favorite show? Curling up with a good book?

暑假?下一集你最愛的電視節目?

How about the death of the universe, right? Isn't THAT a cheery thought.

窩起來看一本好書? 「宇宙之死」如何?這想法似乎不太正面。

[MUSIC]

在《黑道家族》最後一集，

In the final scene of The Sopranos, Tony sits at a diner eating onion rings, Journey is

Tony坐在餐館嗑洋蔥圈，Journey正在玩點唱機，

playing on the jukebox, and a shady characters enters the restaurant one after another. All

可疑的人物不斷從餐廳外進入。

of a sudden Tony looks up and...

突然Tony往上一望然後...... 是，人們都有點失望。

Yeah, people were a little disappointed. They were disappointed because we never found out

因為我們不知道Tony的故事如何結束。

how Tony's story ends. And it's the same with your story, or mine. The ending hasn't been

你或我的故事也一樣，結局還沒被寫下。 但這對宇宙不適用。

written. But that's NOT TRUE for the universe. Thanks to science, we know how it ends. SPOILERS:

感恩科學，我們能夠知道宇宙的終結。

It doesn't end particularly well.

爆雷：這結局不太美好。 百年之後，我們差不多都掛了。

n just 100 years, we'll all be gone. You. Me. Every person who's alive today. If the

你、我、現今每一個活人。 如果把宇宙至今的壽命濃縮成一天，

age of the universe up til now was condensed to one day, our lives would be over in less

我們的壽命就比

time than a bat is in contact with a baseball.

棒球接觸球棒的時間還短暫(0.6毫秒)。 以人類的壽命尺度，群星似乎固定不動，

On the scale of human lifespans, they may appear fixed in the sky. But they are moving,

但他們確實在動。十萬年後，

and in 100,000 years not a single constellation we know today will be recognizable. But since

我們認不出現今所知的任何一個星座。 但反正我們的大腦天生擅長尋找模式，

our brains are fine-tuned to see patterns, I'm sure we'll find new ones.

我確定到時候會出現新的星座。 說到熊，到時候小熊隊幾乎必定

Speaking of bears, by this time the Cubs have almost certainly won another World Series.

會再度贏得世界冠軍。

Of course NOTHING in science is guaranteed.

當然，科學不能保證一切。 不像芝加哥的冠軍夢，

Unlike Chicago's World Series hopes, disasters are a matter of when, not if. Some time within

災難的到來只是時間問題。 在五十萬年內，地球幾乎必定會

the next half a million years, Earth will almost certainly experience a climate-altering

因火山爆發導致氣候變遷， 或是被直徑1公里的小行星砸中。

volcanic eruption, or be hit by a 1 km asteroid. Not enough to cause mass extinction, but still

這還不足以造成大滅絕，

. . . I hope we're viewing it from afar.

但至少......我希望我們到時候會在遠處觀賞。 當太陽越來越老，它變得越來越熱。

As the Sun gets older, it's getting hotter. 600 million years from now, our amped up sun

六億年後，我們激情的太陽 會使更多二氧化碳被封存在地殼中。

will cause more carbon dioxide to be trapped in Earth's crust. So much so, that photosynthesis

甚至使得99%的植物

becomes impossible for 99% of Earth's plants.

無法進行光合作用。八億年後，地球上不會有

By 800 million years from now, every green thing on Earth is dried up, and all multicellular

任何綠色植物，以及任何多細胞生物苟活。

life with them. Unfortunately, that includes us.

杯具的是，包括我們。 我們也絕不會想要親身經歷接下來的事情。

We wouldn't want to be around for what comes next anyway. A billion years from now our

十億年後，我們激越的太陽把海洋蒸發，

amped up sun boils the oceans away, and only bacteria remain.

只剩細菌能夠存活。到了28億年後，

But by 2.8 billion years in the future, even those tiny stragglers have run out of time.

連這些流浪者的大限也終將來到。 地球上的生命......灰飛煙滅。

Life on Earth goes "POOF". We had a good 6.5 billion years, didn't we?

我們還能享受6.5億年啊，是否? 到了那時，我們的銀河系

Around this time the Milky Way collides with our neighbor Andromeda. It sounds violent,

將撞擊鄰居仙女座星系。 聽起來很黃很暴力，但其實星系裡面還蠻空的。

but galaxies are mostly empty space. Maybe six out of a trillion stars explode into fiery

也許只有一兆分之六的恆星

balls of supernova death.

將會經歷超新星爆炸。 我們的恆星被認為是堅實的一體，

Assuming our star makes it out in one piece, by this time it starts to run out of gas.

然而此刻它正消耗氣體。 79億年後，太陽將膨脹到

By 7.9 billion years our sun swells up more than 250 times wider than it is today. Mercury

超過現今的250倍寬。

and Venus are toast.

水星和金星將被燒灼。 這個吃人氣球將在95億年後

That planet eating balloon deflates 9.5 billion years down the line, leaving a white dwarf

徹底收縮，留下一顆白矮星。

in its place. At this point, things cool off for a while. Literally.

此時一切冷卻下來，徹徹底底。1500億年後，

In 150 billion years we lose sight of the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background

我們將看不見大霹靂，宇宙背景輻射冷卻到無法偵測。

cools to a point that it's undetectable. And thanks to the expanding universe, we lose

多虧宇宙膨脹，

sight of all galaxies but our own.

我們再也看不到自己以外的星系。一兆年後，

After a trillion years, stars stop forming in the universe, but it takes 110 trillion

恆星將停止形成，但要到110兆年後才會全部熄滅。

years for all them to flicker out. This is where the sky goes dark.

那時天空將是無盡黑暗。但地球仍在公轉： 直至一千兆年後。

the Earth is still around. Until 1 quadrillion years from now. Then, like all orbits, our

如同一切軌道，地球的軌道將失序並墜入

orbit decays and we plunge back into the black dwarf that used to be our sun.

我們曾稱之為太陽的黑矮星。在之後10^25年，

Over the next 10^25 years, the dead star that remains will transform into a black hole.

我們曾稱之為太陽的黑矮星。在之後10^25年，

And those suck. Literally.

剩餘的恆星遺骸將化為黑洞，

But they won't suck forever. Even the largest black holes will likely evaporate, thanks

連最大的黑洞也會逐漸「蒸發」

to a phenomenon called Hawking radiation.

肇因於一種現象稱為「霍金輻射」。 剩下的一丁點殘骸也將隨著宇宙膨脹，

As the minuscule leftovers continue to expand, anything that remains will be stretched so

被瓦解到相距太過遙遠，變成完全稱不上物質的玩意。

far apart that it really doesn't, and isn't matter at all. After that, the universe is

在那之後，

basically empty.

宇宙基本上只剩一片空洞。

So what's the point of anything if it all ends?

所以重點在哪裡，如果萬物終將滅亡? 2012年，《黑道家族》作者大衛‧蔡斯

In 2012, Sopranos creator David Chase finally explained the meaning of the final scene in

2012年，《黑道家族》作者大衛‧蔡斯

The Sopranos.

終於解釋了該劇大結局的意義。他說： 「這不是比喻，宇宙真的極其寒冷。

He said: "it's a cold universe and I don't mean that metaphorically. If you go out into

當你進入太空，那是徹底的冷寂，

space, it's cold. It's really cold and we don't know what's up there. We happen to be

而且不可預測。我們生存在太陽的小小庇蔭中

in this little pocket where there's a sun. What have we got except love and each other

我們除了愛與同胞， 還能怎麼對抗如此的空虛與靜寂?」

to guard against all that isolation and loneliness?"

保持好奇心吧。

Stay curious.

["Don't stop"]

These videos are part of a PBS-wide collaboration all about the future, so head on over to these

other great Digital Studios channels and check out their videos. Because the future's gonna

be here before you know it.