新奇事件簿 霍金留给人类的最后一篇论文（在线收听）

The world-famous physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking published an important paper before he died last week. Professor Hawking died on March 14, aged 76. Two weeks before his death, he published his final theory in a paper called "A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation". He explained two very important ideas. The first was how humans might be able to detect multiverses. These are parallel universes that were created at the same time as our universe after the Big Bang. The second theory is about how our universe will eventually end, when the stars finally run out of energy. Scientists say his paper could be his most important work ever, and that he could have won a Nobel Prize for it.

世界著名物理学家、宇宙学家斯蒂芬·霍金在上周去世前发表了一篇重要论文。霍金教授于3月14日去世，享年76岁。在教授去世前两周，他在名为《从永恒暴胀中平稳的退出》的论文中提出了自己的终极理论并在论文中解释了两个非常重要的想法。第一个是人类如何才能探测多元宇宙。在大爆炸后，平行宇宙和我们的宇宙同时被创造出来。第二个理论是，当恒星的能量耗尽时，我们的宇宙将如何最终终止。科学家们表示这篇论文是他最重要的一篇，而且他本能够因此获诺贝尔奖。

Stephen Hawking's new paper started by explaining an older theory of his called inflation. This is when our universe suddenly expanded from a tiny point in space into the billions of stars and solar systems we have today. Hawking suggested there were an infinite number of big bangs and each of them created its own separate universe. He called this collection of universes a multiverse. Hawking wrote that he believed scientists could find the multiverse by using sensors on space ships. Carlos Frenk, a professor of cosmology, said: "These ideas offer the breathtaking prospect of finding evidence for the existence of other universes." Hawking is also famous for his best-selling book "A Brief History of Time".

斯蒂芬·霍金在新论文的开头对一个较为久远的理论做出解释，他称该理论为暴胀。暴胀是指当我们的宇宙突然从太空中一个微小的点膨胀成现在的数亿个恒星和太阳系。霍金提出大爆炸数量是无限的而且每一个大爆炸都创造了自己的宇宙。他将这种宇宙的集合称为多元宇宙。霍金写到，他相信科学家们能够利用太空飞船上的感应器找到多元宇宙。宇宙论教授卡洛斯·弗伦克说道：“这些想法为发现其他宇宙存在的证据提供了激动人心的希望。”霍金的畅销书《时间简史》也一样著名。