The Big Bang.

宇宙大爆炸

The idea that the universe was suddenly born and is not infinite.

這個想法是 宇宙突然間的出現，而且不是無盡的

Up to the middle of the 20th century, most scientists thought of the universe

一直到20世紀中葉 大多數科學家認為宇宙

as infinite and ageless.

是無限的，永恆的

Until Einstein’s theory of relativity gave us a better understanding of gravity,

直到愛因斯坦的廣義相對論 讓我們更了解重力

and Edwin Hubble discovered that galaxies are moving apart from one another

還有 埃德溫·哈勃發現星系彼此遠離

in a way that fits previous predictions.

適合先前預測的方法

In 1964, by accident, cosmic background radiation was discovered,

1964年，偶然間發現宇宙背景輻射

a relic of the early universe,

為早期宇宙的遺跡

which, together with other observational evidence, made the Big Bang

其中，總和其他觀測證據

the accepted theory in science.

使大爆炸成為公認的科學理論

Since then, improved technology like the Hubble telescope

此後，科技的改良，如哈勃望遠鏡

has given us a pretty good picture of the Big Bang and the structure of the cosmos.

給了我們相當不錯的影像 宇宙大爆炸，宇宙的結構

Recent observations even seem to suggest that the expansion of the universe

最近的觀測甚至意味著宇宙的膨脹

is accelerating.

正在加速

But how did this Big Bang work?

但是，大爆炸是如何運作的？

How can something come from nothing?

是如何無中生有的？

Let’s explore what we know.

讓我們來探討我們所知道

We can ignore the beginning part for now.

現在我們可以忽略一開始的部分

First of all, the Big Bang was not an explosion.

首先，大爆炸並不是爆炸

It was all space stretching everywhere all at once.

這是所有的空間一次伸展到每一處

The universe started very, very, very small

宇宙一開始是十分，非常，極其的小

and quickly expanded to the size of a football.

並且迅速擴展到足球的大小

The universe didn’t expand into anything, space was just expanding into itself.

宇宙中並沒有擴展成任何東西 它才剛變成它自己

The universe cannot expand into anything because the universe has no borders;

宇宙不能變成任何東西 因為宇宙是沒有邊界的

there is, by definition, no “outside” the universe.

在這根據定義，沒有宇宙“外”

The universe is all there is.

宇宙是所有

In this hot, dense environment, energy manifested itself

在這個炎熱的，密集的環境，能源在粒子中

in particles that existed only for the tiniest glimpses of time.

僅存在最小可見時間

From gluons, pairs of quarks were created, which destroyed one another,

從膠子破壞彼此，創造了數對夸克

perhaps after giving off more gluons.

也許以後會釋出更多的膠子

These found other short-lived quarks to interact with,

找到其他短命的夸克進行交互作用

forming new quark pairs and gluons again.

形成新的夸克對還有膠子

Matter and energy were not just theoretically equivalent,

物質和能量不只是理論上等價

it was so hot they were practically the same stuff.

它非常的熱，他們幾乎同樣的東西

Somewhere around this time, matter won over antimatter.

這一次，物質贏了反物質

Today, we’re left with almost all matter and nearly no antimatter at all.

今天，我們留下了幾乎所有 的物質和幾乎沒有反物質

Somehow, one billion and one matter particles were formed

不知怎的，十億裡的一個物質粒子是由

for every one billion particles of antimatter.

十億個反物質粒子所形成

Instead of one massive ultimate force in the universe,

為了代替一個龐大的終極力量

there were now several refined versions of it acting under different rules.

這裡有精簡的版本表示幾個不同的作用法則

By now the universe has stretched to a billion kilometers in diameter,

現在，宇宙拉伸到十億公里直徑

which leads to a decrease in temperature.

這導致溫度下降

The cycle of quarks being born and converted back to energy

出現夸克的循環跟轉換回能量

suddenly stops.

突然停止

From now on, we work with what we have.

從現在開始，我們跟僅有的東西辦事

Quarks begin forming new particles, hadrons, like protons and neutrons.

夸克開始形成新的粒子，強子，如質子和中子

There are many, many combinations of quarks that can form all sorts of hadrons,

有許多，許多組合夸克可以形成各種強子，

but only very few are reasonably stable for any length of time.

但只有極少數在任何時間內是穩定的

Please take a moment to appreciate that by now, only one second has passed

現在請花點時間欣賞只有1秒鐘就過去了

since the beginning of everything.

從一切的開始

The universe, which has grown to one hundred billion kilometers,

宇宙已經伸展到1兆公里

is now cold enough to allow most of the neutrons to decay into protons

現在夠冷的，讓大多數中子衰變成質子

and form the first atom, hydrogen.

並形成第一個原子，氫

Imagine the universe at this point as an extremely hot soup,

想像一下，宇宙現在是非常熱的湯

ten billion degrees Celsius, filled with countless particles and energy.

攝氏一千億度充滿著無數粒子和能量

Over the next few minutes, things cooled and settled down very fast.

在接下來的幾分鐘，所有東西冷卻的非常快

Atoms formed out of hadrons and electrons,

形成了有強子和電子的原子

making for a stable and electrically neutral environment.

作為一個穩定有電中性的環境

Some call this period the Dark Age, because there were no stars

有些人稱這時期為黑暗時代，因為沒有星體

and the hydrogen gas didn’t allow visible light to move around.

氫氣不讓可見光走動

But what’s the meaning of visible light, anyway, when there’s nothing alive yet

但是，可見光有什麼意義 我是說，還沒有任何東西活著

that could have eyes?

可能會有眼睛?

When the hydrogen gas clumped together after millions of years and

當氫氣凝結在一起幾百萬年後

gravity put it under great pressure, stars and galaxies began to form.

重力讓它承受著巨大的壓力 而星體和星系開始形成

Their radiation dissolved the stable hydrogen gas into a plasma

它們的輻射溶解穩定的氫氣氣體成等離子體

that still permeates the universe today and allows visible light to pass.

今天仍然瀰漫在宇宙 並且讓可見光通過

Finally, there was light!

最後，終於有了光！

Okay, but what about the part we didn’t talk about?

好吧，但我們沒有談到的部分呢？

What happened right at the beginning?

在一開始發生了什麼事？

This part can be defined as the Big Bang.

這部分可以被定義為宇宙大爆炸

We don’t know at all what happened here.

我們不知道在這裡發生的事情

At this point, our tools break down.

在這裡，我們的工具無法作用

Natural laws stop making sense, time itself becomes wibbly-wobbly.

自然規律停止運轉 時間本身搖搖晃晃的

To understand what happened here, we need a theory that unifies

要了解這裡發生的事情我們需要一種理論相結合

Einstein’s relativity and quantum mechanics, something countless

愛因斯坦的相對論和量子力學，一些數不出的東西

scientists are working on right now.

科學家們正在研究中

But this leaves us with lots of unanswered questions.

但是，這給我們留下了許多懸而未決的問題

Were there universes before our own?

在我們之前宇宙是存在的？

Is this the first and only universe?

這是第一個也是唯一的宇宙？

What started the Big Bang, or did it just occur naturally,

是什麼啟動了大爆炸 還是那只是自然發生的

based on laws we don’t understand yet?

根據法則我們還不了解嗎？

We don’t know, and maybe we never will.

我們不知道，也許我們永遠也不會

But what we do know is that the universe as we know it started here

但我們知道的是 因為我們知道宇宙，而從這裡開始

and gave birth to particles, galaxies, stars, the Earth, and you.

並生下粒子，星系，星體，地球，和你。

Since were ourselves are made of dead stars, we are not separate

既然我們是由死星作成的，我們跟宇宙就沒有距離

from the universe; we are part of it.

我們是它的一部分

You could even say that we are the universe’s way of experiencing itself.

你甚至可以說 我們以宇宙的方式經歷它本身

So, let’s keep on experiencing it, until there are no more questions to ask.

所以，讓我們繼續體驗它 直到沒有更多的問題要問

Subtitles by the Amara.org community