球将会一是片荒芜死寂 |
| [03:00] | Recognising that power humans have always worshipped the sun. | 深谙太阳力量的人类 自古就崇敬太阳 |
| [03:07] | But we have also always striven to understand it. | 但我们也一直努力想要了解它 |
| [03:16] | These monuments are more than just temples. | 这些纪念碑不只是神庙 |
| [03:19] | They are calendars and observatories. | 也是日历与�t望台 |
| [03:22] | Tools for studying the sun. | 是用来研究太阳的工具 |
| [03:27] | And some of them are still operational. | 其中有些至今仍可运作 |
| [03:36] | This is Orkney to live here is to know the importance of the sun. | 这是奥克尼 住在这里的人 对太阳的重要性了然于心 |
| [03:42] | In the summer the days are long and full of light. | 夏季时这里的白昼漫长明亮 |
| [03:49] | In December it’s a different story. | 但到了12月就完全变了样 |
| [03:54] | It’s midwinter. | 现在时值隆冬 |
| [03:55] | It’s about 11 in the morning and it’s still not light completely. | 已经上午十一点了 天还只是��髁� |
| [03:59] | There’s a strong wind coming in off the Atlantic. | 大西洋上吹来阵阵强风 |
| [04:03] | And it’s cold and it’s wet and | 天气又冷又湿 |
| [04:05] | that’s pretty much typical of this time of the year up here. | 这里每年一到这个时节 就会这样 |
| [04:15] | Yet despite the cold, in the stone age, | 尽管寒冷 |
| [04:18] | 5000 years ago a civilisation thrived here. | 五千年前的石器时代 曾有文明在这里兴盛发展 |
| [04:22] | The island is covered in the remains of their society. | 岛上遍布 那个社会留下来的遗迹 |
| [04:30] | The ruins are full of mystery. | 废墟弥漫着神秘的气息 |
| [04:33] | We know little about the people who lived here. | 我们对住在这里的人所知甚少 |
| [04:36] | But they did leave evidence of the important role | 但由他们留下的线索 |
| [04:38] | the sun played in their lives. | 可以研判太阳在他们生活中 所扮演的重要角色 |
| [04:42] | MaesHowe – a thousand years older than the pyramids | 年代比金字塔还早一千年的 梅萧韦古墓葬 |
| [04:46] | is one of finest examples of stone age architecture. | 是最精仔的 石器时代建筑典范之一 |
| [04:51] | On entering MaesHowe you have to crouch right down | 进梅萧韦古墓葬时 得要拱背弯腰 |
| [04:56] | and you’re confronted with a passage | 眼前的通道似乎没完没了 |
| [04:59] | which seems to actually go on and on and on, | |
| [05:02] | slightly, feel an impression of going uphill, up a slope. | 你有种走上坡路的感觉 |
| [05:07] | And coming through clearly another doorway. | 穿过另一道门 |
| [05:12] | Suddenly the whole thing opens out into the most amazing chamber. | 然后眼前豁然开朗 看到一座惊人的石室 |
| [05:18] | This alone is probably the highest and largest enclosed space | 这可能是新石器时代奥克尼人 |
| [05:23] | the Neolithic Orkadians would have experienced. | 看过最大、最高的室内空间 |
| [05:27] | When it was excavated, | 十九世纪 |
| [05:28] | when it was first entered back in the 19th century the clay floor | 这里刚被人发现的时候 |
| [05:32] | was littered with broken pieces of human skull. | 这里的黏土地板上 布满了人类颅骨的碎片 |
| [05:37] | This is a place of the dead. | 这是个属于死者的地方 |
| [05:39] | This is a house of the dead. | 是亡灵之屋 |
| [05:45] | Most of the time the occupants of | 墓穴中的死者多半处于 |
| [05:47] | the tomb were left in complete darkness. | 伸手不见五指的黑暗中 |
| [05:53] | Then at sunset on the Winter Solstice | 但是到了冬至… 即一年中最短的一天 |
| [05:56] | the shortest day of the year something amazing happens. | 在落日时分 会发生一件惊人的事 |
| [06:07] | The light of the setting sun shines straight up | 落日的余晖射进入口隧道 |
| [06:09] | the entrance tunnel and illuminates the interior. | 照亮墓穴内部 |
| [06:15] | Well the significance is that it’s marking | 其重要性是标示了一年中 |
| [06:17] | the shortest time of the year, with the least light, and from that point on, | 白昼最短、日照最少的一天 |
| [06:23] | slowly and gradually, the light is going to increase, | 从这天开始，日照会渐渐增加 |
| [06:26] | the days are going to grow longer. | 白昼会越来越长 |
| [06:28] | So what’s happening here, is that the dead, | 也就是说他们在一年中 |
| [06:32] | the ancestors, are being awoken on that shortest day. | 白昼最短的一天 唤醒往生的祖先 |
| [06:40] | The winter solstice events at Maeshowe demonstrate | 梅萧韦古墓葬的冬至事件 |
| [06:43] | an intimate and precise knowledge of | 展现了古人对 |
| [06:46] | the sun’s movements through the sky. | 太阳运行轨迹的精确了解 |
| [06:52] | It was the first step on ourjourney to understand | 若说了解太阳 |
| [06:54] | the sun and its many effects on us. | 及太阳对我们的诸多影响 是一趟旅程，那么这是第一步 |
| [06:59] | To complete thatjourney we’ve had to travel to | 要完成这趟旅程 |
| [07:02] | the furthest depths of space and to the heart of the smallest atom. | 我们必须远赴太空的最深处 及探入最小原子的核心 |
| [07:09] | And with every closer look the sun has always surprised us. | 每一次近距离观察太阳 就多一次惊喜 |
| [07:15] | To our ancestors, its power was its reliability. | 对我们的祖先而言 太阳的力量代表它的恒定 |
| [07:20] | Always on time. Never changing. | 永不迟到，永不改变 |
| [07:26] | But the reality is proving to be very different. | 但事实则大不相同 |
| [07:30] | Most people think of the sun as quite a boring, | 大多数人都认为 |
| [07:33] | constant sort of thing, but in fact it’s not at all, | 太阳是个无聊、恒常的东西 |
| [07:35] | it’s changing all the time, | 事实不然 它无时无刻不在变化 |
| [07:36] | and if you look you can see those changes on a matter | 只要仔仔观察就会发现 |
| [07:39] | of minutes or hours. | 改变往往发生在 几分钟或几小时内 |
| [07:40] | And it’s far from er static and boring, | 太阳绝对不是一个 静止或无聊的东西 |
| [07:43] | it, it’s changing and it’s got a life of its own. | 太阳时时刻刻都在变化 而且自有其生命力 |
| [07:47] | Modern solar observatories magnify and filter the sun’s light, | 现代太阳观测站 能放大及过滤日光 |
| [07:51] | to get past the constant glare, | 穿透太阳发出的眩光 |
| [07:53] | and give a clear view of the surface. | 让我们清楚看到太阳表面 |
| [08:07] | This is the actual face of the sun. | 这才是太阳的真面目 |
| [08:11] | It is turbulent and boiling. | 动荡、沸腾 |
| [08:14] | Never the same from one second to the next the surface bubbles | 瞬息万变 |
| [08:18] | like a giant bowl of porridge. | 太阳表面 像一大碗粥般地冒着泡泡 |
| [08:27] | Each bubble is a 1000 miles across. | 每个泡泡的直径都有一千哩 |
| [08:34] | The heat and light brought to the surface | 太阳表面的温度因光和热 |
| [08:36] | raises its temperature to 6000 degrees centigrade. | 而升高至摄氏六千度 |
| [08:40] | Enough to vaporise solid rock. | 连岩石都能汽化 |
| [08:46] | And the sun is huge. | 太阳体积庞大 |
| [08:48] | You could fit the Earth inside it a million times over. | 足以容纳一百万个地球 |
| [08:54] | Periodically huge explosions rip through the surface, | 大规模的爆炸 会定期撕裂太阳表面 |
| [08:59] | releasing the energy of a billion atomic bombs in seconds. | 在数秒中内释放相当于 十亿颗原子弹的能量 |
| [09:05] | All this is on the surface. | 这一切都发生在太阳表面 |
| [09:08] | To understand the sun we must know what is going on deep inside. | 想要了解太阳就必须厘清 其深处所发生的事情 |
| [09:13] | That is where the power is generated. | 太阳的力量来自内部 |
| [09:27] | So for centuries scientists have been devising ways | 数世纪以来，科学家为了探索 |
| [09:30] | to probe the heart of the sun. | 太阳的核心，想出许多方法 |
| [09:33] | Some of them have been complex and some of them are very simple. | 有的方法十分复杂 有的则十分简单 |
| [09:41] | And the first step is to figure outjust how powerful the sun is. | 第一步是搞清楚 太阳的力量究竟有多大 |
| [09:48] | It’s easy to appreciate the power of the sun | 在这样炎热的夏日 |
| [09:50] | on a nice hot summer’s day like here on the Texas Gulf Coast. | 站在德州湾海边 不难体会太阳的威力 |
| [09:53] | And you can feel the power of | 皮肤能清楚感受到太阳的热力 |
| [09:54] | the sun on your skin, sunscreens is on. | 我擦了防晒乳液 |
| [09:57] | But man the sun is just you know | 但太阳实在… |
| [09:59] | the actual physics of what’s going on inside the sun, | 太阳内部的物理作用 |
| [10:02] | the power of the sun, | 太阳的力量和释放的威力 |
| [10:03] | the energy that the sun is releasing is almost beyond comprehension. | 几乎超出我们的理解范围 |
| [10:10] | But it is only almost beyond comprehension. | 但只是“几乎”超出 我们的理解范围 |
| [10:15] | And you can measure its power output with some simple apparatus. | 我们可以用简单的装置 测量太阳的能量输出 |
| [10:20] | One of the earliest experiments to try and measure | 19世纪的天文学家 |
| [10:22] | the actual power of the sun was by astronomer William Herschel | 威廉赫歇耳 |
| [10:25] | in the 19th century, | 是首先尝试 测量太阳威力的人之一 |
| [10:27] | where he had the brilliant idea ofjust watching a piece of ice | 他的想法很高明 |
| [10:30] | melt to see how long it would take and therefore | 就是测量冰块融化的时间 |
| [10:32] | from the properties of the ice work out | 再根据冰块的特质 |
| [10:35] | how much sunlight was coming to the ground. | 计算地面的日照量 |
| [10:46] | As a demonstration of the sun’s power | 用这个实验来展现太阳的力量 |
| [10:49] | it doesn’t look that impressive. | 似乎没啥了不起 |
| [10:51] | But Hershel realized that he could use the time | 但赫歇耳发现 |
| [10:54] | it takes to melt one bit of ice to | 他可以用冰块融化所需的时间 |
| [10:56] | calculate the sun’s total power output. | 计算太阳能量输出的总量 |
| [11:01] | So here we see the ice is almost completely melted | 过了29分钟…将近半小时后 |
| [11:04] | in roughly 29 minutes almost half an hour. | 冰块几乎完全融化 |
| [11:06] | But Herschel was able to use this experiment | 但是赫歇耳得以使用这个实验 |
| [11:08] | and the time that it took to, | 和冰块融化所需的时间 |
| [11:10] | to melt the ice to work out some basic properties of the sun. | 推算出太阳的某些基本特性 |
| [11:15] | Here’s how Herschel’s thinking worked. | 赫歇耳的立论依据如下： |
| [11:18] | In the time it takes to melt a slab of ice on Earth | 在融化地面冰块所需的时间内 |
| [11:21] | the sun is radiating heat in all directions | 太阳朝四面八方释放热力 |
| [11:24] | enough to melt a complete shell of ice around it | 足以融化包围太阳的冰层 |
| [11:26] | a diameter of 300 million kilometres. | 冰层直径为三亿公里 |
| [11:30] | A shell half a centimetre thick | 直径三亿公里 |
| [11:32] | and 300 million kilometres across contains a lot of ice. | 厚度0.5厘米的冰层 含有大量的冰 |
| [11:36] | Enough to make an ice cube bigger than the Earth. | 足以形成比地球还大的冰块 |
| [11:40] | To melt that much ice in just 30 minutes | 要在30分钟内融化这么多冰 |
| [11:43] | would take an energy input of a billion billion billion watts. | 所需的能量输出 高达10的27次方瓦特 |
| [11:50] | It’s a rough, but surprisingly accurate experiment | 这个实验看似粗糙 但却出奇地精准 |
| [11:53] | modern satellite readings confirm the figures to within a few percent. | 现代卫星读数证实了 其误差不超过几个百分点 |
| [12:00] | It’s an almost unimaginable amount of energy. | 此能量大得几近难以想像 |
| [12:04] | If we could harness the sun’s power output | 要是能够充分利用太阳能 |
| [12:06] | for a single second it would satisfy the world’s energy | 只要短短一秒 |
| [12:09] | demands for the next million years. | 就足以满足世界 未来一百万年间的能源需求 |
| [12:17] | But it’s one thing to know how much power the sun is producing. | 但推算太阳产生的能量多少 是一回事 |
| [12:20] | It’s something else to know how it is doing it. | 厘清其制造过程又是另一回事 |
| [12:25] | Until the middle of the 20th century no-one had any idea | 在20世纪中期之前 |
| [12:28] | what made the sun work. | 没有人明白太阳的运作原理 |
| [12:30] | For scientists in Hershel’s time it was a mystery. | 对赫歇耳时代的科学家而言 这是个不解之谜 |
| [12:36] | Well one of the issues was of course what powered the sun. | 议题之一当然是 |
| [12:38] | And – um – some very clever people actually | 太阳的动力来源 |
| [12:41] | considered the fact that the sun might be powered by burning coal. | 有些颇有才智的人士甚至觉得 太阳的动力可能来自燃煤 |
| [12:46] | I mean it seems ludicrous but why not coal. | 这种说法听起来荒谬 但又有何不可呢？ |
| [12:48] | That was an important source of energy on the earth. | 毕竟在19世纪的那段时间 |
| [12:51] | Er in that part of the 19th century | 煤炭是地球的重要能量来源 |
| [12:59] | If the sun was made entirely of coal, | 但若太阳由煤炭组成 |
| [13:02] | there would be one unfortunate consequence. | 会产生一个不幸的后果 |
| [13:06] | It would burn itself out in just a few thousand years. | 它会在几千年后燃烧殆尽 |
| [13:13] | Today that sounds ridiculous. | 今日这种说法听来荒唐 |
| [13:16] | But two hundred years ago it didn’t seem so unlikely. | 但是两百年前还颇言之成理 |
| [13:22] | It was widely believed that | 当时一般人认为 |
| [13:24] | the Earth was only a few thousand years old. | 地球只有几千年的历史 |
| [13:32] | But in the mid-nineteenth century a new science | 但是19世纪中期 |
| [13:35] | was emerging that was painting | 一股新的科学势力兴起 |
| [13:36] | a very different picture of the age of the Earth. | 并对地球的年龄 提出截然不同的见解 |
| [13:43] | By looking at the deepest layers of rocks geologists | 地质学家研究深层岩石后发现 |
| [13:46] | were discovering that the Earth was much older than anyone had previously imagined. | 地球年龄远超出一般人的预期 |
| [13:53] | If that was true then the sun also had to | 如果此言属实 |
| [13:56] | have been burning for much, much longer. | 那么太阳燃烧的时间 也应该久得多 |
| [14:00] | You can see the strata and the lines in the rock in back of you | 后方岩石的地层和线条 |
| [14:03] | that represent hundreds of millions of years of geological history. | 代表了好几亿年的地质历史 |
| [14:08] | The top of Sacramento Peak up beyond this, | 我们在更后面的沙加缅度峰上 |
| [14:10] | we find fossils that are 300 million years old. | 找到了有三亿年历史的化石 |
| [14:13] | Below Sacramento Peak you’ve got more than a kilometre | 沙加缅度峰下方 |
| [14:16] | of these strata that are far older than that. | 有一公里多的地层 年代比三亿年还久远 |
| [14:19] | From the age of these strata geologists knew | 地质学家借由这些地层得知 |
| [14:22] | that the earth was at least a billion years old. | 地球的历史至少有十亿年 |
| [14:25] | At the same time astronomers thought | 但天文学家却认为 |
| [14:27] | the sun was only 10, 000 years old. | 太阳只有一万年的历史 |
| [14:30] | If the geologists were right then astronomers | 如果地质学家说得对 |
| [14:33] | had to find some other source for the Sun producing its energy. | 那么天文学家必须另外想办法 解释太阳能量的来源 |
| [14:41] | The search for the source of energy | 寻找支持了 |
| [14:43] | that could power the sun for billions of years | 太阳数十亿年的能量来源 |
| [14:45] | lasted for nearly a century. | 持续了将近一个世纪 |
| [14:50] | Eventually scientists would find the answer in the forces | 最后科学家 |
| [14:54] | that hold atoms together and in the nature of matter itself. | 终于在凝聚原子的力量 和物质的本质中找到答案 |
| [14:59] | But first you have to know what the sun is made of. | 但首先我们必须先搞清楚 太阳的组成 |
| [15:05] | To find that out you need to take a very close look at sunlight. | 想要得到答案 必须仔仔观察阳光 |
| [15:19] | When you take the light from the Sun and pass it through a prism, | 若让阳光穿过棱镜 |
| [15:22] | spread it out into the colours, | 让阳光分色排列 |
| [15:24] | as you look through it you notice that it isn’t uniform, | 你会发现阳光的组成并不一致 |
| [15:27] | that there are places that are darker. | 有些地方比较暗 |
| [15:29] | Each of those dark lines is due to a specific chemical element. | 这些暗沉的线条都代表着 特定的化学元素 |
| [15:32] | Each element has its own series of lines that are specific to it. | 每一种元素都拥有 一系列专属的线条 |
| [15:39] | Each chemical element absorbs light at specific frequencies | 每种化学元素 都会吸收特定频率的光线 |
| [15:43] | removing a strip from the spectrum. | 进而移除光谱上的特定区块 |
| [15:46] | As the light passes through the sun, | 光线穿过太阳时 |
| [15:49] | all the elements leave their mark. | 所有的元素 都会留下它们的印记 |
| [15:51] | So when the light arrives at the Earth it contains | 所以抵达地球的光线 |
| [15:54] | the complete chemical formula of the sun. | 包含了太阳的完整化学式 |
| [16:01] | If we take the spectrum and spread it out to fine details | 若是把光谱摊开… |
| [16:05] | and what we’ve done here is stacked up | 我们在这里 |
| [16:06] | pieces of the spectrum one on top of each other | 把几块光谱上下堆叠 |
| [16:09] | you see all of these dark areas. | 你们可以看到这些暗色区域 |
| [16:11] | The key to figuring out how much of these elements | 至于判定元素含量的关键 |
| [16:13] | are there is the breadth and the depth of the line; | 则是这些线条的宽度和深度 |
| [16:17] | how dark is the line and how broad is it. | 也就是它们的深浅和宽窄 |
| [16:23] | The composition of the sun lies in this bar code. | 这个条码说明了太阳的组成 |
| [16:28] | All the thin lines are caused by tiny amounts of complex elements | 这些仔仔的线条 都是微量复杂元素造成的 |
| [16:33] | metals like iron and magnesium. | 好比说像铁或镁等金属 |
| [16:36] | But there are 3 very deep, broad lines, | 但是这里有三条 很暗、很粗的线条 |
| [16:39] | and they are all caused by | 它们都是由 |
| [16:40] | an enormous amount of a single element. | 大量单一元素形成的 |
| [16:47] | There’s some helium and traces of heavier elements. | 太阳中含有氦 和少量较重的元素 |
| [16:50] | But over 90% of the sun is Hydrogen. | 但有90%是氢 |
| [17:00] | It is the simplest and most common element in the universe. | 氢是宇宙中最简单 也最常见的元素 |
| [17:05] | The secrets of the sun’s power must lie in this gas. | 太阳能量的秘密 想必和这种气体有关 |
| [17:13] | Look carefully into the night sky | 仔仔观察夜空 |
| [17:16] | and you’ll see huge clouds of | 你会发现大片由氢组成的云 |
| [17:17] | hydrogen floating in interstellar space. | 在星际间飘移 |
| [17:24] | These are nebulae. | 这些是直径可能 |
| [17:26] | And they can be hundreds of light years across. | 高达数百光年的星云 |
| [17:35] | They are some of the brightest areas in the sky | 星云被新近形成的 |
| [17:38] | lit up by the intense light of newly formed massive stars. | 巨大恒星强光照亮 是空中最明亮的区域 |
| [17:43] | In them we can see stars being born. | 我们可以在星云中看到 诞生中的恒星 |
| [17:50] | It is to areas like this that astronomers turn | 天文学家用望远镜 |
| [17:53] | their telescopes when they want to study how our sun was formed. | 观察这些区域 以研究太阳的形成过程 |
| [17:58] | There she is, okay, so now let’s recentre on her. | 在那里 把焦距移到这里 |
| [18:09] | By studying different nebulae it’s possible to | 科学家借由研究不同的星云 |
| [18:12] | piece together the stages in which stars are made. | 拼凑出恒星的形成阶段 |
| [18:21] | And it all starts in a cold dark cloud, | 这一切的起点 是一片冰冷、黝黑的云 |
| [18:24] | floating around waiting for something to happen. | 飘浮在虚无中等待大事发生 |
| [18:29] | Cold clouds like this are actually quite stable. | 像这样的冰冷云朵其实很稳定 |
| [18:32] | They will sit there for a very very long time, | 有时它们会静止几千 |
| [18:35] | for thousands and in some cases millions of years | 甚至几百万年 |
| [18:37] | before they’ll actually do anything. | 才会发生变化 |
| [18:39] | What you need to do to get the star formation process going | 它们要受到刺激 |
| [18:41] | is you need to kick it with something. | 才会展开恒星形成的过程 |
| [18:45] | That can be the impact on the cloud | 刺激可能来自超新星的爆炸波 |
| [18:48] | from one side by a supernova blast wave; | |
| [18:51] | a massive star nearby has gone boom at the end of its life | 邻近的巨大恒星 在生命尽头爆炸 |
| [18:55] | and that sends out in all directions very energetic | 并朝四面八方发出 |
| [18:58] | compression waves that hit the gas and compress it. | 能量十足的压缩波 压缩波撞击气体并将之压缩 |
| [19:05] | The shock waves knock the cloud out of balance. | 云朵因震波而失去平衡 |
| [19:08] | Causing localised clumps of hydrogen to form. | 并导致某些区域出现氢气团块 |
| [19:13] | These are the seeds from which stars grow. | 这就是萌生恒星的种子 |
| [19:19] | The increased gravity of the seeds sucks in more | 种子与日俱增的引力 |
| [19:22] | and more hydrogen in a runaway process | 吸引越来越多氢气 |
| [19:25] | that lasts for a million years. | 这样的出走过程 会持续一百万年 |
| [19:30] | As more hydrogen is squeezed into the clumps the temperature rises. | 团块聚集的氢气越多 温度就越高 |
| [19:36] | They are not yet producing light | 它们还不会发光 |
| [19:39] | but they are well on the way to becoming stars. | 但已踏上成为恒星的道路 |
| [19:43] | As they grow bigger and bigger, | 随着体积越来越大 |
| [19:45] | they start to spin and throw out a disk of debris | 它们开始旋转 |
| [19:48] | that will coalesce to form a solar system. | 甩出的碎屑形成盘状 在日后融合形成太阳系 |
| [19:54] | This kind of process is exactly the kind of process | 我们的太阳系就是这样形成的 |
| [19:56] | that would have formed our solar system. | |
| [19:58] | When we look at our solar system, | 在我们太阳系中的所有行星 |
| [20:00] | all of the planets rotate around the sun in the same direction | 都以相同的方向绕着太阳旋转 |
| [20:04] | and they all are in the same plane the same flat sheet around our sun, | 而且都位于相同平面 在相同的平面上绕着太阳旋转 |
| [20:10] | and this is exactly a consequence of the fact | 这是因为早期太阳系 |
| [20:13] | that the early solar system formed out of a broad disc. | 是在一个广阔的圆盘上形成的 |
| [20:19] | With the solar-system in place all | 太阳系就定位之后 |
| [20:22] | that is left is for the young star to light up. | 就等年轻的恒星开始发光 |
| [20:25] | When it happens it is sudden and irreversible. | 这个现象来得又快又急 而且无法逆转 |
| [20:31] | Ultimately the process starts | 这个过程终究会发生 |
| [20:37] | and because it liberates so much energy with that first fusion, | 因为第一次融合 会释放出惊人的能量 |
| [20:43] | then the process takes off. | 整个过程便一发不可收拾 |
| [20:45] | Um – it lights up a large area and it starts to shine on its own | 它照亮广阔区域 |
| [20:49] | within a matter of minutes. | 在短短几分钟内 便开始自行发光 |
| [20:50] | It’s a very quick process. | 这个过程很快 |
| [20:56] | In that first burst of light the star | 在第一波猝发的光线中 |
| [20:58] | has begun its lifelong activity as a factory | 恒星展开制造 |
| [21:01] | for making other chemical elements. | 其他化学元素的生涯 |
| [21:06] | Every atom in everything around us was made in the heart of a star | 我们周遭的一切原子 都来自恒星的核心 |
| [21:12] | and all were made from the same starting ingredient. | 而且起始成分都一模一样 |
| [21:20] | The simplest element that we have is hydrogen | 宇宙间最简单的元素是氢 |
| [21:23] | and it’s actually the building block | 它是所有其他元素的基础材料 |
| [21:26] | for all the other elements that we have. | |
| [21:31] | In the heart of the sun hydrogen nuclei | 氢原子核，也就是质子 |
| [21:34] | protons – are stuck together to make heliumlt sounds straightforward | 在太阳的核心结合形成氦 这听起来很简单 |
| [21:40] | but it can only happen in the most extreme conditions. | 但却只能发生在 最极端的情况下 |
| [21:43] | In order for these protons to come together, | 质子要两两结合的话… |
| [21:45] | because they’re both positively charged | 因为它们都带正电 |
| [21:47] | they don’t want to come together, | 所以会互相排斥 |
| [21:48] | they’ve actually got to be pushed together. | 必须要有外力压迫才行 |
| [21:53] | In order to do this you need very high temperatures | 所以需要很高的温度 |
| [21:55] | so they’re moving very fast and you also need very, | 让它们快速移动 |
| [21:58] | very high pressures. | 也需要极高的压力 |
| [22:01] | The only part of the sun that is hot and dense enough is the core. | 太阳唯一够热 密度够高的地方 就是它的核心 |
| [22:06] | An area that contains over half the star’s mass | 太阳核心的体积 不到太阳的2% |
| [22:09] | in less than 2 percent of its volume. | 但质量却超过太阳的一半 |
| [22:14] | Here at 15 million degrees the protons | 质子在一千五百万度的高温下 |
| [22:17] | are bashed together so hard that they fuse. | 猛然撞击、融合 |
| [22:23] | A helium nucleus is a tiny bit lighter | 氦原子核虽然由四个质子形成 |
| [22:25] | than the combined mass of the 4 protons it is made from. | 但重量却比四个质子轻一点 |
| [22:33] | And as Einstein tells us it is | 爱因斯坦告诉我们太阳的能量 |
| [22:35] | that tiny bit of lost mass that provides the power. | 来自这一点点流失的质量 |
| [22:41] | Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light, | 能量等于质量乘以光速平方 |
| [22:44] | times the speed of light. | |
| [22:47] | Now the speed of light is a very, very big number. | 光速是个很大的数字 |
| [22:50] | So if we just take a small amount of mass, | 所以只要一点点质量 |
| [22:52] | you get a huge amount of energy. | 就含有大量能量 |
| [22:54] | And that’s the energy which actually powers our sun. | 驱动太阳的就是这个能量 |
| [23:00] | Every second 5 million tonnes of the sun is converted to pure energy. | 太阳每秒钟有五百万�� 被转换为纯粹的能量 |
| [23:05] | And although it has been burning for 5 billion years | 虽然太阳已燃烧了50亿年 |
| [23:08] | it is only half way through its supplies of hydrogen. | 其氢气存量还剩下一半 |
| [23:13] | The light produced in the core must travel | 来自核心的光线 |
| [23:15] | over half a million kilometres to the surface. | 得行进50多万公里 才能抵达太阳表面 |
| [23:18] | And it does so very slowly. | 而且行进速度相当缓慢 |
| [23:20] | The heart of the sun is so dense that the speed of light is less | 太阳核心的密度很高 |
| [23:24] | than 1 mm a second. | 所以这里的光速 每秒不到一毫米 |
| [23:28] | It can take two hundred thousand years | 光线从太阳核心到表面 |
| [23:31] | for the light to travel from the core to the surface. | 要花20万年 |
| [23:35] | It takes just another 8 minutes to get to the Earth. | 之后只花8分钟 就能抵达地球 |
| [23:45] | This is what the power of nuclear fusion looks like | 从一亿五千万公里远的地方 眺望核融合的威力 |
| [23:48] | from 150 million kilometres away. | 就是这副景象 |
| [23:55] | This is what it looks like close up. | 近观则是这样 |
| [24:01] | The H bomb was man’s first attempt | 氢弹是人类首度试图在地球 |
| [24:03] | at recreating the sun on Earth. | 重现太阳威力的举动 |
| [24:06] | A balloon full of hydrogen squeezed | 即将一团氢气压缩至 |
| [24:08] | until it released its energy. | 它释放能量为止 |
| [24:18] | In contrast to its destructive power it’s long been realised | 除了毁天灭地的威力之外 |
| [24:22] | that controlled nuclear fusion | 受到控制的核融合 |
| [24:24] | could solve the world’s energy problems. | 可以解决世界的能源问题 |
| [24:30] | It has been one of the holy grails of science for half a century. | 这曾经在超过半世纪的时间内 是科学界的圣杯之一 |
| [24:37] | This kind of power, the H-bomb, | 威力惊人的氢弹 |
| [24:40] | is a man-made version of this, the sun. | 可说是人造太阳 |
| [24:43] | In 1958 Britain announced that | 1958年 |
| [24:45] | she could produce this power in the laboratory, | 英国宣称可以在实验室中 |
| [24:47] | in a machine called Zeta. | 利用一具叫做“奇塔”的机器 产生这种力量 |
| [24:49] | There is a real prospect of unlimited energy | 未来我们可能透过 |
| [24:51] | from controlled thermo-nuclear fusion. | 受到控制的热核融合反应 得到取之不尽的能量 |
| [24:55] | Unfortunately it wasn’t that easy. | 可惜事情没那么简单 |
| [25:00] | But now, nearly fifty years later, | 但在将近50年后的今天 |
| [25:03] | in the same laboratories in Oxfordshire scientists | 同样也是在 位于牛津郡的实验室里 |
| [25:07] | are finally managing to create their own star on Earth. | 科学家终于成功地 在地球上创造出自己的恒星 |
| [25:19] | …ready when you are. | 准备好就说一声 |
| [25:21] | Okay, ready. | 我们准备好了 |
| [25:26] | …shot, one four six five eight… | 开始发射，14658 |
| [25:35] | shot eighty five seconds. | 倒数5秒 |
| [25:46] | It might not seem like much | 看起来也许没什么了不起 |
| [25:51] | but slowed down by 300 times the pictures reveal how the gas plasma | 但放慢三百倍观察 |
| [25:56] | is being squeezed and heated to create | 就能看到气体电浆 如何被压缩、加热 |
| [25:59] | the most extreme conditions in the solar system. | 以创造太阳系内最极端的环境 |
| [26:05] | Plasmas I always like to think of as being like naughty children. | 我一直觉得 电浆就像调皮的小孩 |
| [26:10] | They’re full of energy and they are, | 充满了能量 |
| [26:12] | want to misbehave and it’s ourjob to try | 随时随地都想捣蛋 |
| [26:16] | and control that misbehaviour. | 我们的工作 就是试着控制它们的行为 |
| [26:20] | For the particles to fuse on Earth | 要让粒子在地球上融合 |
| [26:23] | the temperatures need to be raised to 10 times | 温度必须提高至 |
| [26:25] | those found at the heart of the sun. | 太阳核心的十倍 |
| [26:30] | Bombarding the gas with a stream of fast neutrons | 用高速中子束撞击气体 |
| [26:33] | raises the temperature to over 100 million degrees. | 能让温度飙高至一亿度以上 |
| [26:39] | Only then can the energy of nuclear fusion be released. | 只有这时才能释放出 核融合的能量 |
| [26:46] | After years of learning to control the plasma, | 在苦心研究控制电浆多年之后 |
| [26:49] | scientists now believe they are | 科学家相信 |
| [26:51] | within sight of harnessing the sun’s power. | 利用太阳能的时刻指日可待 |
| [26:59] | The aim of it is to be able to produce cheap, | 我们的目标是为后代子孙制造 |
| [27:02] | clean and effectively an inexhaustible supply of electricity for future generations. | 廉价、清净和用之不竭的电力 |
| [27:10] | This is only small experimental reactor. | 这只是个小型的实验反应炉 |
| [27:13] | It can only run for a few seconds | 它只能运作数秒钟 |
| [27:15] | and sucks up more energy than it creates. | 而且消耗的能量 高过于制造的能量 |
| [27:20] | But the next generation of bigger reactors | 但是新一代的大反应炉 |
| [27:22] | is already being built. | 即将问世 |
| [27:26] | When operational they will produce 10 times | 一旦开始运作之后 |
| [27:29] | more power energy than they use. | 它们可以制造 十倍于它们消耗的能源 |
| [27:32] | They will be stars on Earth. | 它们将成为地球上的恒星 |
| [27:34] | Power stations that won’t deplete natural resources | 是不会消耗自然资源 |
| [27:37] | or produce dangerous waste products. | 或产生危险废弃物的发电厂 |
| [27:40] | It sounds great. | 听来十分美好 |
| [27:42] | But recreating the sun isn’t easy | 但重现太阳并不容易 |
| [27:45] | and it may be another 50 years | 而且核融合发电厂的落实 |
| [27:47] | before the fusion power station becomes reality. | 可能还得再等50年 |
| [27:59] | Until then we’ll just have to make do | 在那之前 |
| [28:01] | with the real thing. | 我们只好将就利用真正的太阳 |
| [28:03] | But that’s not so bad. | 其实这也不赖 |
| [28:05] | Just seeing sunlight is enough to cheer us up. | 光是看到阳光 就能让人精神一振 |
| [28:12] | Well many people think it’s the warmth of the sun | 很多人认为阳光的热度 |
| [28:15] | that is associated with us feeling good | 让我们身心舒畅 |
| [28:17] | and of course that’s true. | 这话说得当然没错 |
| [28:19] | But in fact research has shown that it’s not really | 但研究结果显示 |
| [28:22] | the warmth it’s actually the light that’s important. | 最重要的不是热度，而是光线 |
| [28:26] | Sunlight controls our daily cycle | 阳光控制着我们的日常生活 |
| [28:29] | making sure we wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. | 让我们黎明即起，日落而眠 |
| [28:41] | When there’s not enough light those patterns get disturbed | 如果光线不够 我们的生活模式便会受到干扰 |
| [28:45] | with miserable effect. | 产生不幸的后果 |
| [28:48] | It’s a clinical fact that depression is more common in winter | 临床研究结果显示 忧忧症在冬天较为常见 |
| [28:52] | because of the lack of sunlight | 其原因就是日照不足 |
| [28:54] | they call it SAD seasonal affective disorder. | 这是简称为SAD的 季节性情绪失调 |
| [29:01] | Seasonal affective disorder is a depressive illness | 季节性情绪失调是一种忧忧症 |
| [29:04] | in the starts during the autumn and early winter. | 它在秋天和初冬发生 |
| [29:08] | And usually goes away completely during the spring and early summer. | 通常到了春天和初夏 |
| [29:13] | Some people feel quite miserable and depressed | 就不药而愈 |
| [29:16] | and gloomy during the winter months. | 有些人一到冬天 就觉得忧郁、消沉，诸事不顺 |
| [29:19] | And some people, a small proportion, | 少数人甚至会出现 |
| [29:21] | will go on to develop clinically significant depression which requires treatment. | 明显的忧郁症状，而需要治疗 |
| [29:38] | This is Rattenburg, | 这是拉登堡 |
| [29:40] | a fairy tale Austrian village cursed by lack of sunlight. | 这座恍若童话般的奥地利小镇 因缺乏日照而苦 |
| [29:47] | Due to a quirk of geology it gets no sunlight at all | 因为地质特性 |
| [29:50] | between November and February. | 这里从11月到2月 完全看不到阳光 |
| [29:54] | During those winter months the sun never rises high enough | 冬天时太阳的高度 |
| [29:57] | to clear the brow of Rat mountain. | 永远不会超过拉登山的陡坡 |
| [30:02] | And the town lies in permanent shadow, | 所以小镇被笼罩在阴影中 |
| [30:06] | while it’s neighbour across the river basks in the sunshine. | 对岸的邻居却沐浴在阳光中 |
| [30:10] | In winter of course it’s very cold, | 冬天的时候很冷，阴影笼罩 |
| [30:12] | it’s shadow and as you can imagine it’s cold, | 我们冷得受不了 |
| [30:17] | we are freezing and if you want to have some sun | 也是可想而知 |
| [30:20] | you have to move to the next village. | 想要晒太阳的话 必须到隔壁村子去 |
| [30:22] | It makes you happier to sit in the sunlight | 坐在阳光下 |
| [30:25] | and not to freeze in the shadow. | 总比在阴影中受冻好 |
| [30:31] | Frozen and in the dark the residents have been | 在黑暗中受冻的居民 |
| [30:34] | forced to take desperate measures to bring | 被迫以非常手段 |
| [30:36] | some light into their lives. | 让生活中出现光明 |
| [30:42] | Helmar Zangirl is a lighting expert who specialises | 照明专家赫马桑果的拿手绝活 |
| [30:46] | in bringing natural light in to some of | 就是用自然光 |
| [30:48] | the world’s biggest buildings. | 为世上最大的建筑物照明 |
| [30:51] | He may be the salvation of Rattenburg. | 他可能是拉登堡的救主 |
| [30:57] | Evolutionary speaking, | 从演化的角度来看 |
| [30:59] | man has adapted to natural light and has adapted to the sun, | 人类适应了自然光和太阳 |
| [31:03] | and if you deprive man of the sun er, | 若是剥夺了太阳光 |
| [31:07] | clearly its, it’s a different quality of life. | 人类的生活品质会大受影响 |
| [31:12] | How do you feel if you sit for one week in a, | 要你在浓雾中坐一个星期 |
| [31:15] | a place with fog? | 你会有什么感觉？ |
| [31:18] | And how do you feel when you sit for one day | 要你在阳光普照的地方坐一天 |
| [31:21] | in a place where the sun shines? | 你又会有什么感觉？ |
| [31:23] | I personally feel so much happier in the sunshine, | 我个人是觉得晒太阳快乐得多 |
| [31:26] | I can tell you that. | |
| [31:31] | The solution for Rattenburg is simple. | 解决拉登堡的问题其实很简单 |
| [31:34] | Steal some of the sunlight from the other side of the valley. | 从对岸偷些日光来就行了 |
| [31:39] | Eventually a huge system of mirrors will reflect the light of | 到时一系列的镜子会把太阳光 |
| [31:42] | the sun to a second set of mirrors on the castle above the town | 反射到小镇上方城堡的镜子上 |
| [31:47] | and then reflect it down into the streets | 然后再反射至下方的街道上 |
| [31:50] | to brighten the lives of the citizens of Rattenburg. | 照亮拉登堡居民的生活 |
| [31:54] | Well the main effect for the people in town will be | 对镇上居民最主要的影响 |
| [31:56] | that er part of the facades of the buildings | 是建筑的外观 |
| [32:00] | and parts of the street at least, of the main street, | 和主要街道的部分路段 |
| [32:03] | will be brightly illuminated and | 会被太阳光照亮 |
| [32:05] | will clearly be recognised as sunlight. | |
| [32:14] | It sounds crazy but it’s true. | 这听起来虽然很疯狂 但却一点也不假 |
| [32:16] | People will go to the extraordinary lengths for a bit of sunlight. | 人们会为了得到一丝阳光 不惜大费周章 |
| [32:25] | But the sun is much more than a giant lightbulb. | 但是太阳不只是个巨大的灯泡 |
| [32:31] | There are other forces at work in the sun. | 其内部还有其他的力量 正在运作 |
| [32:38] | Forces that change over minutes and over years. | 这些力量 可能在数分钟或数年内改变 |
| [32:43] | Forces that tear the surface apart. | 撕裂太阳表面 |
| [32:47] | We are only now beginning to understand these forces | 我们现在才开始了解这些力量 |
| [32:50] | and the effects they have on the Earth. | 及它们对地球的影响 |
| [32:53] | But we have known about them for hundreds of years. | 但我们早在几百年前 就知道它们的存在 |
| [32:57] | Because the sun gets spots. | 因为太阳上会出现黑点 |
| [33:03] | Sun spots are dark regions on the surface of the Sun, | 太阳黑子是出现在 太阳表面的黑色区域 |
| [33:06] | typically about the size of the Earth in terms of area. | 一般来说，大小和地球差不多 |
| [33:10] | Here’s a live shot of one today. | 这是今天拍到的即时影像 |
| [33:12] | Unfortunately we’ve got a very windy day with high thin clouds, | 可惜今天风很大 而且高空有稀薄的云层 |
| [33:15] | so the picture’s bouncing around and not very sharp, | 所以画面晃得很厉害 画质也不清晰 |
| [33:18] | but with very high resolution images we can show | 但以高解析度来看 |
| [33:20] | detailed structure in the sun spot. | 就能看到太阳黑子的仔部构造 |
| [33:42] | The inner part of the sun spot, | 太阳黑子的内部… |
| [33:44] | the dark umbra as we call it is dark | 即所谓的暗影 |
| [33:47] | only in comparison to the rest of the sun. | 与太阳两相对照下显得黑暗 |
| [33:50] | It’s actually bright enough that it would blind you | 其实暗影很亮 |
| [33:52] | if you looked at it alone. | 单独直视的话会瞎掉 |
| [33:56] | The spots are not static. | 太阳黑子并非静止不动 |
| [33:59] | These video images show the edges of the spot crawling, | 我们拍到的画面显示 |
| [34:02] | almost as if it was alive. | 黑子的边缘正在鲜活蠕动 |
| [34:21] | The movements of sunspots have been studied for four hundrand years. | 自从伽利略用望远镜观察太阳 对其行为有重大发现后 |
| [34:25] | Ever since Galileo trained his telescope on the sun | 人类就开始研究 太阳黑子的活动 |
| [34:29] | and made the first crucial discovery about its behaviour. | 至今已四百多年 |
| [34:34] | Surprised to see black dots creeping over the surface | 伽利略惊讶地发现 太阳表面有移动的黑点 |
| [34:38] | he kept track of them over a number of days | 因此连续观察了好几天 |
| [34:41] | and found that they were all moving in the same direction. | 结果发现它们都朝着 相同的方向移动 |
| [34:48] | To Galileo the meaning was clear | 对伽利略而言 其意义再清楚不过 |
| [34:51] | the sun was rotating | 太阳在旋转 |
| [34:53] | and was turning faster at the equator than at the poles. | 而且赤道旋风的速度比两极快 |
| [34:58] | It was a discovery that was to prove critical | 这项发现对我们了解 |
| [35:00] | in our understanding of how the sun works. | 太阳的作用机制至关重要 |
| [35:06] | Ever since Galileo records have been | 自伽利略之后 |
| [35:09] | kept of the coming and goings of sunspots | 人们便开始记录 太阳黑子的出现与消失 |
| [35:11] | and variations soon became clear. | 其变异很快就呼之欲出 |
| [35:14] | Sometimes the sun is covered in hundreds of spots | 有时太阳表面 出现数以百计的黑子 |
| [35:18] | other times there are none at all. | 有时连一个都没有 |
| [35:21] | And after a while a pattern emerged. | 久而久之 人们就归纳出一个模式 |
| [35:26] | If you observe sun spots over several years, | 若连续观察太阳黑子好几年 |
| [35:29] | they come and go with an about an eleven year cycle. | 会发现它们约每隔11年 会周期性地出现和消失 |
| [35:32] | From solar minimum where there can be no spots at all | 从连续数周或数月 |
| [35:35] | on the sun for weeks or months at a time, | 完全没有黑子的 太阳活动极小期 |
| [35:37] | to at maximum where you can have a hundred spots visible | 到表面出现好几百个 |
| [35:40] | on the surface of the sun, and then they decline again, | 太阳黑子的太阳活动极大期 |
| [35:43] | usually over about six years or so, to, back to minimum. | 接下来是为期约六年的衰退 直至进入太阳活动极小期为止 |
| [35:49] | Until recently no-one knew what was driving the solar cycle. | 我们到最近才得知 太阳周期的原理 |
| [35:54] | Or where sun spots came from. | 及太阳黑子的由来 |
| [36:00] | But people had always suspected that the scars on the suns surface | 但人们早就怀疑 |
| [36:04] | had an effect on the Earth. | 太阳表面的瘢疤会影响地球 |
| [36:06] | But no-one could quite put their finger on what it was. | 只是说不出所以然来 |
| [36:11] | It has been correlated with all kinds of different things, | 人们认为太阳黑子 与很多事情有关系 |
| [36:14] | er the price of wheat, the thickness of fur on animals, | 如谷物的价格 动物皮毛的厚度等 |
| [36:18] | I’m inundated with it every day. | 我每天都会收到大量讯息 |
| [36:19] | I got a guy that comes to my website to try and predict the, | 有个人上我的网站 |
| [36:22] | the stock market from the daily sunspot areas. | 为的就是用太阳黑子的位置 预测股市走向 |
| [36:26] | You know, ‘oh, you didn’t post them today, I gotta know! ‘ | 他会说“你今天怎么没公布？ 我一定要知道” |
| [36:29] | So, are you making money or what, I want some if you are. | 你究竟有没有赚到钱？ 有的话，我可是要分红的 |
| [36:37] | One effect sun spots do have on the earth is on the climate. | 我们可以确定的是 太阳黑子会影响地球气候 |
| [36:44] | But it is a subtle effect. | 但是影响并不明显 |
| [36:46] | Its greatest impact was | 其最大的冲击 |
| [36:47] | only noticed 3 hundred years after the event. | 在事发三百年后才被发现 |
| [36:56] | It was discovered in Greenwich by the astronomer Robert Maunder | 发现这件事的是 天文学家罗伯蒙德 |
| [37:00] | who was studying the hundreds of years of sunspot records | 当时他在格林威治的 皇家天文台 |
| [37:03] | held at the Royal Observatory. | 研究数百年来的太阳黑子纪录 |
| [37:10] | And in the late part of the 19th century he er | 他在十九世纪下半 |
| [37:13] | became particularly interested in the sunspots. | 开始对太阳黑子产生浓厚兴趣 |
| [37:15] | He discovered that there had been this peculiar effect | 他发现在十七和十八世纪下半 |
| [37:18] | in the second half of the 17th and the 18th centuries | 发生了奇怪的现象 |
| [37:20] | when the sunspot numbers diminished to a real, | 太阳黑子的数目 |
| [37:23] | really a fraction of what they are today. | 减少至今日的一小部分 |
| [37:25] | And he described this as the Maunder minimum. | 他将之称为“蒙德极小期” |
| [37:33] | For seventy years, from 1645-1715 sunspots disappeared. | 从1645年到1715年 太阳黑子消失了70年 |
| [37:40] | It was as if the engine that drives the solar cycle had stopped. | 推动太阳周期的引擎 仿佛熄火了 |
| [37:45] | And it correlated almost exactly with the last period | 北半球也在这段期间 |
| [37:48] | of prolonged cold to strike the Northern hemisphere. | 进入了漫长的寒冷期 |
| [37:52] | They call it the Little Ice Age. | 这就是“小冰河期” |
| [37:59] | What’s interesting about a period like the little ice age is | 小冰河期有意思的地方是 |
| [38:01] | that you don’t necessarily see a very large dip in temperatures, | 温度并没有大幅降低 |
| [38:04] | but nonetheless even a degree or two | 不过尽管只降低了一、两度 |
| [38:06] | is enough to see some really quite dramatic effects, | 仍然产生了明显的结果 |
| [38:09] | like pack ice advancing south from the north pole, | 如北极的浮冰向南方延伸 |
| [38:11] | like the Viking colonies in Greenland being wiped out | 格陵兰的维京人聚落消失 |
| [38:15] | by the changing climate and the population | |
| [38:17] | of Iceland falling by half. | 冰岛人口锐减五成 |
| [38:21] | Now in Britain the weather was cold enough | 英国也很冷 |
| [38:24] | that the Thames would regularly freeze in winter | 所以泰晤士河在冬天会结冰 |
| [38:26] | and one of the classic depictions of life at the time is Frost Fairs, | 当时生活的最好写照 就是冰霜市集 |
| [38:29] | when the population would hold a fair on the frozen river. | 人们会在冰冻河面上举行市集 |
| [38:32] | So things really must have been a lot harsher than they are today. | 当时的气候 绝对比现在严酷得多 |
| [38:42] | When the sunspots disappeared something on the sun changed | 太阳黑子消失时 |
| [38:46] | that cooled the Earth down. | 太阳表面的变化 导致地球温度降低 |
| [38:49] | But it wasn’t that the solar output changed. | 改变的并不是太阳的输出量 |
| [38:52] | No matter how many sunspots there are | 不论表面有多少太阳黑子 |
| [38:54] | the sun doesn’t get any hotter or brighter. | 太阳的热度和亮度都不会改变 |
| [39:03] | So the spots must have another effect. | 所以黑子一定还有别的影响 |
| [39:07] | And to see it we need a different way to look at the sun. | 想要看清这种影响 必须以不同的方式来观察太阳 |
| [39:17] | It’s notjust heat and light that that the sun | 太阳对地球放射的 |
| [39:19] | is throwing at the Earth. | 不只是光和热 |
| [39:22] | As every sunbather knows, there’s ultraviolet light too. | 热爱日光浴的人都知道 还有紫外线 |
| [39:29] | Enough UV reaches the surface to burn our skin, | 抵达地球的紫外线量 足以灼伤我们的皮肤 |
| [39:33] | but it is only fraction of the sun’s UV output. | 但这只占了 太阳紫外线输出量的一小部分 |
| [39:38] | The rest is filtered out by the atmosphere. | 其他的都被大气层过滤掉了 |
| [39:43] | It means we don’t get a complete picture of the sun from the Earth. | 这表示在地球 无法看清太阳的全貌 |
| [39:47] | To see the sun in all its glory you have to go into space. | 想要一窥太阳的真面目 必须进入太空 |
| [40:09] | From here you can see the changing sun. | 在太空才能看清 千变万化的太阳 |
| [40:20] | In the extreme UV the sunspots burn a brilliant white. | 燃烧的太阳黑子 在强烈的紫外线中呈白热状态 |
| [40:34] | In the X-ray frequencies they look even more dramatic. | X光频率下的 太阳黑子活动更戏剧化 |
| [40:38] | Huge plumes of superheated gas spout from the spots. | 大量的高热气体 从太阳黑子喷出 |
| [40:48] | When you’re seeing the visible | 一般用肉眼观察 |
| [40:49] | you’re really seeing the surface of the sun. | 只看得到太阳的表面 |
| [40:51] | But when you’re seeing the ultraviolet | 但是用紫外线或X光观察时 |
| [40:52] | or the x-rays you’re actually seeing that very hot atmosphere, | 看到的是温度高达 |
| [40:55] | and that’s about a million degrees, | 一百万度的高热气体 |
| [40:57] | whereas the surface is about six thousand degrees. | 而太阳表面的温度约为六千度 |
| [40:59] | So you’re seeing a different part of the sun | 所以我们观察到的是 |
| [41:01] | And you’re seeing a part that’s constantly changing. | 太阳的不同部位 看到的是不断变化的部位 |
| [41:08] | These phenomenal displays of solar power | 1970年代 |
| [41:11] | were only discovered in the 1970s, by the astronauts on Skylab. | 天空实验室的太空人发现了 这种太阳力量的惊人展现 |
| [41:25] | No-one had seen the sun like this before. | 从来没有人看过像这样的太阳 |
| [41:34] | Since then a number of Space telescopes have been deployed | 之后科学家为了观察太阳 |
| [41:38] | whose sole purpose is to look at the sun. | 部署了好几架太空望远镜 |
| [41:44] | The most used is Soho the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. | 其中使用最频繁的是 简称为SOHO的 太阳及日光层观测站 |
| [41:51] | It sits a million miles away from the Earth | 它位于距地球一百万哩处的 |
| [41:54] | at the Lagrangian point | 拉格朗日点 |
| [41:56] | where the gravitational pull from the Earth and the sun is equal. | 此处地球和太阳的引力相等 |
| [42:00] | Fixed in space it has an uninterrupted | 这具固定在太空中的卫星 |
| [42:02] | view of the sun and its tantrums. | 可不受任何阻碍地 观察太阳及其狂暴行为 |
| [42:08] | It has completely transformed our understanding | 这完全颠复了我们既有的观念 |
| [42:11] | you can essentially see right from inside the sun, | 因为我们可以从太阳内部开始 |
| [42:14] | right through to the coronal mass ejections | 一路看到 |
| [42:17] | as they’re leaving the sun, | 离开太阳的日冕质量抛射 |
| [42:18] | so you’re seeing way out to 30 solar radii. | 即30倍于太阳半径的距离 |
| [42:22] | Soho has played a key role in understanding | SOHO大大增进了 |
| [42:25] | the explosive power of the sun. | 我们对太阳爆炸性威力的了解 |
| [42:29] | By blocking out the discit simulates an eclipse, | 它可以遮住日面 模拟日蚀现象 |
| [42:33] | revealing the outer atmosphere and | 呈现太阳的外气层 |
| [42:35] | the true scale of the sun’s largest eruptions. | 和大型喷发的真实规模 |
| [42:41] | These are solar flares and coronal mass ejections | 这些是喷发自太阳黑子核心的 |
| [42:45] | and they erupt from the heart of sunspots. | 太阳闪焰和日冕质量抛射 |
| [42:53] | The temperatures in a solar flare will be tens of | 太阳闪焰内的温度 |
| [42:56] | millions of degrees so it’s an extremely hot, | 高达数千万度 |
| [43:00] | very dramatic change in temperature over a short period of time. | 所以是温度在短时间内 发生高热、剧烈的改变 |
| [43:05] | When they erupt completely you can get masses | 完全喷发时可以看到 |
| [43:08] | which are roughly the mass of Mount Everest | 相当于圣母峰的团块 |
| [43:10] | being flung out into the solar system. | 被抛射进入太阳系 |
| [43:14] | At solar minimum, flares are infrequent. | 在太阳活动极小期间 闪焰并不常见 |
| [43:19] | But every 11 years when the cycle peaks, at solar max, | 但每隔11年，周期到达顶峰 也就是太阳活动极大期时 |
| [43:24] | the sun puts on the best firework display in the solar system. | 太阳会出现太阳系中 最壮观的烟火戏码 |
| [43:46] | Solar astronomers are now beginning to | 太阳天文学家正逐渐开始了解 |
| [43:48] | understand the cause of these explosions. | 这种爆炸事件的起因 |
| [43:53] | They are not caused by the power of fusion. | 它们并非肇因于核融合的能量 |
| [43:56] | There is another force at work. | 而是另一种力量的运作 |
| [43:59] | It is the force of magnetism. | 这种力量就是磁力 |
| [44:03] | The sun is covered in a complex network magnetic fields. | 太阳复盖着 由磁场组成的复杂网路 |
| [44:07] | A magnetic map of the sun a familiar patchwork | 太阳表面的磁场分布 |
| [44:11] | on the face of the sun. | 看来十分眼熟 |
| [44:14] | The areas of the strongest fields coincide exactly | 因为磁场最强的部位 |
| [44:17] | with the position of sunspots. | 正好就是太阳黑子的位置 |
| [44:22] | Here the magnetic field strength can be amplified 10,000 times. | 磁场的力量 在这里可以放大一万倍 |
| [44:29] | It turns out that the regions of the strongest magnetic field | 太阳磁场最强的区域 |
| [44:32] | on the sun are in the sunspots. | 就是太阳黑子 |
| [44:35] | And in the units that we use sunspot magnetic fields | 我们测量到的磁场强度 |
| [44:38] | are roughly a thousand, two thousand, maybe three thousand gauss. | 约为一到三千高斯 |
| [44:42] | But if you look at magnets like the ones I’m playing with here, | 但是我手上这个磁铁的磁场 |
| [44:45] | the magnetic field in these magnets is about a thousand to 1500 gauss. | 约为一千到一千五百高斯 |
| [44:49] | So these have roughly the same | 所以磁场强度 |
| [44:50] | magnetic field strength as a sunspot. | 和太阳黑子差不多 |
| [44:54] | They key difference of course is that a sunspot’s | 最关键的不同点在于 |
| [44:56] | an awful lot bigger and so the total energy, | 太阳黑子大得多 |
| [44:58] | or the amount of energy in the magnetic field | 所以太阳磁场内所含的总能量 |
| [45:00] | on the sun is enormous but the field strength | 大得惊人 |
| [45:03] | at any given locationis something you can hold in your hand. | 但是任一部位的磁场强度 和一般磁铁差不多 |
| [45:09] | Sun spots are just the visible effect of magnetic fields | 太阳黑子的形成 |
| [45:13] | so strong that they can prevent the heat | 是因为磁场强度过强 |
| [45:15] | and light rising from the sun’s interior. | 以致阻挡太阳内部的 热能及光线上升 |
| [45:24] | With the right viewing equipment you can even see the magnetic fields. | 只要用合适的观测器材 就能看到磁场 |
| [45:30] | Magnetic loops arch off the surface, | 磁力圈在太阳表面形成拱形 |
| [45:33] | like iron filings around a bar magnet they’re shapes | 如同磁铁棒周围的铁屑 |
| [45:36] | are mapped out by plasma heated to a million degrees. | 一百万度的高热电浆 勾勒出它们的形状 |
| [45:41] | The largest are 200,000 kilometres high. | 最大的磁力圈有20万公里高 |
| [45:45] | And they are packed full of unstable energy. | 饱含不稳定能量 |
| [45:49] | When you add up the total energy content | 要是把磁力圈的能量加总起来 |
| [45:51] | in these loops it comes out to roughly 10 to the 21 joules | 约可得到10的21次方焦耳 |
| [45:55] | of energy and that’s roughly ten times the annual energy | 约相当于 |
| [45:59] | consumption of the united states. | 美国年度消耗能量的十倍 |
| [46:02] | Of course we can see thousands of them at any one time. | 我们不论何时 都能看到数以千计的磁力圈 |
| [46:11] | The loops are caused by the twisting | 磁力圈是因 |
| [46:13] | of the sun’s basic magnetic field. | 太阳基本磁场的扭曲所致 |
| [46:19] | Because the sun rotates faster at the equator | 因为太阳的赤道旋转速度 |
| [46:21] | than at the poles it drags the field lines with it | 比两极快 |
| [46:25] | stretching and twisting them like elastic bands. | 所以磁力线因受到拉扯 而像橡皮胶般地拉长、扭曲 |
| [46:30] | As the solar cycle goes on the fields get more | 随着太阳周期的进展 |
| [46:33] | and more twisted and break through the surface. | 磁场扭曲得越来越严重 并突破表面 |
| [46:38] | Until at Solar Max the whole sun is covered | 到了太阳活动极大期时 |
| [46:41] | in loops stretched to breaking point. | 整个太阳复满了 伸展至断裂点的磁力圈 |
| [46:47] | Solar flares are what happen | 若拉力过大，导致磁力圈断裂 |
| [46:49] | when the strain gets too much and the loops snap. | 就会产生太阳闪焰 |
| [46:56] | Basically all that energy comes out of the catastrophic | 基本上此时磁场 |
| [46:59] | release of energy that’s been stored in the magnetic fields. | 会一股脑地释放其储存的能量 |
| [47:03] | So like if you wind up an elastic band too much, | 好比说把橡皮筋转得太紧 |
| [47:05] | if you let it go with your fingers that elastic band flies across the room. | 一放开就会飞到房间的另一头 |
| [47:23] | When the energy bound within sunspots is released, | 被局限在太阳黑子内的能量 一旦释放 |
| [47:26] | billions of tonnes of plasma are fired far into space at huge speeds. | 数十亿��的电浆 便会高速喷向太空 |
| [47:33] | And sometimes they are aimed straight forthe Earth. | 有时它们朝着地球直扑而来 |
| [47:42] | The flares fly through space for 2 days. | 闪焰在太空中前进两天 |
| [47:48] | When they reach us | 它们抵达地球时 |
| [47:49] | the earth’s own magnetic field deflects most of the blow. | 泰半会因地球的磁场而转向 |
| [47:54] | But it is the impact on the magnetic field | 但闪焰对磁场造成的冲击 |
| [47:57] | which causes the effects on Earth. | 影响了地球 |
| [48:01] | It’s called Space weather and the best of its effects are magical. | 这种现象叫做太空天气 而且有时候会产生 如梦似幻的结果 |
| [48:08] | The auroras dancing displays of celestial light | 在天空中熠熠生辉的极光 |
| [48:12] | are caused by particles from the solar storm smashing | 是太阳风暴夹带的微粒 |
| [48:15] | through the magnetic field at the poles. | 撞击地球两极磁场的结果 |
| [48:21] | When they strike the upper atmosphere | 它们撞击高层大气时 |
| [48:24] | they light up the polar skies. | 会照亮极地天空 |
| [48:34] | In the strongest storms at the peak of the solar | 在太阳周期达巅峰时 |
| [48:36] | cycle the Northern lights can be seen | 产生的强烈风暴中 |
| [48:39] | as far south as Athens and Cuba. | 连雅典和古巴都看得到北极光 |
| [48:45] | But the buffeting of the magnetic field has other unseen effects. | 但对磁场的冲击 还有其他肉眼看不到的影响 |
| [48:56] | Migratory animals that navigate using the magnetic field | 利用磁场导航的候鸟 |
| [49:00] | can lose their bearings. | 可能会迷失方向 |
| [49:04] | Racing pigeons don’t come home. | 赛鸽回不了家 |
| [49:11] | And whale strandings have been | 鲸鱼搁浅的频率 |
| [49:13] | seen to increase with solar activity. | 会随着太阳的活动而增加 |
| [49:20] | But most worrying for us is the effect | 但最让我们担忧的是 |
| [49:22] | that the disrupted magnetic field can have on electronics. | 混乱磁场对电子系统 造成的影响 |
| [49:35] | The strongest storms can damage | 强烈太阳风暴可能会破坏 |
| [49:37] | or destroy satellites with devastating effects. | 或摧毁卫星，造成严重影响 |
| [49:44] | We’re sort of more sensitive to the sun | 我们对太阳的敏感程度 |
| [49:46] | than we probably realise because when the sun releases these, | 也许超乎我们的理解 |
| [49:50] | this magnetic energy in the form of solar flares and, | 太阳以太阳闪焰 |
| [49:52] | and coronal mass ejections, | 和日冕质量抛射的形式 释放磁力时 |
| [49:54] | maybe you don’t notice it at first, but um, | 也许你一开始不会注意到 |
| [49:57] | the crackle on your cell phone or your cell phone going out | 但手机的杂音或当机 |
| [50:00] | may actually be caused by enhanced activity on the sun. | 很可能是因为 太阳活动增强所致 |
| [50:11] | Mobile telephones, television, | 行动电话、电视 |
| [50:14] | airplane navigation even weapons guidance systems | 飞机导航系统 |
| [50:17] | all rely on satellite communication | 甚至武器导航系统 都仰赖卫星通讯 |
| [50:20] | and all can be disturbed by space weather. | 所以都会受到太空天气的干扰 |
| [50:26] | The more we are reliant on these systems | 我们越仰赖这些系统 |
| [50:29] | the more we will feel the effects of the sun’s tantrums. | 就越能感受到太阳发火的威力 |
| [50:40] | But we still don’t understand all of the effects of Space Weather. | 但我们对太空天气造成的影响 仍未透彻了解 |
| [50:46] | No-one can explain the effect on the climate. | 没有人能解释 其对气候造成的影响 |
| [50:50] | Or why the disappearance of sunspots should cause an ice age. | 或是太阳黑子消失 为何会引发冰河时期 |
| [50:57] | It may not matter. | 也许已经无所谓了 |
| [50:59] | The small effect that solar variation has on the climate | 太阳活动对气候 造成的微小变化 |
| [51:03] | has long since been drowned out by man-made global warming. | 早就因人为的全球暖化 而相形见绌 |
| [51:11] | As the world warms up, | 在地球日益暖化的今天 |
| [51:13] | the sun may yet prove an unlikely source of cooling. | 太阳也许能提供 意想不到的冷却效果 |
| [51:17] | The greenhouse effect could be stopped by harnessing its heat. | 我们可以借由利用太阳的热力 而阻止温室效应 |
| [51:30] | The American Indians of the Southwest deserts | 住在美国西南部 沙漠里的原住民 |
| [51:32] | have understood the importance of living sustainably | 早在数百年前 |
| [51:35] | with their environment for 100s of years. | 就已了解永续生活的重要性 |
| [51:41] | We have these natural disasters like the big old fires, | 近年来的天灾 |
| [51:45] | the volcano’s erupting, | 如野火、火山喷发 |
| [51:47] | the big old earth quakes, the tsunami. | 地震和海啸等 |
| [51:50] | That’s the earth telling us that it’s getting pretty tired. | 都是地球在告诉我们它累了 |
| [51:53] | It’s warning us that we need to slow down. | 警告我们要放慢脚步 |
| [52:08] | On the Mesas of Arizona, | 在供电网路范围之外的 |
| [52:10] | far beyond the reach of the electricity grid lies Old Oraibi. | 老欧拉比村 位于亚利桑那州的方山 |
| [52:15] | The oldest occupied settlement in North America. | 这是美国年代最久远的 居住聚落 |
| [52:18] | For 1000 years the Hopi Indians have lived here in harmony | 奉行着天人合一的 霍皮族原住民 |
| [52:22] | with their environment. | 在这里住了一千多年 |
| [52:29] | But that doesn’t mean that they have to live | 这并不表示他们无法享受 |
| [52:30] | without the conveniences of modern life. | 现代生活带来的便利 |
| [52:33] | They have just realized that they are already | 他们不久前发现 |
| [52:36] | getting all the power they need. | 自己已经拥有了 所需的一切能源 |
| [52:42] | Under the clear skies of the desert a family | 在一碧如洗的沙漠天空下 |
| [52:44] | can be supplied with electricity from a couple of solar panels. | 两片太阳能板就能满足 一个家庭的能源需求 |
| [52:51] | Being that we pray to the sun every day, | 我们每天向太阳礼拜 |
| [52:53] | it’s got our heart felt desires, he receives it every day, | 我们希望太阳神 日日听到我们的祈祷 |
| [52:59] | we thought the best source of energy should come from the sun. | 我们认为 太阳是最好的能量来源 |
| [53:08] | A few miles across the desert the idea is finally catching on | 数哩之外的美国大众 |
| [53:12] | with the rest of American civilization. | 终于接受了这个理念 |
| [53:15] | But, naturally, it’s on a much bigger scale. | 但是规模自然大得多 |
| [53:22] | These are Stirling Dishes the Daddy of solar power systems. | 这些是太阳能界龙头老大 斯特林公司出品的太阳能碟 |
| [53:28] | And they may be about to solve the energy crisis | 这套系统说不定可以解决 |
| [53:30] | facing the cities of the American west. | 美国西部城市面临的能源危机 |
| [53:36] | People want to run their air conditioners, | 人们白天要开灯 |
| [53:37] | their computers, their lights during the day | 开冷气和用电脑 |
| [53:40] | and we run out of energy. | 所以能源不够用 |
| [53:44] | We have a solar furnace 90million miles away | 九千万哩外的巨大太阳能炉 |
| [53:47] | that provides life for all of Earth. | 让地球生物生生不息 |
| [53:49] | In the past we have been unable to harness that potential | 过去因为受限于 |
| [53:53] | because the efficiency, the cost etc. | 太阳能系统的效率和成本等 |
| [53:55] | Of the systems didn’t make it viable | 我们无法利用它的能源 |
| [53:57] | what’s changed is technology. | 但如今日新月异的科技 |
| [53:59] | The technology now allows us to build large scale, | 让我们得以建造 |
| [54:03] | highly efficient, cost effective systems. | 规模庞大、效率惊人 又节省成本的能源系统 |
| [54:08] | Each dish tracks the movement of the sun across the sky, | 每个太阳能碟都亦步亦趋地 追踪太阳在空中的位置 |
| [54:12] | focusing the heat onto a single point. | 把热能集中在单一点上 |
| [54:15] | Where it is converted to electricity. | 并将之转换为电力 |
| [54:21] | They are twice as efficient as any other solar power system. | 它们的效率 是其他太阳能系统的两倍 |
| [54:25] | With one you could power a small village. | 一个太阳能碟 能满足一座小村的能源需求 |
| [54:28] | A fieldof them could power a city. | 一大批则能供给一座城市 所需的能源 |
| [54:34] | Each system produces about 25 kw | 一套系统的发电量是25�� |
| [54:36] | which is enough to power about 10 homes. | 这可满足十个家庭的能源需求 |
| [54:39] | However we plan to deploy these on a large scale. | 但我们打算大规模部署 |
| [54:42] | 20,000 of these, | 两万个太阳能碟的发电量 |
| [54:43] | which is massive about five hundred megawatts | 是500百万瓦 |
| [54:46] | which is the equivalent to a coal fired plant, | 这相当于一座火力发电厂 |
| [54:47] | or maybe even a nuclear plant. | 甚至一座核电厂 |
| [54:51] | The ink is just drying on the contract to | 他们才刚刚签定合约 |
| [54:53] | build the first commercial solar power station. | 建造第一座商业太阳能发电厂 |
| [54:59] | It will fill 5 square miles of the vast Californian desert | 完工之后偌大的加州沙漠 |
| [55:02] | with mirrors and will supply electricity | 将会有五平方哩铺满镜子 |
| [55:05] | to the city of San Diego. | 以供应圣地牙哥所需的电力 |
| [55:08] | In time, as the technology and efficiency | 未来随着技术和效率的提升 |
| [55:10] | improves systems like these may spread around the world. | 像这样的系统将会遍布全球 |
| [55:21] | These dishes are direct descendents | 这些太阳能碟是巨石阵 |
| [55:23] | of the stone monuments of Stonehenge and Orkney. | 和奥克尼石碑的直系后代 |
| [55:30] | Separated by 5000 years they all embody | 虽然相隔五千年 |
| [55:34] | our desire to understand the sun, | 但它们都体现了 人类了解太阳 |
| [55:36] | to be bathed in its light and to tap into its awesome power. | 沐浴在阳光下 及利用太阳惊人能源的欲望 |
| [55:43] | He’s quiet, he’s clean, he’s powerful. | 太阳安静、纯净、威力无穷 |
| [55:48] | This was the way I was raised. | 小时候大人是这样教我的 |
| [55:51] | Raised to respect him and to offer those prayers to him for keeping us | 教我要尊敬太阳 |
| [55:57] | for the length of time that he has. | 对太阳祈祷 希望它能永生永世地保护我们 |
| [55:59] | He’s done this for generations, | 太阳照亮了 |
| [56:01] | and generations and hopefully he will you know in the future. | 我们过去的世世代代 也希望能照亮我们未来的子孙 |
| [56:09] | The sun will probably shine down on our civilisations | 只要我们的文明 存在于世的一天 |
| [56:13] | for as long as they exist. | 太阳就会照亮它们 |
| [56:15] | If we survive for another billion years | 如果人类能再存在十亿年 |
| [56:18] | the sun will still be there. | 太阳仍然会高挂天际 |
| [56:25] | Butjust as the sun was once born, it will one day die. | 但万事万物有生必有死 太阳也不例外 |
| [56:29] | And when it does so, it will take the Earth with it. | 届时地球将会和它同归于尽 |
| [56:36] | In about 5 billion years time the sun will run out of hydrogen. | 50亿年后 太阳的氢气将会燃烧殆尽 |
| [56:44] | When it does it will become a red giant. | 到时候太阳会变成一颗红巨星 |
| [56:50] | Deprived of fuel the core will shrink. | 失去燃料的核心将会收缩 |
| [56:53] | Generating so much heat that the outer layers | 产生大量高热 |
| [56:56] | will balloon into the solar system. | 导致外层向太阳系膨胀 |
| [56:59] | The inner planets will be swept up. | 内侧行星将会遭其吞噬 |
| [57:04] | It may even swallow the Earth. | 甚至连地球都难以幸免 |
| [57:08] | Whether it is engulfed or not the Earth is doomed. | 其实不论是否被吞噬 地球已经在劫难逃 |
| [57:14] | The sun, burning 2000 times hotter than it does now | 燃烧热度为现今两千倍的太阳 |
| [57:18] | will melt and seal the outer layers of the planet. | 将会融化、封死地球的外层 |
| [57:27] | Then suddenly the sun will stop burning. | 然后太阳会骤然停止燃烧 |
| [57:34] | As the remains of the solar system is plunged into darkness | 残余的太阳系陷入黑暗时 |
| [57:38] | the sun’s core will collapse and with its last gasp it | 太阳的核心崩塌 |
| [57:42] | will blow its remaining shroud of gas into space. | 并以最后一口气 将残余的气体喷至太空中 |
| [57:48] | It will be forever night. | 此后将是无穷无尽的黑夜 |
| [57:51] | The story of the sun and the earth will have ended. | 太阳和地球的故事 将会画下句点 |
| [57:55] | And a small part of the outer arm of the Milky Way | 银河的外缘 |
| [57:59] | will be a little bit darker. | 将出现一小块黑暗的区域 |
| [58:03] | But around it in the rest of the universe | 但是在周遭的宇宙中 |
| [58:06] | the same story will be being told | 十亿颗微不足道的小恒星 |
| [58:08] | by a billion other small insignificant stars | 将诉说着相同的故事 |
| [58:12] | twinkling in the vastness of space. | 在浩瀚宇宙中闪闪发光 |