LIGO is really two observatories that work in unison, in tandem.

LIGO 由兩座共同合作的觀測站所組成。

The LIGO interferometer has arms that are about 2 and 1/2 miles long, 4 kilometers.

LIGO 干涉儀有兩隻長達 2.5 英里 (4 公里) 的巨型手臂。

We have a laser.

我們利用雷射光。

The laser produces the purest light you can possibly make.

創造有史以來最純粹的光束。

It produces light that's so coherent that it's capable of detecting gravitational waves.

這光束極高的相干性得以讓我們偵測到重力波的存在。

We have these very massive mirrors.

我們有非常巨大的反射鏡。

They weigh 40 kilograms, which is about 88 pounds.

重達 40 公斤，大約 88 磅。

They're about this thick.

他們差不多這麼厚。

And they're just the purest material you can imagine.

大概是你能見到最純粹的物質了。

The NSF, of course, had to be the source of funding for anything that would be as expensive as this.

當然，這背後有國家科學基金會資助我們大量的經費來進行此昂貴的研究。

This was going to be a very high-risk experiment.

這將是一項風險很高的實驗。

It was from its very inception.

從這個計畫生成初始我們就知道了。

If you think about this in the '70s and '80s, I'm amazed at how bold it was to do this, and visionary.

要在 70、80 年代從事這樣的實驗，我對於這件事情的大膽和前瞻性感到驚訝不已。

It was bold and visionary.

既大膽，又有前瞻性。

There's no other way to describe it.

我想不到其它形容詞了。

NSF management, the National Science Board, they had to really step up to that.

當時的國家科學委員會必須為此計畫挺身而出。

And they had a lot of discussions, brought in a lot of experts.

他們多次商討，請來許多專家。

There was great debate going on.

經歷了許多激烈的辯論。

But in the end, the people who thought it could be done won the day.

但最後，認為這計畫可行的那一派佔上風。

And they went after it.

從那之後，他們便投身實驗。

Gravitational waves carry the record of cataclysmic events in the universe, like the Big Bang.

重力波記錄著宇宙的重大事件，例如大霹靂。

Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein about 100 years ago.

愛因斯坦在百年前就預測了重力波的存在。

And they are dynamical perturbations in the fabric of spacetime, ripples in spacetime, if you will.

重力波是一種動能的擾動，在時間和空間為一體的時空中，由漣漪的形式向外傳播，如果你聽得懂這種說法的話。

A ripple in the fabric of space and time the same way as a ripple on a pond is a ripple in the shape of the surface of the water.

在時空產生的漣漪，就如同在池塘產生的漣漪有著和水的表層一樣的形狀。

Nobody really believed that you could ever detect them, because the size of the effect is so small...

沒有人認為我們能偵測到重力波的存在，因為重力波的擾動範圍十分渺小...

1,000th the diameter of a proton.

只有質子直徑的千分之一。

Even Einstein himself never thought a detection would be possible.

就連愛因斯坦本人也沒有想過我們有可能偵測到重力波的存在。

I tried to do this back in the 1960s when I was a student.

60 年代我還是個學生的時候，做過這實驗。

We couldn't make any progress.

我們沒有任何進展。

We didn't have the technology.

我們當時沒有先進的科技。

In 1968, Rainer Weiss of MIT conceived of a device that could detect gravitational waves.

1968年，MIT 教授雷納．華斯設計了一個可以偵測重力波的儀器。

The idea was extremely simple.

重力波的概念非常簡單。

And it turns out to be the the basis of LIGO.

後來成了 LIGO 成立的理念。

What the gravitational wave does is it stretches space this way and compresses space that way.

重力波會從一個方向延展空間，又從另一個方向壓縮空間。

So you exploit that property.

所以我們就依此規則設計實驗。

Put one object here and another object over there.

在這端擺放物體，那端擺放另一個物體。

And let the gravitational wave go through that system.

然後讓重力波穿越此系統。

And it will change the space between these by contracting that one and extending that one.

它便透由壓縮這個物體和延展那個物體來改變物體間的空間。

And I came to the conclusion that if you made this long enough, if you didn't make it a little pipsqueak thing like this, but you made it sort of kilometer-scale, you could probably get these extremely precise measurements.

我最後發現，如果能夠把這個裝置做得夠長，如果我們不只是做這微小的裝置，而是拓展至公里的規模，我們或許就能得到極精確的測量結果。

1994, Construction begins.

1994 年動工。

Nobody had ever made something like this before.

從來沒有人創造過如此大規模的裝置。

So there's a lot of technological challenges that needed to be overcome.

所以我們必須面對許多技術上的挑戰。

The precision that was required was just amazing, mind boggling.

實驗所需的精準度實在是非常驚人，令人咋舌！

The MIT Group has typically concentrated on developing new techniques to make the instruments work and then to work on, also, data analysis algorithms that are well-informed by the understanding of the instrument.

MIT 團隊大量專注於開發新技術，好讓實驗用的儀器得以運作，後來，他們開發了一套數據分析計算系統，利用對儀器的暸解來回報準確的測量結果。

September 14, 2015.

2015 年 9 月 14 日。

The first direct detection of gravitational waves in human history.

人類史上，首次直接觀測到重力波。

We have observed gravitational waves from two black holes forming a larger black hole.

我們從兩個黑洞融合而成的大黑洞中觀測到重力波。

Two black holes merging together, literally, nearly the speed of light to produce a bigger black hole.

兩個黑洞合而為一，幾乎是以光速融合成一個更大的黑洞。

How cool is that?

有夠酷的，對吧？

I said, holy mackerel.

我大叫，我的天啊！

This is the beginning of a whole new way of studying the universe.

這是宇宙學史上嶄新的一頁！

It's monumental.

這是歷史性的一刻！

It's like Galileo using the telescope for the first time.

就像伽利略第一次舉起望遠鏡。

Every time we have pointed a new instrument into the sky, nature has revealed secrets to us that we haven't known before.

每當我們對浩瀚宇宙有了新的觀照，我們就會發現宇宙中不為人知的奧秘。

And so I feel very confident that this is just the beginning of such an era for gravitational wave observations, as well.

我相信這只是重力波研究史上的開端。

Who knows what we'll see?

誰知道我們接下來會觀測到什麼呢？

I would love to see Einstein's face if he could read this article that we just put out.

我很想看愛因斯坦在讀我們這篇文獻時臉上露出的表情。

I mean, he would have been as dumbfounded as we are.

他一定會跟我們一樣目瞪口呆。

Because it's a wonderful proof that all of this incredible stuff, the strong-field gravity, is in his equations.

因為這恰好證實了他那些偉大、有關重力場的方程式是真實存在的。

Just imagine that.

想像一下。

To me, that's a miracle that (that) happened... man's thinking, and also all the elegance not only in the theory, but the elegance in the experiment.

對我而言，這個奇蹟，不單只是人類思想的力量，也是理論和實驗方面的精心之作。

I mean, that is a human endeavor that, I think, everybody in the world should be proud of.

我認為世上所有人都應該為這人類的創舉感到光榮。

I had to tell you that.

我真心地這樣認為！