The first asteroid ever discovered - Carrie Nugent

Prevoditelj: Katarina Mikjel Recezent: Ivan Stamenković

On the night of January 1, 1801,

U noći 1. siječnja 1801.

Giuseppe Piazzi, a priest in Palermo, Italy,

svećenik iz Palerma u Italiji Giuseppe Piazzi

was mapping the stars in the sky.

mapirao je zvijezde na nebu.

Over three nights, he'd look at and draw the same set of stars,

Tri je noći gledao i crtao isti skup zvijezda,

carefully measuring their relative positions.

pažljivo mjereći njihove relativne položaje.

That night, he measured the stars.

Te je noći izmjerio položaje zvijezda.

The next night, he measured them again.

Sljedeće ih je noći ponovno izmjerio.

To his surprise, one had moved.

Na njegovo iznenađenje, jedna se pomaknula.

The third night, the peculiar star had moved again.

Treće se noći neobična zvijezda ponovno pomaknula.

This meant it couldn't be a star at all.

Značilo je to da to uopće nije zvijezda.

It was something new, the first asteroid ever discovered,

Bilo je to nešto novo, prvi dotad otkriveni asteroid,

which Piazzi eventually named Ceres.

koji je Piazzi naposljetku nazvao Cerera.

Asteroids are bits of rock and metal that orbit the Sun.

Asteroidi su komadi stijena i metala koji kruže oko Sunca.

At over 900 kilometers across, Ceres is a very large asteroid.

Cerera je vrlo velik asteroid, promjera većeg od 900 kilometara.

But through a telescope, like Piazzi's,

Ali kroz Piazzijev teleskop

Ceres looked like a pinpoint of light similar to a star.

izgledala je kao točkica svjetla nalik zvijezdi.

In fact, the word asteroid means star-like.

Riječ asteroid zapravo znači „nalik zvijezdi”.

You can tell the difference between stars

Razlika između zvijezda

and asteroids by the way they move across the sky.

i asteroida vidljiva je u načinu na koji se kreću nebom.

Of course, Piazzi knew none of that at the time,

Naravno, Piazzi tada o tome nije znao ništa.

just that he had discovered something new.

Znao je samo da je otkrio nešto novo.

To learn about Ceres,

Kako bi saznao više o njoj,

Piazzi needed to track its motion across the sky

Piazzi je morao pratiti Cererino kretanje nebom

and then calculate its orbit around the Sun.

te potom izračunati njezinu putanju oko Sunca.

So each clear night, Piazzi trained his telescope to the heavens.

Tako je svake vedre noći Piazzi usmjeravao teleskop prema nebu.

Night after night, he made careful measurements

Svake je noći pomno mjerio Cererin položaj,

until finally, he couldn't.

dok naposljetku više nije mogao.

The Sun got in the way.

Omelo ga je Sunce.

When Piazzi first spotted Ceres, it was here, and the Earth was here.

Kad je Piazzi prvi put spazio Cereru, bila je ovdje, a Zemlja je bila ovdje.

As he tracked it each night, the Earth and Ceres moved like this

Prateći ih svake noći, vidio je da su se Zemlja i Cerera pomicale ovako

until Ceres was here.

dok Cerera nije dospjela ovdje.

And that meant that Ceres was only in the sky when it was daytime on Earth.

To je značilo da je Cerera na nebu samo kad je na Zemlji dan.

During the day, bright sunlight made this small asteroid impossible to see.

Danju je zbog sunčeve svjetlosti taj mali asteroid bilo nemoguće vidjeti.

Astronomers needed to calculate Ceres's orbit.

Astronomi su morali izračunati Cererinu putanju

This would let them predict where it was going to be

kako bi mogli predvidjeti njezin položaj

in the vast night sky on any given night.

na beskrajnom nebu svake noći.

But the calculations were grueling and the results imprecise.

No mjerenje je bilo naporno, a rezultati neprecizni.

Many astronomers searched for Ceres,

Mnogi su astronomi tražili Cereru,

but not knowing exactly where to look, no one could find it.

ali nisu znali gdje tražiti, pa je nisu ni mogli naći.

Luckily, a hardworking mathematician named Carl Friedrich Gauss

Nasreću je vrijedni matematičar Carl Friedrich Gauss

heard about the lost asteroid.

čuo za „izgubljeni” asteroid.

He thought it was an exciting puzzle and went to work.

Privukla ga je ta uzbudljiva zagonetka te je prionuo na posao.

When he realized he didn't have the mathematical methods he needed,

Shvativši da ne postoje matematičke metode koje su mu bile potrebne,

he invented new ones that we still use today.

izmislio je nove koje su i danas u upotrebi.

He derived a new orbit and new predictions of where to look for Ceres.

Izračunao je novu putanju i nanovo predvidio Cererin položaj.

Hungarian astronomer Baron Franz Xaver von Zach

Mađarski astronom barun Franz Xaver von Zach

searched for Ceres with Gauss's predictions.

u potrazi za Cererom koristio se Gaussovim predviđanjima.

After weeks of frustrating clouds,

Nakon tjedana neumoljivih oblaka

von Zach finally had clear skies on December 31, 1801.

von Zach je konačno 31. prosinca 1801. dočekao vedro nebo.

He looked through his telescope and finally saw Ceres.

Pogledao je kroz teleskop i napokon ugledao Cereru.

We haven't lost track of it since.

Otada je nismo izgubili iz vida.

Today, we've discovered hundreds of thousands of asteroids.

Do danas smo otkrili stotine tisuća asteroida.

Many, including Ceres, orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter,

Mnogi od njih, uključujući Cereru, kruže oko Sunca između Marsa i Jupitera,

while near-Earth asteroids orbit the Sun relatively close to Earth.

dok oni bliži kruže oko Sunca u relativnoj blizini Zemlje.

When we recorded this narration,

Do trenutka kad je ovo snimljeno

astronomers had discovered 16,407 near-Earth asteroids,

astronomi su otkrili 16 407 asteroida u blizini Zemlje,

but since we find new asteroids all the time,

ali budući da stalno otkrivaju nove,

that number will have grown by hundreds or thousands

taj će broj sigurno biti za stotine ili tisuće veći

by the time you watch this.

do trenutka kad ovo budete gledali.

Today, asteroid hunters use modern telescopes,

Danas se lovci na asteroide koriste modernim teleskopima,

including one in space.

uključujući one svemirske.

Computers analyze the images,

Računala analiziraju slike,

and humans check the output

a ljudi provjeravaju rezultate

before reporting the asteroid observations to an archiving center.

prije nego što zapažanja o asteroidima proslijede dokumentacijskom centru.

Each discovered asteroid has its unique orbit measured.

Mjeri se jedinstvena putanja svakog otkrivenog asteroida.

An orbit lets astronomers predict where asteroids are going to be

Putanje omogućuju astronomima da predvide položaj asteroida

at any given time.

u bilo kojem trenutku.

Most asteroid trajectories can be predicted for about 80 years

Putanje većine asteroida mogu se predvidjeti za sljedećih 80-ak godina,

though we can calculate where the best studied asteroids will be every day

no za one najpoznatije možemo predvidjeti gdje će biti svakog dana

between now and 800 years into the future.

tijekom sljedećih 800 godina.

We must keep searching for asteroids

Moramo nastaviti potragu za asteroidima

in case there's one out there on a collision course with Earth.

jer se neki od njih možda sprema sudariti sa Zemljom.

Astronomers don't only search for asteroids, though.

Astronome ne zanima samo položaj asteroida.

Proučavaju ih i da bi saznali kako su nastali,

They also study them to learn how they formed,

what they're made of,

od čega se sastoje

and what they can tell us about our solar system.

i što nam mogu otkriti o našem Sunčevu sustavu.

Today, we can do something that Piazzi could only dream of:

Danas možemo ono o čemu je Piazzi mogao samo sanjati:

send spacecraft to study asteroids up close.

slati letjelice u svemir da izbliza proučavaju asteroide.

One spacecraft called Dawn journeyed billions of kilometers

Svemirska letjelica Dawn (Zora) prešla je milijarde kilometara

over four years to the main asteroid belt.

i za četiri godine došla do glavnog pojasa asteroida.

There, it visited Ceres and another asteroid, Vesta.

Ondje je posjetila Cereru i još jedan asteroid, Vestu.

Dawn's stunning images transformed Piazzi's dot of light

Zadivljujuće slike s te letjelice preobrazile su Piazzijevu svjetlosnu točku

into a spectacular landscape of craters,

u spektakularni krajolik kratera

landslides,

klizišta

and mountains.

i planina.