In contrast to things like planets or  stars they have no physical size limit,  

他們不像是一般的星體有物理尺寸上的極限

and can literally grow endlessly. Although in  reality specific things need to happen to create  

而是可以扎扎實實永無止盡成長下去 雖然在現實中需要在宇宙達成各種特定條件

different kinds of black holes, from really tiny  ones to the largest single things in the universe.  

才能產生黑洞 不管是超迷你或是超巨大的尺寸都是

So how do black holes grow and how  large is the largest of them all?

那麼黑洞是怎麼成長的？最大又能到多大呢？

This video will not discuss how black holes work  or how they form since we've looked at that in  

這隻影片並不會探討黑洞的原理或是他們怎麼形成的 因為我們已經在黑洞及中子星的系列影片中

detail in our black hole and neutron star series,  you can check them out afterwards. For now we are  

帶大家探索過一回了，可以之後再回去看看 現在令我們感興趣的

interested in finding the largest thing in the  universe. Let us start really, really small.

是找出宇宙中最大的龐然大物 讓我們先從非常, 非常小的開始

Primordial Black holes

原初黑洞

The smallest kind of black holes may or may not  exist. If they do, they are probably the oldest  

這種最小的黑洞可能存在，也可能不存在 如果存在的話，他們可能是宇宙中

objects in the universe, older even than atoms.  They would have formed just after the big bang,  

最古老的東西，就連原子都自歎不如 他們可能在大爆炸一發生之後就已經形成

when the universe was so dense with  violent energy, that any tiny pocket  

當時的宇宙被劇烈的能量塞得又緊又密 只要一丁點的小空間

that was just slightly more dense than  its neighbors could produce a black hole.

比左鄰右舍稍微更緊密一點點 就可能創造出黑洞

The smallest Primordial Black Hole that  could still be around would be a trillion  

最小的原初黑洞可能還是有大約有1兆公斤

kilograms or so, the mass of a big mountain.  And yet they would be no bigger than a proton.  

重得跟座巨大的山脈一樣 不過就連一個質子的個頭都比他還要大

A Primordial Black hole with the mass of  earth would barely be larger than a coin.  

一個擁有地球質量的原初黑洞頂多也就比一枚硬幣還大上一些

This makes them very hard to find, so we  haven't actually observed any yet – if  

這也讓他們非常不容易被發現 所以事實上我們還沒有觀測到任何一個

they exist they may even be the mysterious  dark matter that holds galaxies together.

如果他們存在，甚至可能是將星系聚集在一起的神秘暗物質

Let's move on to the kinds of black holes  that we know for sure ARE out there.

讓我們把目光移到我們確定「確實」在那的黑洞吧

Stellar Black Holes

恆心黑洞

To make a black hole we need to compress enough  matter so that it collapses into itself. After  

要形成一個黑洞，必須壓縮足夠多的物質使其塌縮在自己身上

that, the more mass we throw at it, the  larger it becomes. In today's universe,  

在這之後，只要給他更多質量，他就會變得更大 在如今的宇宙中

only the most violent cosmic events can create  the necessary conditions, such as the merger of  

只有最猛烈的天文現象能湊齊這些必要的條件 像是中子星的合併

neutron stars or when the core of a very massive  star collapses in a supernova. To have a unit to  

或是一個巨大星體的核心在超新星之後塌縮 而為了有個方便比較

work with here, we'll use the mass of our sun,  about 2 million trillion trillion kilograms.

我們來使用太陽的質量為單位 大約是2在乘上10的30次方公斤那麼重

The smallest known black hole  has 2.7 times the mass of the sun  

我們已知最小的黑洞大約是太陽質量的2.7倍

which works out as a sphere around 16 km  in diameter, large enough to cover Paris.

它是一個直徑約16公里的球體，大到足以涵蓋整個巴黎

Another lightweight black hole is the  companion to the V723 Mon red giant star.  

另一個輕量級黑洞是 V723 Mon 紅巨星的伴星

This star is 24 times larger than our sun,  30 million kilometer in diameter. And yet,  

這個紅巨星是個比太陽還樣大上24倍的星體，直徑為3000萬公里

it is thrown around by a tiny black hole  just 17.2 km wide. This tiny thing bullying  

不過它卻被一個小小17.2公里寬的黑洞耍得團團轉

the star is so much smaller that we can  barely even show them in comparison.

這個欺負恆星的小傢伙實在太小了，我們甚至無法將它們進行比較

One of the largest known stellar black holes is  M33 X-7. It currently spends its time eating a 70  

而已知最大的恆星黑洞之一是 M33 X-7 他目前正享用著一顆

solar mass blue giant, bit by bit. As all that  stolen matter circles towards the black hole,  

70倍太陽質量的藍巨星，一口接著一口 當所有被偷走的物質像流入下水道的涓涓細流一般

like water going down a drain, friction heats  it up to temperatures high enough to shine  

朝著黑洞旋轉 摩擦生熱也使他被加熱到足夠高的溫度

500,000 times brighter than our Sun! And  yet, X-7 is 'only' 15.65 solar masses  

產生出來的光會比太陽還要亮500,000倍！ 但是，X-7 卻「只有」15.65倍的太陽質量和92公里寬

and 92 km wide, just big enough  to cast a shadow on Corsica.

剛好足夠讓科西嘉島籠罩在一片陰影之下

To grow much larger, black holes have to either  devour a lot of stars or better, merge with one  

為了變得更龐大，黑洞需吞噬大量星體 或是更棒的選擇：跟另一個黑洞結合

another. The instruments that make it possible  to detect these mergers are very new so we are  

目前能夠發現這些結合的儀器還非常的新穎

currently discovering a lot of exciting things.  Like two massive black holes that we detected in  

所以我們正不斷地發現令人興奮的事 像是我們發現170億光年以外的2個巨大黑洞

a galaxy 17 billion lightyears away. As they spun  around each other violently, they released more  

當它們繞著彼此劇烈旋轉時

energy in the form of gravitational waves than the  combined light from all the stars in the milky way  

它們以重力波的形式釋放出的能量比4400年來 銀河系中所有恆星的光能總量還要多

in 4400 years. The new black hole they formed is  about the size of Germany and is 142 solar masses.

他們形成的新黑洞大約有德國那麼大，且有142個太陽質量

And here we hit a curious gap in scale.

而就在這裡，我們會碰到一個耐人尋味的尺寸量級缺口

There are lots of black holes up to 150 solar  masses. And then there is nothing for a long  

有非常多黑洞大於150個太陽質量 但接下來就會有很長一段時間是沒有任何黑洞的

time. Until we suddenly hit black holes,  that are millions of times more massive.

直到我們突然再度碰到黑洞 已經是大上幾百萬倍質量的黑洞了

Which is a bit confusing, because we had this  idea that black holes are consistently growing  

這就令人疑惑了，因為我們認為黑洞會不斷的成長再成長

and growing. But for the most massive black holes  this process is not fast enough to explain their  

但這個過程並不夠快 無法解釋為何最巨大的黑洞能有現今這般大小

existence today. The universe is simply not  old enough for these supermassive black holes  

宇宙的年齡還不足以讓這些超大質量黑洞

to have formed by eating stars and merging with  each other. Something else must have happened.

通過吞噬星體並相互融合來形成 一定有什麼其他的事情發生了

To explain how we got the largest black  holes in the universe, we might need the  

為了解釋宇宙裡面怎麼會有如此巨大的黑洞 我們會需要有

largest stars that ever existed: Quasi Stars.  To get a sense of scale, we can compare them  

存在過的最大的星體：類星 為了方便比較，我們可以將他們跟

to the largest stars that exist today. Our  Sun is like a grain of sand next to them.

現今最大的星體做比較 我們的太陽就像是他們旁邊的一粒沙塵

We don't know if Quasi Stars actually existed but  they are an interesting concept when it comes to  

我們並不曉得類星是否真的存在 不過當我們聊到超級黑洞的發展史時

supercharging black hole development. The idea is  that the matter in the early universe was so dense  

這些類星會是十分有意思的概念 這個概念是，物質在早期宇宙是十分濃稠緊密的

that quasi stars could grow to thousands of  times the mass of our sun. The cores of these  

也就讓類星的質量能成長為太陽的好幾千倍

stars might have been crushed by their own weight  so much to actually collapse into black holes  

這些類星很可能還在成形時，核心就已經被他們自己的重量給壓垮

while the star was still forming. In contrast to  stars today that would destroy themselves in the  

並且實際上已經塌縮成為黑洞 不像是如今的一般星體在這種過程中可能就已經被破壞殆盡了

process, inside quasi stars, a deadly balance  could emerge. Gravity pressed the supermassive  

在類星的內部，可能發生著一種致命又危險的平衡 重力不斷的把超巨大質量的星體擠壓再一起

star together, feeding the black hole and heating  the material falling in to such a degree that the  

如此在餵食黑洞的同時，將落入的物質加熱到一定程度 然後透過輻射帶來的壓力給星體穩定

radiation pressure kept the star stable. And so  these quickly growing black holes might have been  

所以這些快速增長的黑洞可能已經

able to consume the quasi star for millions of  years and grow far bigger than any modern stellar  

在好幾百萬年間吸收了類星 然後成長得遠比任何恆星黑洞還要大

black hole. Black holes several thousand times the  mass of the Sun and wider than the entire earth.

是比太陽質量還要多上幾千倍、直徑比地球還大的黑洞

These black holes might have become  the seeds for supermassive black holes.

這些黑洞可能已經成為孕育超大質量黑洞的種子

Supermassive black holes

超大質量黑洞

So now, we arrive at the kings of our  universe, the largest single bodies in  

所以現在，我們來到了宇宙中的王者，現存最大的個體

existence. The centers of most galaxies contain a  super massive black hole, and they are monstrous.

大多數星系的中心都有一個超大質量的黑洞，而且十分駭人

In the Milky Way we have Sagittarius A  Star, a super massive black hole with  

在銀河系裡，我們有人馬座A*：一個超大質量的黑洞

about 4 million solar masses that is calm and  collected and just does its thing. We know  

並大約有400萬倍的太陽質量 它既冷靜又顯得泰然自若，就只是在那做他該做的事

it sits there because we can see a number of stars  being thrown around by a seemingly empty spot.  

之所以知道它就坐鎮在那 是因為能看見有許多星體似乎被一個空空的點不斷拋向四周

And despite its incredible  mass, it's radius is still  

而即便它有著驚人的質量，半徑依舊

only 17 times our sun. Smaller than most giant  stars, but millions of times more massive.

只有太陽的17倍 比大部分的巨星還要小，卻又比他們重上幾百萬倍

Because Supermassive black holes are so  massive and located at the center of galaxies,  

因為超大質量黑洞實在太重而且就位於星系中心

many people imagine them as being a bit like  the Sun in the solar system. An anchor that  

許多人就想像他們是太陽之於太陽系的關係

glues everything else together and forces it into  an orbit. But this is a misconception. While the  

一個把所有東西固定在一起並迫使他們繞著它錨點 但這其實是個誤解

sun makes up 99.86% of all the mass in the solar  system, SuperMassive Black Holes usually only have  

太陽佔據了整個太陽系99.86%的質量 但超大質量黑洞通常

0.001% of the mass of their galaxy. The billions  of stars in galaxies are not gravitationally  

只有該星系質量的0.001%，數十億個星系中的星體並不受它們的引力束縛

bound to them, instead it is the gravitational  effect of dark matter which holds them together.

反而是暗物質的重力效應將它們結合在一起

Many supermassive black holes aren't gentle  giants, especially when they are feeding on  

多數的超大質量黑洞可不是個溫柔友善的巨星 特別是當他們吞食星系中的質量雲的時候

the clouds of mass in their galaxy. The one at the  center of the BL Lacertae galaxy is devouring so  

在蝎虎座BL中心的一個黑洞正狼吞虎嚥

much material that it produces jets of plasma  accelerated to nearly the speed of light.  

大量的物質 以至於它產生了加速到接近光速的電漿流

If Earth were orbiting this huge body, it would  seem 115 times larger than our Sun in the sky…  

如果地球繞著如此巨大的星體移動 它看起來比我們在天空中的太陽大115倍

and we'd be burnt to a crisp in seconds  by its glowing hot accretion disk.

然後我們會在幾秒鐘內被它熾熱的吸積盤燒得不成人樣

At this point black holes become so large that  stars seem ridiculously tiny compared to them.

這種情況下黑洞實在太巨大 其他星體相形之下渺小的荒謬又可笑

The galaxy Cygnus A has a super massive black hole  with 2.5 billion solar masses and 14.7 billion km  

天鵝座A星系擁有一個25億倍太陽質量, 147億公里寬的超大質量黑洞

wide, which would mean that if it took the place  of our Sun, it would swallow all the planets and  

換句話說如果它取代了太陽的位置，那它將會吞噬所有行星

stretch halfway to the edge of our Solar System.  It is devouring so much mass and material that it  

並延伸到太陽系邊緣的一半 它吞噬著非常非常大量的物質

churns its disk into a kind of magnetic funnel,  spewing gas out making tremendous radio lobes,  

它把它的吸積盤攪成一種帶有磁力的漏斗 噴出氣體產生巨大的無線電波瓣

towering over the galaxy, half a million light  years in diameter. That is 2.5 Milkyways wide.

高聳於星系之上，直徑50萬光年長度整整有2.5個銀河系那麼寬

Another pretty large Super Massive Black  hole sits in the galaxy Messier 87. It  

另一個非常巨大的超大質量黑洞座落於室女A星系

has 6.5 billion solar masses and was the  first black hole we got an actual photo of.  

他有65億太陽質量，同時還是首次我們真正拍下照片的黑洞

Or rather of the glowing gas around  the edge of a menacing shadow.  

或者更準確地說，是詭譎的陰影邊緣周圍的發光氣體

This sphere of darkness is so large  that it covers our entire Solar System.

這個黑暗的球體實在太大，能夠囊括一整個太陽系

And yet, there is a scale even  above these kinds of objects...

不過，在這些怪物之上甚至還有一個尺寸級別....

Ultramassive black holes

特大質量黑洞

Now we reach the most massive black holes, perhaps  the largest single bodies that will ever exist.  

現在我們來到了最巨大的黑洞 也許是有史以來最大的單一個體

These black holes have eaten so much that they've  grown to tens of billions of solar masses, their  

這些黑洞已經吞食了非常多物質 並成長到數百億倍的太陽質量

gravity the engine for a 'quasar'- an accretion  disk shining brighter than thousands of galaxies  

它們的重力是「類星體」的引擎 類星體是一個比成千上萬個充滿星體的星系更亮的吸積盤

full of stars. So massive that they deserve a  title of their own - Ultramassive Black Holes.

質量實在大得驚人，也因此直得再給他們一個稱號： 特大質量黑洞

The Ultra Massive Black Hole at the center of  galaxy OJ 287 is 18 billion solar masses. It  

位於星系OJ 287中心的特大質量黑洞是180億個太陽質量

is so big that it has a Super Massive black hole,  nearly forty times larger than sagittarius A star,  

如此龐大的質量讓他甚至擁有一個40倍人馬座A*質量的 超大質量黑洞繞著它運行！

orbiting it! This thing defies imagination  and is really hard to compare to anything.  

這東西視想像力於無物，也很難與任何東西相題並論

It can comfortably fit three Solar  Systems side by side inside of it.

還可以完好地放進3個肩並肩排成一列的太陽系

Let us end this insane competition  and get to the king of kings.

讓我們來了結這場瘋狂的比賽，並迎接眾王之王

TON 618, a black hole that we can observe  consuming galaxies worth of matter is  

TON618，一個能被我們觀察到吞噬星系物質的黑洞

shining with the brightness of a hundred trillion  stars, visible from 18 billion light years away.  

正在閃耀著相當於100兆顆恆星的亮度 他的光芒還能觸及180億光年之外

It has an incredible 66 billion solar masses.  A black hole so large that it would take light  

它擁有讓人瞠目結舌的660億太陽質量 大到即使是光也需要花一個禮拜

a week to reach the singularity after  crossing the event horizon. About 11  

才能在穿越事件視界之後到達奇點

Solar Systems could sit inside of it side  by side. It may very well be the largest  

其內部甚至能讓11個太陽系並肩而坐 它很有可能是宇宙中

single body in the universe. But in  reality, it is probably even larger.  

最大的單體 但事實上，他有可能甚至更大

Since TON 618 is so far away, we only see  what it looked like 10 billion years ago.

因為TON 618太過遙遠，我們只能窺見它100億年前的樣子

In any case, black holes are scary and mysterious  

不管如何，黑洞真的十分驚人, 神秘, 而且非常巨大

and gigantic. They will be here after everything  else dies, and growing larger and larger.

在其他一切都消亡之後 它們還會在這裡，並且變得越來越龐大

So now let us do the trip again. From  the smallest possible black hole,  

所以讓我們回顧一次我們的旅程 從可能存在的最小黑洞

all the way up to the largest.

再一路到最終極的龐然大物

Let's try something new today,  we can call it: “Behind the Lies”  

讓我們今天來點新嘗試吧 可以將它稱之為「謊言幕後」

a short behind the scenes bit about the  necessary inaccuracies in this video  

是關於這支影片中必要的不準確之處的簡短幕後花絮

because it's really not actually possible  to rank black holes like trading cards.

因為真的不太可能為黑洞做到像是集換式卡牌一樣的分級

How so? Well, while we have catalogued  millions of stars, we really only have  

那怎麼辦呢？嗯，雖然我已經編列了幾百萬顆星 也只是有了

good data on a couple of dozen black holes.  That's because black hole gazing wasn't really  

幾十個黑洞的良好資訊 因為直到50年前黑洞觀測

a thing until 50 years ago – and technically  still isn't, because we can't see black holes.

都不是件受到關注的事 而技術上來說，我們也沒辦法「關注」，因為黑洞無法被我們看見

We can only derive their properties from studying  their gravitational effects on the matter around  

我們只能通過研究它們對周圍物質的引力影響來推導出它們的特性

them, like the orbit of stars that come close  to them. This effect depends on the mass of the  

像是那些接近黑洞的星體們的移動軌跡 這些影響關乎黑洞的質量

black hole, which we can approximate at  the most basic level with Kepler's Laws.  

我們可以用克卜勒定律在最基礎的水準上進行推估

But this comes with huge  uncertainties and error bars.  

但這伴隨著巨大的不確定性和誤差棒

Then we have to convert mass to size  next, which brings new uncertainties.  

然後我們接下來必須將質量轉換為尺寸，這帶來了新的不確定性

For example, we calculated the radius from the  mass using the Schwarzschild equation which for  

舉例來說，我們用史瓦茲方程從質量來推導半徑

the sake of simplicity assumes black holes are  perfectly round and don't spin: a kind of black  

而為簡單起見，我們假設黑洞是完美的圓形並且不旋轉

hole that doesn't really exist. The reality is  that physics on these scales is a bit fuzzy.

而根本就不存在這樣的黑洞 現實是，這些尺度上的物理學有點模糊

So some of the black holes we talked about  here may be way smaller or way bigger. We  

有些我們提到的黑洞很可能更小或更大得多

just don't know for sure. We shimmied around  this problem by comparing different sources  

我們其實並不確定 我們透過去比較具有不同類值的不同來源

with different kinds of values and using  different mass calculations to arrive  

並使用不同的質量計算得出一個標準化列表

at a standardized list that allowed us  to be as accurate as humanly possible.  

來盡我們所能準確地解決這個問題

You can look at all of this in our source doc. As  a result this script was written with the tears of  

可以在我們的資料來源中了解這些全部內容 因此，這次的腳本可以說是用專家們的淚水寫成的

experts we drove crazy with our obsession  for the best values they could live with.

我們簡直對追求他們認同的最佳數值感到癡迷又瘋狂

In this process, tons of stuff  got cut and didn't make it into  

在這個過程裡面，無數的素材被刪減

the final video – but luckily we  found a way to not waste all of it:

沒有被納入最終的影片裡 但幸好我們找到一個方式才不會浪費他們：

We created a lot of black hole merch, spanning the  whole range from somewhat bonkers to more serious.  

我們做了許多的黑洞產品，涵蓋範圍從有點瘋狂到更認真嚴肅的都有

This way we get to explore a topic  from different angles – and you  

這讓我們可以從不同的角度去探索一個主題

get to continue having fun with  black holes after this video ends.

而你們也能夠繼續在看完影片之後 好好跟黑洞玩在一塊！