02 简单解说史蒂芬霍金的伟大想法

We all know that Stephen Hawking has worked

我们都知道史蒂芬霍金一直致力于

on some of the biggest questions about ourcosmos.

一些有关我们宇宙的最大疑问

But what are those ideas?

但那些理论是什么呢？

What's at the centre of a black hole?

黑洞中心是什么？

Black holes are incredibly dense objects

黑洞是质量相当大的物体

with such strong gravity that nothing,

有着很强的引力，没有任何东西

not even light, can escape their pull.

甚至是光，可以逃过它的引力

Hawking worked with physicist Roger Penrose

霍金与物理学家罗杰・潘洛斯合作

to show that if you were able to travel tothe centre of a black hole,

提出了如果你能够到达一个黑洞的中央

you'd find something called a'singularity'.

你就会发现一个叫做「奇点」的东西

In a singularity, so much matter issquashed into such a small space

在奇点中，很多物质被挤压到一个很小的空间

that the force of gravity becomes infinite.

造成无限大的引力

Everything is crushed into a point of infinitedensity,

所有东西被挤压成一个密度无限大的点

punching a hole through the fabric of theuniverse,

从宇宙的表面敲出了一个洞

and tearing up the rulebook of physics aswe know it.

推翻了我们原本以为物理是这么一回事的想法

It's pretty frightening stuff.

这是蛮恐怖的一件事

What happens at the edge of a black hole?

在黑洞的边缘会发生什么事？

You might think that a vacuum is empty.

你可能以为真空是一无所有的

But it's not. At least, not according toquantum theory.

但不是。至少，根据量子力学来说不是这样

It's fizzing with particles andanti-particles

它充满了嘶嘶作响的粒子与反粒子

that pop into existence from nowhere，and then disappear.

突然凭空出现，然后消失

When this happens at the edge of a blackhole,

当这个情形发生在黑洞的边缘 (称为「视界」) 时

one of the pair of particles can fall in,

这对粒子的其中一个会掉进黑洞

leaving the other to escape.

另一个则会逃走

This tiny stream of escaping particles

这道由逃走的粒子所造成的辐射

is known as, ''Hawking radiation.''

被称为「霍金辐射」

Now, those particles that fell into theblack hole,

这时候，那些掉进黑洞的粒子

they have a negative mass,

它们带有负能量

and cause the black hole to get smaller,and smaller,

导致黑洞越来越小，越来越小

until it disappears.

直到它消失

It will take a while,

这要花一段时间

in fact a very long while,

事实上，是很长一段时间

but in it's final moments

但在最后关头

 a black hole will explode with the energyof a million nuclear bombs –

黑洞会以一百万个原子弹的威力爆炸 —

leaving nothing behind.

不会留下任何东西

So why is Stephen Hawking our most famousliving scientist?

所以为什么史蒂芬霍金是我们最有名且健在的科学家呢？

Well, he showed that at one point

嗯，他曾经指出

everything in our universe was squeezedinto a singularity,

所有我们宇宙的一切被挤压成一个奇点

which then exploded into the Big Bang,

奇点爆炸后造成了宇宙大爆炸

eventually forming galaxies, stars,planets, you, me,

最后形成了银河、星体、星球、你和我

and everything in existence !

还有所有存在的东西

That was the beginning of our universe.

那是我们宇宙的开端

And I suppose the incredible thing is that

我认为不可思议的事情是

he came up with all these profound,provocative insights

他想到所有这些深奥又具启发性的洞见

without the convenience of being able towrite anything down.

不受限于生理上无法书写的不便

He did it all by thought alone.

他仅仅透过思考来办到这一切！