This theory is known as the Big Bang, and it's the most widely accepted story of the creation of our Universe.

這一理論被稱為宇宙大爆炸，是最廣為接受的關於宇宙誕生的故事。

Scientists came up with this universal origin story when they observed that every single galaxy in space is moving away from us, even today.

當科學家們觀察到太空中的每一個星系都在遠離我們，甚至在今天也是如此時，他們提出了這個宇宙起源的故事。

That means that at one point in time, everything could have been condensed into an infinitely dense spot, known as a singularity.

這意味著，在某個時間點上，萬物可能被濃縮成一個無限緻密的點，即所謂的奇點。

This singularity was really hot too.

這個奇點也非常熱。

Other evidence of the Big Bang is something known as

大爆炸的其他證據是一種被稱為

Cosmic Microwave Background.

宇宙微波背景

It's radioactive remnants from the early days of our Universe, remnants that you can only see with the help of a telescope.

這是宇宙早期的放射性殘留物，只有藉助望遠鏡才能看到。

But what if we have this all wrong?

但是，如果我們完全弄錯了呢？

What if the Universe didn't start like this?

如果宇宙不是這樣開始的呢？

What else were we wrong about?

我們還錯了什麼？

This is WHAT IF, and here's what would happen if everything you knew about the Universe is wrong.

這就是 "如果"，如果你對宇宙的一切認識都是錯的，會發生什麼？

I'm sure you're not looking forward to the end of the Universe.

我相信你並不期待宇宙的終結。

But glancing at its future demise could flip your understanding of the Universe and its origins.

但是，瞥一眼它未來的消亡，可能會顛覆你對宇宙及其起源的理解。

You know that our Universe is continually expanding outward, so you might assume that it would likely continue expanding forever.

你知道我們的宇宙在不斷向外膨脹，所以你可能會認為它很可能會永遠膨脹下去。

This could be true, and this is why the most widely accepted theory involves the Universe doing just that.

這可能是真的，這就是為什麼最廣為接受的理論認為宇宙就是這樣做的。

It's called the Big Freeze.

這就是所謂的 "大凍結"。

And what's really cool about this is a mysterious and invisible force that makes the Universe expand.

最酷的是，一種神祕而無形的力量讓宇宙不斷膨脹。

It's called dark energy, and it makes up 69% of the Universe's mass.

它被稱為暗能量，佔宇宙品質的 69%。

Another 26% of it is made of dark matter, and only 5% of the Universe is plain old ordinary matter.

另外 26% 的宇宙由暗物質構成，只有 5% 的宇宙是普通物質。

If all this material originated from one point and just kept expanding, eventually, all this heat and energy would be very, very spread out.

如果所有這些物質都源於一點，並不斷膨脹，那麼最終，所有這些熱量和能量都會非常、非常分散。

At a certain point, everything would be so far away that the entire Universe would reach a ridiculously frigid temperature, absolute zero.

到了一定程度，一切都會變得如此遙遠，以至於整個宇宙的溫度會達到令人髮指的冰點，即絕對零度。

Absolute zero is the lowest temperature possible.

絕對零度是可能的最低溫度。

It translates into zero Kelvin, or if you prefer a more familiar temperature scale, minus 273 °C.

它換算成零開爾文，如果你更喜歡熟悉的溫標，則為負 273 °C。

By the time the Universe reaches this super low temperature, you wouldn't be able to see any distant galaxies from your vantage point in the Milky Way.

當宇宙達到這種超低溫時，你將無法從銀河系的有利位置看到任何遙遠的星系。

Don't worry though, that would be at least a couple of trillion years from now.

不過別擔心，那至少是幾萬億年以後的事了。

Now, that's just one theory.

現在，這只是一種理論。

It's also possible that the death of the Universe will be the exact opposite of this.

宇宙的死亡也有可能與此相反。

Instead of expanding forever, the Universe could shrink back together.

宇宙不會永遠膨脹，而是會重新收縮在一起。

Time for the Big Crunch.

大緊縮的時候到了

All of the matter in the Universe, taken as a whole, has an unimaginable amount of gravity.

從整體上看，宇宙中的所有物質都具有難以想象的引力。

It might be enough gravitational force to battle the mysterious dark energy, and win.

它的引力可能足以與神祕的暗能量對抗，並取得勝利。

If this Big Crunch were to happen, the Universe would start to contract in on itself.

如果大緊縮發生，宇宙將開始自我收縮。

Galaxy clusters far away would merge.

遙遠的星系團會合並。

Eventually, stars and planets in our own galactic neighborhood would clump together too.

最終，我們銀河系附近的恆星和行星也會聚集在一起。

And this increasing density would heat up the whole Universe.

而密度的增加會使整個宇宙升溫。

All that cosmic microwave background radiation from the Big Bang would get so heated that it would be hotter than stars.

宇宙大爆炸產生的所有宇宙微波背景輻射會變得非常熱，以至於比恆星還熱。

We're talking 5,000 °C hot.

我們說的是 5000 °C 的高溫。

The Universe would become a scorching, chaotic mess.

宇宙將變得炙熱而混亂。

As temperatures continued to rise, and more mass got crushed into a teeny, tiny region, atoms would start to break apart.

隨著溫度的不斷升高，更多的品質被擠壓到很小很小的區域內，原子就會開始碎裂。

The Universe would be turning into the densest black hole possible.

宇宙將變成密度最大的黑洞。

While that would certainly be the end of the Universe as we know it, it might just be the beginning of a new one.

雖然這肯定會是我們所知的宇宙的終結，但也可能只是一個新宇宙的開始。

And that would be proof that our Universe is much, much older than we thought.

這將證明我們的宇宙比我們想象的要古老得多。

The Universe may have formed itself over and over again.

宇宙可能一次又一次地自我形成。

In this violent cycle of contraction and expansion, you wouldn't have the slightest chance of surviving to witness this epic event firsthand.

在這種劇烈的收縮和膨脹循環中，你根本不可能倖存下來，親眼目睹這一史詩般的事件。

No one would.

沒有人會這樣做。

So for now, all of this is just an end-of-times theory.

是以，目前這一切都只是末世理論。

And it has a big name, the Big Bounce.

它有一個響亮的名字--"大反彈"。

It suggests that the Universe expands and contracts all the time, just like a lung that breathes in and out, only in slow motion.

這表明，宇宙一直在膨脹和收縮，就像一個吸氣和呼氣的肺，只不過是慢動作而已。

And not just once or twice.

而且不是一次兩次。

According to this theory, there may have been billions, trillions, or even an infinite number of Universes, both before and after ours.

根據這一理論，在我們的宇宙之前和之後，可能存在數十億、數萬億甚至無窮多個宇宙。

Each time the Universe reforms, it could create completely different laws of physics.

宇宙的每一次改革，都可能創造出完全不同的物理定律。

This would create all kinds of strange possibilities.

這將產生各種奇怪的可能性。

There could be Universes with no life, no stars, and not even an atom in sight.

宇宙中可能沒有生命，沒有恆星，甚至看不到一個原子。

Now, this is all pretty wild.

現在，這一切都太瘋狂了。

It gets wilder from here.

從這裡開始變得更加瘋狂。

Some scientists debate that everything we know about our Universe is wrong.

一些科學家認為，我們對宇宙的一切認知都是錯誤的。

What we know about the cosmos is based on what we can see and study in our galactic neighborhood.

我們對宇宙的瞭解是基於我們在銀河系附近所能看到和研究到的東西。

Then, we assume that it works like that everywhere else in the Universe.

然後，我們假設宇宙中的其他地方也是如此。

The idea is old, and it's called the cosmological principle.

這個想法由來已久，被稱為宇宙學原理。

But we may have been wrong all along.

但我們可能一直都錯了。

It could be that the way our Milky Way galaxy moves through the Universe is distorting our data.

可能是銀河系在宇宙中的運動方式扭曲了我們的數據。

I mean, we've never had any hard evidence to confirm our theories.

我是說，我們從來沒有任何確鑿的證據來證實我們的理論。

So there's no way of seeing the bigger picture from where we stand.

是以，從我們所處的位置根本無法看到更大的畫面。

This is where you could be starting to doubt whether any of this is real to begin with.

這就是你開始懷疑這一切是否真實的地方。

Surely, our Universe, the one we can see, must exist, right?

當然，我們能看到的宇宙一定存在，對嗎？

Well, not so fast.

沒那麼快

You have quantum mechanics to thank for what I'm going to tell you next.

接下來我要告訴你的事情，你得感謝量子力學。

Scientists who study quantum mechanics theorize about the nature of the Universe on an atomic level.

研究量子力學的科學家從原子層面對宇宙的本質進行了理論研究。

And according to some scholars in this field, the Universe must be one of two things, real or local.

該領域的一些學者認為，宇宙必須是兩種東西中的一種，即真實的或局部的。

Bear with me here.

請原諒我。

I know this can be mind-numbing.

我知道這可能令人頭疼。

If the Universe is real, that would mean that it has specific properties like color and mass that exist even when you're not looking at them.

如果宇宙是真實的，那就意味著它有特定的屬性，比如顏色和品質，即使你不去看它們，它們也是存在的。

For example, take a red ball.

例如，拿一個紅球來說。

If it's real, the ball is red even when there's no one around to look at it.

如果是真的，即使周圍沒有人看，球也是紅色的。

On the other hand, the Universe could be local.

另一方面，宇宙也可能是局部的。

This means that the Universe can only exist because we are there to observe it through our telescopes.

這意味著，宇宙之所以存在，是因為我們在那裡通過望遠鏡觀察到了它。

So if you think about the red ball again, without anyone around to observe it, it could have any color, or no color at all.

所以，如果你再想想那個紅球，在沒有人觀察它的情況下，它可能有任何顏色，或者根本沒有顏色。

Only when you look at it and see that it's red does it actually become red.

只有當你看到它是紅色的時候，它才會真正變成紅色。

That's quantum physics 101.

這是量子物理學的 101 條。

But there's a catch.

但有一個問題。

The Universe could be either real or local.

宇宙可以是真實的，也可以是局部的。

It can't be both.

兩者不可兼得。

And remember that the Universe is ridiculously big.

記住，宇宙大得離譜。

It could be infinite.

它可能是無限的。

Our telescopes just aren't powerful enough to observe all of it.

我們的望遠鏡還不夠強大，無法觀測到它的全部。

So that means we can't know for sure if the Universe is even real.

這意味著我們無法確定宇宙是否真實存在。

You didn't see that coming, did you?

你沒想到吧？

Well, that should be enough of a head-scratcher to keep you pondering about how everything really came to be, where it all could eventually go, and what's the meaning of it all anyway.

好吧，這應該足以讓你瞠目結舌，讓你思考一切究竟是如何形成的，一切最終會走向何方，以及這一切究竟有何意義。

But hey, why stop there?

但是，為什麼要止步於此？

Wouldn't it be cool if the Universe were actually like a giant brain?

如果宇宙真的像一個巨大的大腦，那豈不是很酷？

Well, that's a story for another What If.

好吧，那是另一個 "如果 "的故事。