TED演讲:宇宙有中心吗(2)

 　　Shortly after Copernicus, in the 1580s, an Italian friar, Giordano Bruno, 哥白尼死后不久，在十六世纪80年代，意大利修道士焦尔达诺·布鲁诺提出，

　　suggested the stars were suns that likely had their own planets and that the universe was infinite. 太阳这样的恒星都有自己的卫星，宇宙是无限的。

　　This idea didn't go over well. 这个理论推广得并不好。

　　Bruno was burned at the stake for his radical¹ suggestion. 布鲁诺因他的激进言论被烧死在刑柱上。

　　Centuries later, the philosopher Rene Descartes proposed that the universe was a series of whirlpools, 几个世纪之后，哲学家勒奈·笛卡尔提出，宇宙是一系列的螺旋体，

　　which he called vortices, and that each star was at the center of a whirlpool. 这些螺旋体被称为漩涡，每个恒星都位于漩涡的中心。

　　In time, we realized there were far more stars than Aristotle ever dreamed. 随着时间的推移， 我们发现星星的数量远多于亚里士多德所能想到的。

　　As astronomers² like William Herschel got more and more advanced telescopes, 由于威廉·赫歇尔这样的天文学家发明出了更加先进的望远镜，

　　it became clear that our sun is actually one of many stars inside the Milky³ Way. 太阳实际是银河系诸多恒星之一这个事实变得清楚。

　　And those smudges we see in the night sky? 那些我们在黑夜里看见的印迹呢？

　　They're other galaxies⁴, just as vast as our Milky Way home. 它们其实是其他星系，它们与我们的母星系银河一样庞大。

　　Maybe we're farther from the center than we ever realized. 我们离宇宙中心的距离可能要比想象中遥远多了。

　　In the 1920s, astronomers studying the nebula⁵ wanted to figure out how they were moving. 在20世纪20年代，研究星云的天文学家想弄明白它们的运动规律。

　　Based on the Doppler Effect, they expected to see blue shift for objects moving toward us, 根据多普勒效应，他们预期向我们飞来的物体会呈现蓝移，

　　and red shift for ones moving away. 飞走的物体呈现红移。

　　But all they saw was a red shift. 但所有观测到的现象都是红移。

　　Everything was moving away from us, fast. 所有星星都在快速远离我们。

　　This observation is one of the pieces of evidence for what we now call the Big Bang Theory. 这些观测结果构成了现在被我们称为大爆炸理论的证据。

　　According to this theory, all matter in the universe was once a singular, infinitely⁶ dense⁷ particle. 根据这一理论，宇宙中的所有物质最初都源于一个密度无限高的单一粒子。

　　In a sense, our piece of the universe was once at the center. 从某种意义上说，我们所在的这部分宇宙曾处在中心。

　　But this theory eliminates the whole idea of a center since there can't be a center to an infinite universe. 但这个理论排除了”宇宙中心”的想法，因为无限宇宙根本没法有中心。

　　The Big Bang wasn't just an explosion in space; it was an explosion of space. 大爆炸并不只是在空间的一次爆炸，而是空间本身的爆炸。

　　What each new discovery proves is that while our observations are limited, 新的发现表明，虽然我们的探索有限，

　　our ability to speculate and dream of what's out there isn't. 但我们探索和幻想更外层宇宙空间的能力是无限的。

　　What we think we know today can change tomorrow. 我们今天所认可的事实有可能很快就被改变。

　　As with many of the thinkers we just met, 和我们刚刚看到的许多思想家一样，

　　sometimes our wildest guesses lead to wonderful and humbling⁸ answers 有些时候人类最狂野的想象可以引领我们找到奇妙或屈辱的答案，

　　and propel us toward even more perplexing questions. 并指导我们向更加复杂的问题发出挑战。

1 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

2 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

4 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

5 nebula   

n.星云，喷雾剂

参考例句：

• A powerful telescope can resolve a nebula into stars.一架高性能的望远镜能从星云中分辨出星球来。
• A nebula is really a discrete mass of innumerous stars.一团星云实际上是无数星体不连续的集合体。

6 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。

7 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

8 humbling   

adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气

参考例句：

• A certain humbling from time to time is good. 不时受点儿屈辱是有好处的。 来自辞典例句
• It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-buildingexperience. 据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。 来自互联网