If you look at distant galaxies, they are moving away from us,

如果你看遙遠的星系，它們正在遠離我們。

And the more distant galaxies are moving faster.

而更遙遠的星系移動速度更快。

So really, it’s not really an explosion of galaxies away from us;

所以，其實這並不是離我們遠去的星系的爆炸。

All galaxies are moving away from all the other galaxies.

所有的星系都在遠離其他星系。

Space itself is getting bigger.

空間本身越來越大。

But you would expect that the expansion of the universe is something that will slow down.

但你會想到，宇宙的膨脹是會減緩的。

These galaxies have gravity and they attract each other

這些星系有引力，它們互相吸引。

So you would expect that the expansion of the universe will diminish with time.

所以你會預期宇宙的膨脹會隨著時間的推移而減少。

So it was a big surprise in 1998 when we realized that the galaxies were actually speeding up.

所以在1998年，當我們意識到星系實際上在加速的時候，這是一個很大的驚喜。

If you look at one galaxy, non-only it is moving away from us,

如果你看一個星系，非只有它在遠離我們。

But tomorrow it will be moving away from us faster.

但明天它將更快地遠離我們。

This is what we call the acceleration of the universe.

這就是我們所說的宇宙的加速度。

But we are not completely shocked,

但我們並沒有完全震驚。

We have a good theoretical model handed down to us

我們有一個很好的理論模型傳給了我們

by Einstein.

由愛因斯坦。

The idea that even empty space has energy, what we call vacuum energy or dark energy.

認為即使是空曠的空間也有能量，也就是我們所說的真空能或暗能量。

And this vacuum energy pushes space itself and causes distant galaxies to move away from us

而這種真空能量推動了空間本身，導致遙遠的星系遠離我們

Faster and faster. That is where the acceleration comes from.

越來越快。這就是加速度的來源。

So theoretical cosmologists are trying to understand what could be going on.

所以理論宇宙學家們正在試圖瞭解可能發生的事情。

Is it really vacuum energy? Is some variation of that?

真的是真空能量嗎？是某種變體嗎？

Or is it even a modification of Einstein’s general relativity, our theory of gravity?

甚至是對愛因斯坦的廣義相對論、我們的萬有引力理論的修改？

If vacuum energy is the right answer, the universe will continue to expand,

如果真空能量是正確的答案，宇宙將繼續膨脹。

The galaxies will move away from us and the universe will gradually become a lonelier, darker,

星系將遠離我們，宇宙將逐漸變得更加孤獨、黑暗。

emptier place.

更空的地方。