Name: 夜空是人類生存的關鍵？| BBC 創意 (How was the night sky key to our survival? | BBC Ideas)
Uploaded: 2025-06-18T10:46:05.000Z
Duration: 4 min 50 s

It's night time in the Australian outback, and it's dark.

現在是澳洲內陸的夜晚，一片漆黑。

But if you look up, the sky is ablaze with light.

但是，如果你抬頭仰望，天空就會被光芒照亮。

We're looking towards the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, a vast pinwheel of about 100 billion stars.

我們現在看到的是銀河系的中心，一個由大約 1000 億顆恆星組成的巨大風車。

It's made of dark clouds of dust and gas, obscuring the lighter parts of the sky.

它是由塵埃和氣體組成的黑雲，遮住了天空中較亮的部分。

There are several legends about how the emu was banished to the heavens, but in the aboriginal nation of Wiradjuri, her position in the sky signals the time of year best for collecting emu eggs.

關於鴯鶓是如何被放逐到天上的，有多種傳說，但在維拉朱裡原住民那裡，鴯鶓在天上的位置預示著一年中最適合收集鴯鶓蛋的時節。

For most of human history, understanding the sky was not the preserve of scientists, but a precious tool for our survival, for building cultures, religions and societies.

在人類歷史的大部分時間裡，瞭解天空並不是科學家的專利，而是我們生存、建立文化、宗教和社會的寶貴工具。

You're probably familiar with his belt and sword, but if you're close to the equator, it looks a lot more like a canoe.

你可能對他的腰帶和劍很熟悉，但如果你靠近赤道，它看起來更像一艘獨木舟。

A thousand years ago, the Polynesians were the most accomplished navigators in the world.

一千年前，波利尼西亞人是世界上最傑出的航海家。

Up to the 11th century, they explored over 1,000 tiny islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean.

直到 11 世紀，他們探索了散佈在太平洋上的 1000 多個小島。

One of the ways they did this was by using an ingenious memory technique.

他們做到這一點的方法之一是使用一種巧妙的記憶技術。

With a stone canoe built on the beach, a trainee navigator would face the sea and sit in there night after night, memorizing the rising and falling positions of the stars.

見習航海家在海灘上建造了一艘石制獨木舟，面朝大海，夜以繼日地坐在獨木舟上，記住星星升起和落下的位置。

When the crew was ready to depart, they would head for a star near the horizon, switching to a new one once the first either rose or set as it moved across the sky.

當機組人員準備出發時，他們會前往地平線附近的一顆恆星，一旦第一顆恆星在天空中移動時升起或落下，他們就會切換到新的恆星。

Each sailing route required a specific sequence of stars, like a password or a musical motif.

每條航行路線都需要一個特定的星星序列，就像一個口令或一個音樂主題。

Celestial navigation, using the sun, moon and stars to work out precisely where you are in the world, was essential to European seafarers too.

天體導航，即利用太陽、月亮和星星來確定你在世界上的準確位置，對歐洲海員來說也是必不可少的。

But what if it wasn't a navigation tool you were after, but a way of judging time?

但如果你想要的不是導航工具，而是判斷時間的方法呢？

Some have suggested that Stonehenge in England was built as an astronomical computer of great sophistication, capable of predicting eclipses.

有人認為，英格蘭的巨石陣是作為一臺精密的天文計算機建造的，能夠預測日食。

It's most likely to be a precise-ish way of determining the winter solstice, perfect for timing observances around the shortest day of the year.

這很可能是一種精確確定冬至的方法，非常適合在一年中最短的一天舉行紀念活動。

Stonehenge is solstitially aligned, meaning if you're approaching the entrance from the northeast, the sunset at midwinter will cut the monument neatly in half.

巨石陣是日光排列的，這意味著如果您從東北方向靠近入口，隆冬時節的日落會將巨石陣整齊地切成兩半。

Newgrange in Ireland does an even better job.

A 19-metre passage runs the length of a long barrow, leading to a central chamber.

一條 19 米長的通道貫穿整個長冢，通向一箇中央墓室。

In the mornings around the winter solstice, the sun shines directly in through a crack above the doorway.

冬至前後的早晨，陽光從門口上方的縫隙直射進來。

Newgrange was a tomb, so for the people that built it, ancestors, death, the sun and seasonal renewal were probably linked.

紐格蘭奇是一座墳墓，是以對於建造它的人來說，祖先、死亡、太陽和季節性的更新可能是聯繫在一起的。

Perhaps it was the job of the ancestors to turn the sun around at midwinter, guaranteeing the return of spring.

也許祖先的工作就是在隆冬時節讓太陽轉過身來，保證春天的到來。

One of the most stunning examples of an ancient astronomical tool is at Chanquillo in Peru.

最令人驚歎的古代天文工具之一位於祕魯的昌基洛。

A line of 13 towers provided a detailed solar calendar to someone viewing it from a specially built doorway.

由 13 座塔組成的一排塔為從特製門洞觀看的人提供了詳細的太陽曆。

People may have gathered from miles around to celebrate certain days of the year.

人們可能不遠萬里聚集在一起，慶祝一年中的某些日子。

But with the development of complex technologies such as GPS, most humans no longer rely on the sun, moon and stars to travel or to organize their lives.

但隨著全球定位系統等複雜技術的發展，大多數人類不再依靠日月星辰來旅行或安排生活。

Just as well because light pollution is increasing globally between 2 and 10% year on year.

這也是因為光汙染在全球範圍內逐年增加，增幅在 2% 到 10% 之間。

Only one in five people in Western Europe and America can now see the Milky Way.

現在，西歐和美國只有五分之一的人能看到銀河。

But birds need the stars, including the North Star, to navigate.

但鳥類需要星星，包括北極星來導航。

If they can't see them due to light pollution from cities, they run into trouble.

如果由於城市的光汙染而看不到它們，它們就會遇到麻煩。

Denying animals access to the stars is just one of the many ways in which light pollution impacts nature, but that's another story.

不讓動物接觸星空只是光汙染影響自然的眾多方式之一，但這是另一回事。

Reliance on the sky as a guiding light is not uniquely human.

依賴天空作為指路明燈並非人類獨有。

But perhaps our use of the sky to find food, to organize our lives, to socialize, to pray, was not just something we did before better technology became available.

但是，也許我們利用天空來尋找食物、安排生活、社交和祈禱，並不僅僅是在更好的技術出現之前才做的事情。

也許正是它造就了現在的我們。

If you enjoyed that be sure to check out these videos next.

如果您喜歡，請務必查看接下來的視頻。

And if you haven't already, hit the subscribe button and click the bell to get a notification each time we upload a new video.

如果您還沒有訂閱，請點擊訂閱按鈕，然後點擊鈴鐺，這樣我們每次上傳新視頻時您都會收到通知。

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夜空是人類生存的關鍵？| BBC 創意 (How was the night sky key to our survival? | BBC Ideas)

essential

technique

ancient

determine