TED演讲:抬头看一看平时忽视的变化(2)

But there's really not much else.

除此之外，也没什么其它东西了。

As a result, most of my colleagues who are astronomers¹ spent at least part of their youth looking up at the sky in their backyard.

我的大多数天文学家同事们，至少都有过一段夜晚在自家后院数星星的童年时光。

I never really had that experience, and, as a result, I'm really disappointing on camping trips.

而我却从未有过那种经历，所以在露营旅途中，我的表现令人大失所望。

I don't really know many constellations².

关于星座方面的知识极其有限。

The ones I do know, you probably know them, too.

而我所知道的为数不多的几个星座，相信在座的各位也都耳熟能详。

But I'll never forget that experience of the first time I saw the dark night sky.

但我永远不会忘记平生第一次看到夜空的经历。

And I was just flabbergasted at how many stars there were. And I felt tiny.

那漫天的繁星深深震撼了我，让我感到自己无比渺小。

Then I also felt like, "Where's this been hiding this whole time? Who's been hiding this sky from me?"

接下来，我就有了这样的疑惑：这些奇景一直以来被藏在了哪里？是谁藏匿了这样的天空？

Of course, the answer is obvious if you think about it or if you look at the picture on the left,

不过仔细一想，答案其实显而易见，或者看一下左边的照片就明白了，

where you're seeing the same neighborhood taken during a blackout versus³ on an ordinary night.

这是同一街区停电时拍摄的夜空，右边是普通夜晚拍摄的夜空照片。

You can't see the stars if you drown them out with light.

当星星被灯光淹没时，你自然就看不到它们。

Take a look at our planet. This is our planet from space.

现在请审视一下我们的地球，这是从太空拍摄的地球。

Unlike stars, which are hot and glow invisible light so we can see them,

恒星发出热量和不可见光，所以我们能看到它们，

our planet is, astronomically⁴ speaking, pretty cold. So it doesn't really glow.

而地球与恒星不同，从天文学上讲，地球很冷，所以其自身并不发光。

When you see the planet looking like a blue-green marble the way it does in this picture,

当你看到图中展现的这颗如蓝绿色大理石般的地球时，

you're seeing it because the sunlight is reflecting off of it,

你能看见它是因为它反射了太阳光的缘故。

and that's why you can see the oceans, the clouds, the land.

这也是为什么你能看到海洋、云朵和陆地。

So if the sun wasn't shining on it, we wouldn't be able to see the earth, right? Or would we?

也就是说，如果没有太阳的照射，我们就看不到地球了，对吗？或者，我们依然能看到它？

1 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》

2 constellations   

n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人）

参考例句：

• The map of the heavens showed all the northern constellations. 这份天体图标明了北半部所有的星座。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His time was coming, he would move in the constellations of power. 他时来运转，要进入权力中心了。 来自教父部分

3 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

4 astronomically   

天文学上

参考例句：

• The bill was astronomically high. 账单上的金额高得没谱儿。
• They have only been read as the multitude read the stars, at most astrologically, not astronomically. 它们之被群众阅读，有如群众之阅览繁星，至多是从星象学而不是从天文学的角度阅览的。