约翰·古德里克（John Goodricke）是一个只获准 John Goodricke was a man who was permitted only the
最简短的瞥见星星 briefest glimpse of the stars.
然而，可以说他是其中一位 And yet, it could be said that he made one of the
最伟大的发现 greatest discoveries of all.
他因儿童时期的疾病而完全失聪 He had been left completely deaf by a childhood illness.
也许这就是为什么他这么仔细地看着 And maybe that's why he looked so carefully.
在1784年一个晴朗的夏日之夜， On a clear summer night in 1784,
他出去看看是否还有一颗恒星 he went outside to see if a particular star was still
做某事使他神秘 doing something that mystified him.
以前没有其他天文学家曾报道过的东西 Something that no other astronomer had ever reported before.
古德里克不敢相信自己的眼睛 Goodricke couldn't believe his own eyes.
这颗叫做Beta Lyrae的星星 The star, called Beta Lyrae,
在很短的时间内亮度会定期变化 changed regularly in brightness over a very brief period of time.
只有几天 Only days.
有什么可能使一颗星星做到这一点？ What could possibly make a star do that?
更令人惊讶的是，古德里克发现他可以 Even more surprising, Goodricke found that he could
高度准确地预测其变化 predict its variations with high accuracy.
是什么原因导致恒星亮度发生这种变化？ What could cause such a change in a star's brightness?
我想到的所有情景都无法解释 None of the scenarios that came to mind explained the
在他面前的证据 evidence before him.
然后，他想到了另一种可能性 And then, he thought of another possibility.
假设有东西绕着Beta天琴座飞行 Suppose there was something orbiting Beta Lyrae
经常使恒星黯然失色 that eclipsed the star on a regular basis.
但是那会是什么呢？ But what could it be?
“也许是一个世界？” "A world perhaps?"
一万亿呢？ How about a trillion?
♪♪ ♪ ♪
当John Goodricke的发现引起注意时 When John Goodricke's discovery came to the attention
在1786年享有盛誉的英国皇家学会 of the prestigious British Royal Society in 1786,
他立即被选为会员 he was immediately made a member.
这种荣耀的消息从未传给他， Word of this honor never reached him,
几天后，他死于肺炎 days later he was dead of pneumonia.
他只有21岁 He was only 21.
距离另一位天文学家150年 It would be 150 years before another astronomer
将解决古德里克的奥秘 would solve Goodricke's mystery.
在此过程中，永远改变我们的宇宙 And in the process, change our cosmos forever.
即使在小时候，杰拉德·彼得·库珀（Gerard Peter Kuiper）仍然可以 Even as a child, Gerard Peter Kuiper could
看得比谁都远 see farther than anyone else.
他看到星星对其他人来说太遥远而晕倒 He saw stars too distant and too faint for others
不用望远镜就能找到 to find without a telescope.
这是一个多世纪前的荷兰 This was in the Netherlands more than a century ago.
那时，裁缝的儿子无法 Back then, the son of a poor tailor could not
希望成为一名天文学家 hope to become an astronomer.
但是这个男孩不会被阻止 But the boy would not be stopped.
那时，天文学家认为宇宙是由 Back then, astronomers thought that the cosmos consisted of
只有少数几个行星，就是我们自己的太阳系的行星 only a handful of planets, those of our own solar system.
许多其他恒星只是荒芜之地 The great multitude of other stars were just barren points
从未生出世界的光 of light that had never given birth to worlds.
我们在地球上仍然可以感到特别 We on Earth could still feel special.
科学家告诉我们，我们的恒星系统 Our star system, the scientists told us,
是所有世界中最稀有的，有世界和月亮祝福的人 was the rarest of all, one blessed by worlds and moons.
库珀渴望了解我们的太阳及其行星 Kuiper yearned to know how our Sun and its planets
成为 came to be.
然后去了莱顿大学， And made his way to the University of Leiden,
在那儿他迅速出众 where he quickly distinguished himself.
他应邀加入了动态天文学界 He was invited to join the dynamic astronomical community
在美国，但是柯伊伯（Kuiper）边缘粗糙， in the United States, but Kuiper had rough edges,
他很有争议，很容易陷入冲突 he was argumentative and easily drawn into conflict
和他的同事们 with his colleagues.
指引遥远的天文台的前景 The prospect of directing a remote observatory far away
来自科学文化之都的必须 from the capitals of scientific culture must have
吸引了他 appealed to him.
而且，您可以在那里看到更好的星星 And besides, you could see the stars better there
而不是其他任何地方 than just about anywhere else.
库珀在麦当劳天文台获得任命， Kuiper was given an appointment at the McDonald Observatory,
位于西德克萨斯州的一角 situated in a corner of West Texas.
在世纪之交，已经发现一半 At the turn of the century, it had been discovered that half
可见的恒星确实是引力对 the visible stars were really gravitational pairs.
大多数双星就像双胞胎， Most binary stars are like twins,
由同一个气体和灰尘的子宫形成 forming from the same womb of gas and dust.
其他人分别成年并在万有引力下 Others come of age separately and become gravitationally
在以后的发展中彼此参与 involved with each other later in their development.
而另一半则一生都保持单身 And the other half remain single throughout their lives.
柯伊伯选择专注于双星 Kuiper chose to concentrate on the binary stars.
他想知道他们是否可以阐明 He wondered if they could shed light on the way that the
我们太阳系中的行星形成并成为 planets in our solar system formed and came to be
万有引力地绑定到我们的太阳 gravitationally bound to our Sun.
明亮的提升 18小时50分钟 Bright ascension. 18 hours, 50 minutes.
偏角加33度 Declination plus 33 degrees.
2175分钟 2175 minutes.
嗯 Mm-hmm.
库珀看着同一颗恒星 Kuiper looked at the very same star that
150年前让John Goodricke感到困惑 had baffled John Goodricke 150 years before,
但是柯伊伯当时正用更大的望远镜观察它 but Kuiper was looking at it with a much bigger telescope.
Kuiper拥有强大的力量 And Kuiper was armed with an awesome power that didn't
存在于古德里克时代，光谱学 exist in Goodricke's time, spectroscopy.
光谱学是一种分解任何物体的光的方法 Spectroscopy is a way to dissect the light of any
单颗恒星找到其特定原子 single star to find its particular atomic and
分子组成 molecular composition.
库珀观察了产生的光的光谱 Kuiper looked at the spectrum of the light produced
贝塔·里拉（Beta Lyrae）的作品，与所有星星一样， by Beta Lyrae and saw that, as with all stars,
那里有很多氢和氦， there was plenty of hydrogen and helium,
但也有铁钠和硅 but there was also iron sodium and silicon.
到目前为止，没有任何惊喜 So far, no surprises there.
现在，转过来了 Now, here comes the twist.
亮线？ Bright lines?
那些亮线从哪里来？ Where were those bright lines coming from?
当时，没有天文学家理解为什么亮线 At that time, no astronomer understood why bright lines
会出现在恒星的光谱中 would appear in the spectrum of a star.
柯伊伯跃升为两颗星的结论 Kuiper leapt to the conclusion that the two stars
如此亲密，以至于他们交换事物， were so close that they were exchanging matter,
会产生这种特征的超高温气体 super-hot gases that would produce such a signature.
为了了解他那天晚上所见， In trying to understand what he had seen that night,
库珀发现并命名为最星际 Kuiper discovered and named the most interstellar
宇宙中的关系 relationship in the cosmos.
被恒久的恒星物理锁定的恒星， Stars that are physically locked in everlasting oneness,
被引力和火桥束缚在一起 bound together by gravity and a bridge of fire
由明星的东西制成 made of star stuff.
一座八百万英里长的桥， A bridge eight million miles long,
连接两颗星， connecting two stars,
比我们的太阳大三倍 one three times more massive than our Sun,
其他13倍更大 the other 13 times greater still.
接触双星系统 A contact binary star system.
他们为什么不像我们自己的明星一样圆呢？ Why aren't they round like our own star?
他们是如此亲密， They are so closed to one another,
引力的潮汐力将它们拉在一起并拉伸 tidal forces of gravity pull them together and stretch them
燃烧的泪珠 into flaming teardrops.
Beta Lyrae系统距离地球约1,000光年 The Beta Lyrae system is about 1,000 light-years from earth.
20世纪中叶最大的望远镜 The largest telescopes of the mid-20th century were just not
足以将它们分解为独立的恒星 powerful enough to resolve them as individual stars.
您需要光谱学的新功能 You needed that new power of spectroscopy
解开他们 to disentangle them.
柯伊伯想象着如何形成联系 Kuiper imagined how the formation of the contact
双星系统可能发生了 binary star system could have happened.
他推论说，它们是在 He deduced that they were formed when a vast cloud of
气体和尘埃变得如此稠密，以至于形成了引力漩涡 gas and dust become so dense that gravitational whirlpools formed.
在考虑这些联系二进制文件时， In thinking about these contact binaries,
库珀忍不住想知道这些恒星中的任何一个 Kuiper couldn't help but wonder if any of these stellar
求爱从来没有成功 courtships ever failed to catch on fire.
柯伊伯问自己，是我们的世界， Kuiper asked himself, was our world,
我们的月亮和我们太阳系的所有行星 our Moon and all the planets of our solar system nothing
不仅仅是一个失败的双星系统？ more than a failed binary star system?
如果那是我们太阳系的创造方式， And if that's how our solar system was created,
整个宇宙中其他恒星周围发生了同样的事情吗？ had the same thing happened around other stars throughout the cosmos?
杰拉德·库珀（Gerard Kuiper）具有特殊的力量， Gerard Kuiper had a special power,
他能看到的比任何人都远 he could see farther than anyone else.
他是第一个设想我们现在生活的宇宙的人 He was the first to envision the universe we now live in.
没有孩子般繁星点缀的贫瘠广阔， Not a barren vastness meagerly dotted by childless stars,
但是一个充满可能世界的地方， but one overflowing with possible worlds,
无数的行星和卫星 countless planets and moons.
1949年，库珀宣布世界震惊 In 1949, Kuiper astonished the world by declaring that
我们的太阳系毕竟不是那么特别 our solar system was not so special after all,
每个其他的星星都有自己的世界大家庭 that every other star had its own family of worlds.
也许是一个世界？ A world perhaps?
但是科学还没有为那个宇宙做好准备， But science wasn't ready for that universe,
它甚至还没有准备好迈出第一步 it wasn't even ready to take its first baby steps off the planet.
为什么不？ Why not?
科学被雕刻成小王国， Science was carved up into little kingdoms,
各种科学学科和科学家 the various scientific disciplines and scientists of
一门学科没有与另一门学科合作 one discipline didn't collaborate with anyone from another.
但这必须改变，我们才能冒险超越地球 But this had to change for us to venture beyond Earth.
在库珀与 It all came to a head in a feud between Kuiper and
另一个伟大的科学家 another great scientist.
就像接触双星系统的两颗星一样， Like two stars of a contact binary system,
他们无法脱离 they could not disengage.
但是尽管他们互相憎恶， But despite their loathing for each other,
他们设法创造了一种新的科学， they managed to create a new kind of science and they
开创了太空时代， pioneered the Space Age,
指导其最大的远见和声音 mentoring its greatest visionary and voice.
♪♪ ♪ ♪
有时候，宇宙刚闯入 Sometimes, the cosmos just barges right in
像今晚一样打倒你的门 and breaks down your door, like tonight.
这里发生了什么？ What's going on here?
我们的星球正在穿越彗星的史诗遗迹， Our planet is passing through the epic remnants of a comet,
一个数百万英里长的碎片场 a debris field millions of miles long.
这就是为什么看起来今晚正在下雨星 That's why it looks like it's raining stars tonight.
但是他们根本不是星星 But they're not stars at all,
在地球大气层中燃烧的只是少量的岩石和冰块 just bits of rock and ice burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
这被称为流星雨 It's called a meteor shower.
每年的同一时间都会发生一次 And this one happens at the same time every year.
为什么？ Why?
因为地球绕太阳公转需要一年的时间， Because it takes a year for Earth to orbit the Sun and
回到彗星所在的那个地方 return to that same place where the comets
很久以前就已经裸奔了 streaked by so long ago.
那是一年 That's what a year is.
这可能是那颗彗星的一块，也可能是 This could be a piece of that comet or possibly
小行星的碎片 a fragment of an asteroid.
它来自另一个世界 It came from another world,
太阳系创建过程中的剩余物 a leftover from the creation of our solar system.
但是如何理解呢？ But how to understand it?
好吧，回到Gerard Kuiper的时代， Well, back in Gerard Kuiper's time,
在20世纪中叶， during the middle of the 20th century,
这取决于你是什么样的科学家 it depended on what kind of a scientist you were.
地质学家会把锤子砸碎 The geologists would bring their hammers and break this
吸盘分开，并在显微镜下观察其灰尘 sucker apart and look at its dust under a microscope to
研究其晶体结构 study its crystalline structure.
这是他们找出其中缺少的部分的方法 It was their way of finding out which missing piece in
陨石可以提供的地球难题 this puzzle of Earth the meteorite could provide.
化学家们正在寻找相同的答案， The chemists were searching for the same answers,
但是他们会把它放在酸里看是否可以 but they would drop it in acid to see if it could be
从一种化合物转变为另一种化合物 transformed from one compound into another,
折磨它看是否会放弃 torturing it to see if it would give up
关于自然的秘密 its secrets about nature.
物理学家们希望看到它最裸露的地方 The physicists would want to see it at its most naked.
剥去其质量，密度和硬度 Stripped down to its mass, its density, its hardness.
其耐热​​性 Its resistance to heat.
这位生物学家甚至都不会停下来捡起它 The biologist wouldn't even stop to pick it up.
那时，他们会一直走下去，因为 Back then, they would've walked right by it because
他们认为没有陨石的机会 they didn't think there was any chance that a meteorite
来自太空与他们有任何关系 from space had anything to do with them.
生命只能来自一个地方，就在这里，地球 Life could only be from one place, right here, Earth.
您想知道最疯狂的事情吗？ And you want to know the craziest thing?
那时候 Back then,
天文学家也将过去 the astronomers would've walked right by it, too.
他们的视线集中在距离上，我们不能 Their sights were focused on the distance and we can't
真的怪他们 really blame them.
那时天文学发生了什么？ What was happening in astronomy back then?
关于我们太阳系以外的事物的大想法， Big ideas about things far beyond our solar system,
爱因斯坦的相对论 Einstein's theory of relativity,
带着光束穿越宇宙的愿景 with its vision of riding a light beam across the cosmos
埃德温·哈勃（Edwin Hubble）发现宇宙在膨胀， and Edwin Hubble's discovery that the universe was expanding,
遥远的星系正在彼此飞离 that distant galaxies were flying away from one another.
那就是引发鸡皮b，而不是看着愚蠢的岩石 That's what raised goosebumps, not looking at a dumb rock
躺在自己的后院 lying in your own backyard.
研究我们自己的行星，卫星，彗星和流星 Studying the planets, moons, comets and meteors of our own
微小的太阳系似乎就像一个小联盟 tiny solar system seemed like little league.
直到Kuiper敢于冒险进入领土 Until Kuiper dared to venture into territories
天文学的禁区 off-limits to astronomy.
夜复一夜，他会留在这里... Night after night, he would stay up here...
演奏小提琴的45吨乐器的演奏家 A virtuoso playing the 45-ton instrument like a violin.
在太阳系中寻找其起源的线索 Searching the solar system for clues to its origin.
他独自认识的一个谜是无法解决的 A mystery that he alone recognized was insoluble
没有所有科学学科的合作企业 without the cooperative enterprise of all the scientific disciplines.
但是科学家们并不知道他们彼此需要 But the scientists didn't know they needed one another.
没有一个大学系 There wasn't a single university department where
多学科的科学家可以研究行星天文学 scientists of multiple disciplines could study planetary astronomy.
所以在这茫茫荒野中 So here, in the middle of nowhere,
在西得克萨斯州的一个角落，柯伊伯指挥了他的一个人 in a corner of West Texas, Kuiper conducted his one-man
探索太阳系 exploration of the solar system.
他看着土星的卫星之一泰坦（Titan）， He looked at Titan, one of Saturn's moons,
发现它有气氛， and discovered that it had an atmosphere,
它充满了甲烷 it was thick with methane.
天空的光点突然变成了真实的地方 A point of light in the sky had suddenly become a real place.
柯伊柏（Kuiper）用分光镜探测了 Kuiper used the spectroscope to probe the acrid clouds in
木星的高层大气，看看它们是由什么组成的， the upper atmosphere of Jupiter to see what they were made of,
它们的化学和原子结构 their chemical and atomic structures.
当他看着火星时， And when he looked at the red planet, Mars,
他在大气中发现了二氧化碳，他想知道， he found carbon dioxide in its atmosphere and he wondered,
“我在看我星球的未来还是过去？” "Am I looking at my planet's future or its past?"
但是对于某些人来说，柯伊伯所做的不过是侵入 But to some people, Kuiper was doing nothing more than trespassing.
与天文学家接触化学物质 Butting into chemical matters where an astronomer
没有生意 had no business.
Harold Urey是一名化学家 Harold Urey was a chemist.
像Gerard Kuiper一样， Like Gerard Kuiper,
他还必须努力进入科学领域 he also had to fight his way into science.
Urey的家人像Kuiper一样贫穷 Urey's family was poor like Kuiper's.
所以他在一家 So he took a job teaching grammar school in a
蒙大拿州的采矿营地 mining camp in Montana.
他的一位学生的父母敦促他 The parents of one of his students urged him to
找到一种上大学的方法 find a way to get to college.
Harold Urey一直采纳该建议， Harold Urey took that advice all the way to a
诺贝尔化学奖 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
到1949年，他高高在上， By 1949, he was riding high,
芝加哥大学的杰出教授 a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago.
然后，现在 Then, and now,
世界上最伟大的科学之都之一 one of the world's great capitals of science.
但是当Urey读早报时， But when Urey read his morning paper,
东西开始凝结在他体内， something began to curdle inside him,
越来越高的怨恨 a rising resentment.
首先，对一位科学家的知名度感到震惊 First, a pang at a fellow scientist's heightened celebrity.
好吧，那很正常 Well, that was normal.
然后，他谈到了行星的起源 Then he got to the part about the origin of the planets.
他因为天文学家正在制造而得罪 He was offended that an astronomer was making
关于太阳系化学性质的声明 pronouncements about the chemical nature of the solar system.
那是他的地盘 That was his turf.
科学家是人类 Scientists are human.
我们是灵长类动物 We're primates.
我们和其他所有人一样都承担着同样的进化重任 We carry the same evolutionary baggage as everyone else.
柯伊珀（Kuiper）和尤里（Urey）是两位选择了阿尔法男性 Kuiper and Urey were two alpha males who chose
科学论据是他们战斗的武器 scientific argument as their weapon of combat.
两个人为一个人质作战， And the two men fought over a single hostage,
一个年轻的学生 a young student.
卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）小时候， When Carl Sagan was a kid,
他住在布鲁克林的一间小公寓里 he lived here, in a small apartment in Brooklyn.
在1940年代中期，他绘制了这张图， In the mid-1940s, he made this drawing,
充满预测， filled with predictions,
现在位于美国国会图书馆 that is now in the US Library of Congress.
♪♪ ♪ ♪
3、2、1、0所有引擎都在运行 3, 2, 1, 0. All engine running.
起飞，我们起飞了！ Liftoff, we have a liftoff!
在一个生活在最后几秒钟的时代 In an era where life here was in the last seconds
在地球上的40亿人口中， of its four billion captivity on Earth,
他梦想着去行星，甚至到星星 he dreamed of going to the planets and even to the stars.
但是他不想只是想像力 But he didn't want to just go in his imagination,
他真的想去 he wanted to really go.
他想知道那些世界到底是什么样的 He wanted to know what those worlds were really like.
他知道做到这一点的唯一方法就是成为一名科学家 And he knew that the only way to do that was to become a scientist.
这个男孩会落在两个交战的巨人的翅膀之下 The boy would come under the wings of the two warring giants.
他们互相憎恨， As much as they hated each other,
他爱他们两个 he loved them both.
他们三个在一起将把墙壁推倒 Together, the three of them would tear down the walls
在科学家之间 between the scientists.
这个男孩会推倒最高的墙， And the boy would tear down the tallest wall,
科学与其他人之间的关系 the one between science and everyone else.
为我做点事 Do something for me.
我要你假装我们生活在任何时候 I need you to pretend that we live in a time before any
宇宙飞船或人类曾经离开地球， spacecraft or human had ever left Earth,
没有人从太空看到过我们的世界 no one had ever seen our world from space.
最伟大的艺术家最奢侈的幻想是 The most extravagant fantasies of the greatest artists were
无法匹配即将发生的事情 no match for what was coming.
这就是他们中的一个人想象地球必须从太空看起来的样子 This is how one of them imagined Earth must look from space.
然后，在一天内的瞬间 And then, in one instant on a single day,
一切都变了 everything changed.
这就是地球母亲裸露时的样子， This is how Mother Earth looked when she was naked,
在她附近有近5,000颗卫星进入轨道之前， before nearly 5,000 satellites were in orbit around her,
之前还没有人从十倒数 before anyone had ever counted backwards from ten.
1957年10月4日， On October 4, 1957,
苏联成为第一个浸泡其国家的国家 the Soviet Union became the first nation to dip its
脚趾伸入宇宙海洋的浅滩 toe into the shallows of the cosmic ocean.
它发射了人造卫星1 It launched Sputnik 1,
一个简单的无线电发射器，每96分钟绕地球一周 a simple radio transmitter that circled Earth every 96 minutes.
在地球上，人们来到外面寻找 All over the planet, people came outside to find
天空中的新光是人造的月亮 this new light in the sky, a man-made moon.
没有什么可以阻止我们实现我们的目标 Nothing could stop us from achieving our
最大胆的梦想 most daring dreams.
想一想，我们所做的就是夜空的新光 Think of it, something we made was a new light in the night sky.
有点像星星 Something like a star.
发生这种情况时 As this was happening,
这个男孩正在成为科学家， the boy was becoming a scientist,
这种新知识使他感触非凡 and this new knowledge moved him as nothing before had.
他所能想到的就是他想与之分享 All he could think was that he wanted to share it with
地球上的每个人 everyone on Earth,
但是科学家不赞成这种事情， but that kind of thing was frowned upon by scientists,
他们将自己视为精英俱乐部的成员 they saw themselves as being members of an elite club.
1950年，卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）还是一名高中生时， In 1950, when Carl Sagan was just a high school student,
他写了一篇论文，使他获得了工作的邀请 he wrote a paper that earned him an invitation to work in
穆勒（H.J. Muller）的实验室， the lab of H.J. Muller,
他因发现辐射而获得了诺贝尔奖 who had won the Nobel Prize for his discovery that radiation
导致基因突变 causes mutations in genes.
卡尔到芝加哥大学的时候， By the time Carl got to the University of Chicago,
他开始为自己取名， he was beginning to make a name for himself,
哈罗德·尤里（Harold Urey）选择了指导他 and Harold Urey chose to mentor him.
化学家尤里（Urey） Urey, the chemist,
现在正在做他讨厌Kuiper的事情， was now doing the thing that he had resented Kuiper for,
侵入另一门科学学科的领域 trespassing on the turf of another scientific discipline.
这次是生物学 This time it was biology.
尤里和他的团队想知道生活会怎样 Urey and his team wanted to know how life could have
源于无生命的物质 originated from lifeless matter.
与他的另一个学生一起工作， Working with another student of his,
Urey的Stanley Miller设计了一个实验来模拟 Stanley Miller, Urey designed an experiment to simulate the
地球早期大气的化学条件 chemical conditions of the atmosphere on the early Earth.
他们想看看那些基本化学品是否可以 They wanted to see whether those basic chemicals could
导致了氨基酸，是生命的基础 have led to amino acids, the building blocks of life.
闪电能提供唤醒物质进入生活的火花吗？ Could lightning have provided the spark that awakened matter into life?
“如果它可能在地球上发生， "And if it could happen here on Earth,
还能发生什么呢？”卡尔想知道 where else could it have happened?" Carl wondered.
当他写论文推测这种可能性时， When he wrote a paper speculating on that possibility,
尤里严厉地回应 Urey responded harshly.
他责骂他的徒弟冒险超越自己的专业知识 He scolded his apprentice for venturing beyond his expertise.
但是卡尔仍然喜欢尤里，因为他知道 But still, Carl loved Urey because he knew that this
坚韧会使他成为更好的科学家 toughness would make him a better scientist.
夏天，卡尔去了敌人的营地 In the summer, Carl traveled to the enemy camp,
到麦当劳天文台， to McDonald Observatory,
和Gerard Kuiper一起观察火星， to observe Mars with Gerard Kuiper,
地球上唯一的行星天文学家 the only planetary astronomer on Earth.
那一年，火星与地球处于有利的对立状态 That year, Mars was in a favorable opposition to Earth.
这两个世界将是30年来最接近的世界 The two worlds would be the closest they'd been in 30 years.
但是天气不好 But the weather didn't cooperate,
不是在德克萨斯州，而是在火星上 not in Texas, but on Mars.
一场全球性的沙尘暴阻止了柯伊伯 A global windblown dust storm there prevented Kuiper
和萨根（Sagan）看到任何新事物 and Sagan from seeing anything new.
相反，他们度过了那些夏天的夜晚 Instead, they spent those summer nights talking
很多事情 of many things.
年长的男人教年轻的科学家 The older man taught the young scientist the
最有效的方法来检验他大胆的新想法 most efficient ways to test his bold new ideas.
他们幻想着那些可能的世界正在盘旋 They fantasized about what those possible worlds circling
其他星星可能会像 other stars might be like.
这两个无所畏惧的科学想象力冒险 These two fearless scientific imaginations ventured
整个夏天整个银河系 throughout the galaxy all that summer.
通往仙境的大门正向卡尔敞开 The gates to the wonderworld were swinging open for Carl.
而所有这些都是在我们到达时发生的 And all of this was happening as we were reaching
第一次超越地球 beyond the planet for the very first time.
苏联的人造卫星“吓死了” Soviet Union's Sputnik scared the hell out of
美国 the United States.
冷战是两种意识形态之间的较量 The Cold War was a contest between dueling ideologies
关于财产和自由 about property and freedom.
当俄国人首先到达那里时， When the Russians got there first,
它似乎严重地反映了我们的世界观 it seemed to reflect badly on our world view.
如果他们可以将物体送入我们头顶的轨道， And if they could send an object into orbit above our heads,
我们再也无法保护自己的天空了 we could no longer protect our skies.
突然有一个新的传送系统 Suddenly, there was a new delivery system
核武器 for nuclear weapons.
地球上任何地方都无法防范 Nowhere on Earth could be safeguarded against
间谍或攻击 espionage or attack.
我们需要自己的太空计划 We needed a space program of our own.
国家航空航天局是 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was
在1958年人造卫星（Sputnik）成立一年后成立 founded a year after Sputnik in 1958.
科学终于准备好将地球视为柯伊伯 Science was at last ready to see Earth as Kuiper
作为一个星球，已经看到了很多年了 had been seeing it for years, as a planet.
真是个概念 What a concept.
现在对我们来说似乎很明显，但是在一个狂热的时代， It may seem obvious to us now, but in a time of fanatical,
为死而战的民族主义，那是一个雷电 fight to the death nationalism, it was a thunderbolt.
但是柯伊伯对尤里的仇恨仍然肆虐， But Kuiper's feud with Urey still raged,
即使他们俩都在 even as they both took leadership roles in the
刚起步的太空计划 fledgling space program.
卡尔继续在交战的实验室之间摆渡 Carl continued ferrying between their warring labs.
两人之间的仇恨在情感上是如此刻薄 The enmity between the two men was emotionally so corrosive
他当时说， that he said at the time he,
“感觉就像离婚的父母的孩子，他 "Felt like the child of divorced parents and he was
他们之间唯一的桥梁” the only bridge left between them."
尤里（Urey）为NASA登月而战 Urey fought for NASA to go to the Moon.
他的原因之一是希望最后知道 Among his reasons was a desire to know, at last,
太阳系是如何形成的 how the solar system formed.
柯伊伯（Kuiper）预测我们到达那里时的感觉 Kuiper predicted what it would be like when we got there.
当我们第一次踏上月球表面时， That when we stepped down on the lunar surface for the first time,
感觉就像在松脆的雪地上行走 it would feel like walking on crunchy snow.
月球是一个无声的世界，因为它没有气氛 The Moon is a silent world because it has no atmosphere
携带声波 to carry sound waves.
但是尼尔·阿姆斯特朗（Neil Armstrong）后来说，他感到柯伊普（Kuiper）酥脆 But Neil Armstrong later said that he felt Kuiper's crunchy
下台时，他下了雪 snow when he stepped down onto the surface for the
第一次 very first time.
流浪者留下的一些东西 Some of the things the wanderers left behind.
多亏了Urey和Kuiper， Thanks to Urey and Kuiper,
卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）是这次伟大冒险的一部分 Carl Sagan was part of this great adventure.
他过着最奢侈的童年幻想 He was living his most extravagant childhood fantasies.
他在阿波罗宇航员离开前向他们作了简报 He briefed the Apollo astronauts before they left
为月亮 for the Moon.
当科学家第一次见面时，他在那里 And he was there when scientists first met to
评估从黎明获得的信息 evaluate the information gained from the dawn
太空探索 of space exploration.
有史以来第一次，生物学家，地质学家， For the first time ever, the biologist, the geologist,
天文学家， the astronomers,
物理学家，化学家都在说话 the physicists, the chemists were all talking
彼此 to one another.
实际上，大都在大喊 Actually, mostly shouting.
年轻的卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）站在他们的其中一个 The young Carl Sagan stood up at one of their
联合科学会议说， joint scientific meetings and said,
“嘿，伙计们，我们是获得这些财富的第一代科学家 "Hey, guys, we're the first generation of scientists to receive these riches.
我们一起做的” We're in this together."
他为行星科学定下了今天的基调 He set a tone for planetary science that still holds today.
他编辑了第一本现代跨学科期刊， He edited the first modern interdisciplinary journal for
研究宇宙世界的研究人员， researchers studying the world of the cosmos,
伊卡洛斯，一直持续到今天 Icarus, which continues to this day.
他做了其他事情 And he did something else.
他发起了一项终生运动，以带来 He started a lifelong campaign to bring the revelations of
科学对每个人来说，他是少数几个 science to everyone, and he was one of a handful of
寻找可能世界的科学家， scientists who made the search for possible worlds,
对于地球外的生活和智力的尊重 for extra-terrestrial life and for intelligence respectable
科学追求 scientific pursuits.
几十年来，我们一直在寻找新世界， We've only been hunting for new worlds for a few decades,
但是我们已经发现了数千个 but we've already discovered many thousands of them.
我们认为其中一些对生活和生活热情好客 We think some of them are hospitable to life and at
至少有十二个像土 least a dozen of them are earth-like.
他们会是什么样？ What will they be like?
跟我来 Come with me.
卡尔·萨根（Carl Sagan）希望解放科学 Carl Sagan wanted to liberate a scientific
从我们所知道的生活的单个例子中获得想象力， imagination from the single example of life that we know,
地球生命 Earth life.
他设想了另一种非常不同的生活 He envisioned what the life of another very different
世界会 world would be like.
Sagan与天体物理学家Ed Salpeter合作 Sagan collaborated with fellow astrophysicist Ed Salpeter in
生活中合理的生态系统设计 the design of plausible ecological systems for life in
木星的乌云 the roiling clouds of Jupiter.
挑战在于想象没有 The challenge was to imagine such life-forms without
违反物理，化学或生物学定律 violating the laws of physics, chemistry or biology.
生命如此顽强，以至于它甚至可以在这场氢暴中成为家园， Is life so tenacious that it could even make a home in this storm of hydrogen,
氦，水，氨和甲烷？ helium, water, ammonia and methane?
没有可触及的固体表面 There's no accessible solid surface.
正是在这种浓密的多云气氛中 It's just this thick cloudy atmosphere in which organic
分子从天上掉下来像甘露， molecules are falling like manna from heaven,
就像Harold Urey和Stanley Miller关于生命起源的实验室实验的产品一样 like the products of Harold Urey and Stanley Miller's laboratory experiment on life's origin.
但是，这种环境给生活带来了麻烦 However, this environment poses a problem for life.
大气湍流，深处很热 The atmosphere is turbulent and deep down it's very hot.
生物体必须小心，不要向下携带 An organism must be careful that it's not carried downward
到下面的地狱 to the hell below.
在这种条件下谋生的一种方法是 One way to make a living under these conditions is to
在沉没并炸之前先进行繁殖 reproduce before you sink and get fried.
您唯一的希望是对流将带来一些 Your only hope is that convection will carry some of
您的后代进入较高层和较低层 your offspring to the higher and cooler layers
的气氛 of the atmosphere.
这样的生物可能很小 Such organisms could be very small.
Sagan和Salpeter称他们为“下沉者” Sagan and Salpeter call them "sinkers."
但是您也可以成为“浮游者”， But you could also be a "floater,"
大量的氢飞船将氦气和更重的气体从室内抽出， a vast hydrogen blimp pumping helium and heavier gases out of your interior and
仅保留最轻的气体氢气 retaining only the lightest gas, hydrogen.
Sagan和Salpeter认为这就像一个热气球 Sagan and Salpeter reasoned that like a hot air balloon
通过保持室内温暖来保持漂浮 you'd stay buoyant by keeping your interior warm using
从吃的食物中获取能量 energy acquired from the foods you eat.
漂浮物必须吃有机分子或自己做食物 A floater must eat organic molecules or make its own food
像植物在地球上一样从阳光和空气中吸收 from sunlight and air, as plants do on Earth.
漂浮物越大，效率越高， The bigger a floater is, the more efficient it will be,
在一定程度上 up to a point.
漂浮物将是巨大的，跨越几公里， Floaters would be immense, several kilometers across,
比有史以来最大的鲸鱼大得多， enormously larger than the greatest whale that ever was,
众生城市的大小 beings the size of cities.
漂浮物可能会推动自己通过 The floaters may propel themselves through the
行星大气层伴有阵阵气体， planetary atmosphere with gusts of gas,
像冲压发动机或火箭一样 like a ramjet or a rocket.
Sagan和Salpeter想象他们很懒惰地安排 Sagan and Salpeter imagined them arranged in great lazy
尽其所能 herds for as far as the eye could see.
他们皮肤上的图案是自适应迷彩， The patterns on their skin are adaptive camouflage,
暗示他们也有问题， implying that they have problems, too,
因为在这样的环境中至少还有一个生态位... because there's at least one other ecological niche in such an environment...
猎人 Hunters.
猎人快速，机动 Hunters are fast, maneuverable.
猎人吃着漂浮物 Hunters eat the floaters,
他们的有机分子和他们的 both for their organic molecules and for their
储存纯氢气 store of pure hydrogen.
猎人不会太多，因为如果他们消耗了所有的漂浮物， There cannot be very many hunters because if they consume all the floaters,
猎人们自己会教区 the hunters themselves will parish.
当21世纪的科学家测试Sagan的 When scientists of the 21st century tested Sagan's
虚构的生活形式与他们对生活的了解相反， imaginary life-forms against what they knew of life,
他们意识到了宜居区的概念 they realized that the concept of a habitable zone
必须扩大 had to be expanded.
它进入了天然气巨头的云层顶， It moved into the cloud tops of gas giants and
冰世界的地下海洋， the subsurface oceans of ice worlds,
和我们尚未想到的地方 and places we've yet to imagine.
在所有这些世界，所有星星中， Of all those worlds, of all those stars,
一定是第一位的 one must have been first.
和我一起去我们知道的最古老的世界 Come with me to the oldest world we know.
我们处于球状星团中 We're in a globular cluster,
一个密密麻麻的百万颗恒星的球，称为M4， a densely packed ball of a million stars, called M4,
在银河系的郊区 on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy.
当脉冲星迅速旋转中子星时， When pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars,
首先被发现，科学家想知道他们是否 were first discovered, scientists wondered if they
规律性是智慧生活的标志 were a sign of intelligent life because of the regularity
他们的无线电信号 of their radio signals.
从前，这颗星是蓝色的超级巨星， Once upon a time, this star was a blue supergiant,
但是几百万年之后，它的燃料耗尽了， but after a few million years, it ran out of fuel,
成为超新星，然后坍塌进入这个中子球， went supernova, then collapsed into this ball of neutrons,
不超过一个小镇 no larger than a small town.
在附近的同伴，一颗白矮星， It's nearby companion, a white dwarf star,
另一个枯萎的恒星尸体， another burnt-out stellar corpse,
绕行仅几百万英里 orbits only a few million miles away.
这就是为什么我们来这里 That's not why we've come here.
我们一直在寻找宇宙中最古老的行星 We've come in search of the oldest known planet in the cosmos.
当这颗星时，宇宙还很年轻， The cosmos was young when this star,
一个白矮星诞生于127亿年前 a white dwarf, was born, 12.7 billion years ago.
那颗星星当时很早就被捕获了 The star was single then, long before it was captured
由产生世界的脉冲星产生 by the pulsar that gave birth to a world.
那个世界在这里某个地方， That world is out here somewhere,
花了100个地球年才能使这两个缩小的恒星运行 taking 100 Earth years to orbit these two shrunken stars.
它的存在对那些梦想着的人来说是个好兆头 The fact that it exists bodes well for those who dream of
几乎无限的可能世界 virtually infinite possible worlds.
如果它是在宇宙本身之后不到十亿年形成的， If it formed less than a billion years after the cosmos itself,
然后星星很快就开始培育行星 then stars started fostering planets soon after
刚开始的时候 the beginning of time.
养育世界是明星的职责 Nurturing worlds is what stars do.
那么，这颗最古老的行星的命运将如何？ And what will the fate of this oldest of planets be?
抱歉地说，这是一个孤独的人 Sorry to say, it's a lonely one.
在未来十亿年的某个时候， Sometime in the next billion years,
两颗星将在重力作用下被三分之一伏击 the two stars will be gravitationally ambushed by a third.
一颗红矮星将冲入附近 A red dwarf star will come barreling into their vicinity.
正是重力将这个古老的世界从 It's gravity will send this ancient world careening out of
它的系统和进入星空之间的寂寞黑暗 its system and into the lonely dark between the stars.
一个流氓星球注定要流连忘返 A rogue planet doomed to wander a never-ending oblivion.
但也有离家在外的人呼唤我们， But there are also homes away from home that call to us,
温暖地照耀着一颗星星， illuminated in warmth not by one star,
但是三个 but three.
我想带你去格利瑟667 I want to take you to Gliese 667,
具有六个世界的三星级系统， a triple-star system with six worlds,
他们中的三个像地球一样足以履行我们所知道的生命诺言 three of them enough like earth to hold the promise of life as we know it.
恒星A和B都比太阳小 Stars A and B are both a little smaller than our Sun.
这对橙色小矮人彼此环绕 This pair of orange dwarfs orbit each other.
恒星C绕着它们运行，这是一个红矮星 Star C orbits them both, it's a red dwarf.
它们是银河系中最常见的恒星 They're the most common kind of star in the galaxy.
宇宙中多达80％的恒星 As many as 80% of all the stars in the cosmos may
是红矮星 be red dwarfs.
他们慢慢消耗氢燃料， They consume their hydrogen fuel slowly,
所以它们持续时间更长 so they last longer.
更大的恒星，例如蓝色巨人， More massive stars, like blue giants,
维持如此之高的压力，以至于它们很快就会耗尽 maintain such high pressures that they burn out quickly.
Gliese 667系统的最外面的世界是 This outermost world of the Gliese 667 system is
地球大小的四倍，但距离地球太远 four times the size of earth, but it's too far from
它的恒星表面有液态水 its stars to have liquid water on its surface.
这并不意味着它毫无生气 That doesn't mean it's lifeless.
我们对生命还不够了解 We don't yet know enough about life to say what
可能正在冰冻的外壳下面 might be going on beneath its frozen shell.
我们尚未到达宜居地区 We haven't yet reached the habitable zone of
这个星系 this star system.
越来越近，但还没有到那儿， Getting closer, but not there yet,
这个更大的世界令人印象深刻， this even larger world is impressive,
但仍在该区域之外 but still just outside that region considered to be
热情好客的生活和人类的科学想象力 hospitable to life and to the human scientific imagination.
现在，它更像它 Now, this is more like it.
充满生命气息的气氛就在这里 The kind of atmosphere that promises life is here.
♪♪ ♪ ♪
这不是遥远的世界的东西， This isn't the stuff of distant worlds,
这个小家伙是我们自己的一个 this little guy is one of our own.
我们刚才看到的所有其他生命形式实际上都是自种的， All the other life-forms we've just seen were actually homegrown,
就在地球上 right here on Earth.
我们甚至还没有开始了解所有 We haven't even begun to get to know all the
在这个小小的世界上生活 living things on this tiny world.
想想所有的可能性， Think of all the possibilities,
一定有不同的生活， the different kinds of life there must have been,
并将继续存在于宇宙中 and are, and will be in the cosmos.
感谢Gerard Kuiper， Thanks to Gerard Kuiper,
Harold Urey和其他许多科学家， Harold Urey and so many other scientists,
我们现在知道，恒星演化只需要几百万年， we now know that it takes just a few million years for stars to evolve,
行星和卫星从气体和尘埃中聚结 and planets and moons to coalesce out of gas and dust.
换句话说，是太阳系 In other words, a solar system.
这是很长的妊娠期， It's a long period of gestation,
但绝非罕见 but far from rare.
在我们自己的星系中，它大约每月发生一次 In our own galaxy, it happens about once every month.
在可观察的宇宙中 In the observable universe,
我们现在认为其中包含多达 which we now think contains as many as
一万亿个星系，其中包含一些 a trillion galaxies, containing some
2亿亿颗恒星， 200 million trillion stars,
一个2亿亿亿颗恒星的宇宙， a cosmos of 200 million trillion stars,
每秒钟可能形成1,000个太阳能系统 1,000 solar systems may be forming every single second.
那就是那里的1,000个新的太阳能系统 That's 1,000 new solar systems right there.
1,000个新的太阳能系统 1,000 new solar systems.