Phil Plait: How to defend Earth from asteroids

Translator: Klavdija Cernilogar Reviewer: Matej Divjak

I want to talk to you about something

Rad bi vam pripovedoval o nečem

kind of big.

dokaj velikem.

We'll start here.

Začnimo tukaj.

Sixty-five million years ago --

Pred 65 milijoni let

(Laughter)

the dinosaurs had a bad day.

so dinozavri imeli slab dan.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

A chunk of rock six miles across,

Kamen s premerom devet kilometrov,

moving something like 50 times the speed of a rifle bullet,

ki je letel kakih petdesetkrat hitreje

kot izstrelek iz puške,

slammed into the Earth.

je treščil na Zemljo.

It released its energy all at once,

Ob tem se je sprostila vsa njegova energija naenkrat

and it was an explosion that was mind-numbing.

in ta eksplozija je bila

nepredstavljiva.

If you took every nuclear weapon ever built

Če bi združili vse jedrsko orožje, ki je obstajalo

na vrhuncu hladne vojne,

at the height of the Cold War,

lumped them together,

ga sestavili skupaj in

and blew them up at the same time,

naenkrat razstrelili,

that would be one one-millionth of the energy released at that moment.

bi to predstavljalo le milijonti del

energije, ki se je sprostila v tistem trenutku.

The dinosaurs had a really bad day.

Ja, dinozavri so imeli res slab dan.

OK?

V redu?

Now, a six-mile-wide rock is very large.

No, devetkilometrska skala je zelo velika.

We all live here in Boulder.

Mi vsi živimo tule v Boulderju.

If you look out your window and see Longs Peak --

Če pogledate skozi okno in vidite

you're probably familiar with it --

Long's Peak, verjetno ga poznate.

now, scoop up Longs Peak and put it out in space.

Zdaj pa vzemite Long's Peak in ga postavite

Take ... Meeker, Mt. Meeker.

v vesolje.

Dodajte Meeker, goro Meeker

Lump that in there, and put that in space as well.

in vse to postavite v vesolje.

And Mt. Everest. And K2.

Pa še Mount Everest, K2

in indijske vrhove.

And the Indian peaks.

Potem morda dobite vizijo o tem,

Then you're starting to get an idea of how much rock we're talking about, OK?

za kako veliko skalo gre, prav?

We know it was that big

Vemo, da je bila tako velika zaradi

because of the impact it had and the crater it left.

vpliva, ki ga je imela, in kraterja, ki ga je napravila.

It hit in what we now know as Yucatan, the Gulf of Mexico.

Zadela je območje, ki ga danes poznamo kot Jukatan

v mehiškem zalivu.

You can see here, there's the Yucatan Peninsula,

Vidite, tule je

polotok Jukatan, če prepoznate Cozumel

if you recognize Cozumel off the east coast there.

na vzhodni obali.

Here is how big of a crater was left.

Krater, ki je ostal, je tako velik.

It was huge.

To give you a sense of the scale ... there you go.

Bil je ogromen. Da vam dam občutek za velikost,

vidite. Gre za

The scale here is 50 miles on top, a hundred kilometers on the bottom.

80 km na vrhu, sto km

na dnu. Ta stvar je imela premer

This thing was 300 kilometers across -- 200 miles --

300 km ali 200 milj,

an enormous crater that excavated out vast amounts of earth

šlo je za neznanski krater, ki je izkopal

ogromne količine zemlje, ki so se razpršile

that splashed around the globe and set fires all over the planet,

po vsem planetu in povsod zanetile požare,

threw up enough dust to block out the sun.

dvignilo pa se je toliko prahu, da je zatemnil sonce.

It wiped out 75 percent of all species on Earth.

Dogodek je izbrisal 75 odstotkov vseh živih bitij

na Zemlji.

Now, not all asteroids are that big.

No, niso vsi asteroidi tako veliki.

Some of them are smaller.

Nekateri so manjši.

Here is one that came in

Tale je priletel

over the United States in October of 1992.

nad Združenimi državami Amerike

oktobra 1992.

It came in on a Friday night.

Bilo je v petek zvečer.

Why is that important?

Zakaj je to pomembno?

Because back then, video cameras were just starting to become popular,

Ker so bile v tistem času videokamere

šele na začetku popularnosti in so jih ljudje

and parents would bring them to their kids' football games

jemali s sabo, starši so jih jemali s sabo

na nogometne tekme svojih otrok, da bi jih snemali

to film their kids playing football.

pri igri. In ker se je to zgodilo v petek,

And since this came in on a Friday,

they were able to get this great footage of this thing breaking up

so lahko posneli,

kako je ta stvar razpadala, ko je letela

as it came in over West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey

preko Zahodne Virginije, Marylanda, Pensilvanije

in New Jerseyja, dokler ni napravila

until it did that

to a car in New York.

tega nekemu avtomobilu v New Yorku.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

Now, this is not a 200-mile-wide crater,

No, to ni tristokilometrski krater,

but then again, you can see the rock, which is sitting right here,

ampak obenem lahko vidite skalo,

tamle leži,

about the size of a football,

v velikosti nogometne žoge, ki je zadela

that hit that car and did that damage.

avto in napravila tako škodo.

Now, this thing was probably about the size of a school bus

Ta stvar je bila, ko je priletela v atmosfero,

when it first came in.

najbrž velika približno toliko kot avtobus.

It broke up through atmospheric pressure,

Pod atmosferskim pritiskom se je razdrobila,

it crumbled, and then the pieces fell apart

razpadla in koščki so se razleteli

and did some damage.

ter napravili nekaj škode.

Now, you wouldn't want that falling on your foot or your head,

Seveda nočete, da bi vam kaj takega padlo na nogo

ali na glavo, saj bi vam naredilo tole.

because it would do that to it.

That would be bad.

To bi bilo slabo.

But it won't wipe out, you know, all life on Earth, so that's fine.

Ampak hkrati ne bi uničilo vsega življenja

na Zemlji, zato je v redu. Izkaže pa se,

But it turns out, you don't need something six miles across

da ni treba, da je stvar široka devet kilometrov,

to do a lot of damage.

da bi naredila ogromno škodo.

There is a median point between tiny rock and gigantic rock,

Obstaja vmesna velikost med majhnim kamnom

in ogromnim kamnom; pravzaprav, če ste

and in fact, if any of you have ever been to near Winslow, Arizona,

bili kdaj blizu Winslowa v Arizoni,

there is a crater in the desert there that is so iconic

tam v puščavi leži krater, ki je

taka ikona, da ga kličejo meteorski krater.

that it is actually called "Meteor Crater."

To give you a sense of scale, this is about a mile wide.

Da bi dobili občutek za mero: tole je široko okoli kilometer in pol.

If you look up at the top, that's a parking lot,

Na vrhu lahko vidite parkirišče

and those are recreational vehicles right there.

in tisto tam so počitniška vozila.

So it's about a mile across, 600 feet deep.

Torej, približno poldrugi kilometer širine, približno 180 metrov globine.

The object that formed this was probably about 30 to 50 yards across,

Predmet, ki je naredil tak odtis, je bil verjetno

širok od 25 do 45 metrov, torej približno toliko

so roughly the size of Macky Auditorium here.

kot Mackey Auditorium tule.

It came in at speeds that were tremendous,

Priletel je z neverjetno hitrostjo,

slammed into the ground, blew up,

zadel ob površje, se razletel

and exploded with the energy of roughly a 20-megaton nuclear bomb --

in eksplodiral približno z energijo

dvajset-megatonske jedrske bombe...

a very hefty bomb.

zelo izjemne bombe.

This was 50,000 years ago,

To je bilo pred petdeset tisoč leti, tako da je mogoče

so it may have wiped out a few buffalo or antelope,

ubilo kakega bizona ali antilopo

or something like that out in the desert,

ali kaj podobnega živečega v puščavi,

but it probably would not have caused global devastation.

a verjetno ne bi povzročilo

globalnega uničenja.

It turns out that these things don't have to hit the ground

Izkaže se, da tem stvarem ni treba

zadeti ob površje, da bi napravile veliko škodo.

to do a lot of damage.

Now, in 1908, over Siberia, near the Tunguska region --

Poglejmo v leto 1908 v Sibirijo,

blizu regije Tunguska... tisti, ki ste oboževalci

for those of you who are Dan Aykroyd fans and saw "Ghostbusters,"

Dana Aykroyda in ste videli film "Ghostbusters",

kjer govori o največjem dimenzionalnem prelomu

when he talked about the greatest cross-dimensional rift

od eksplozije v Sibiriji leta 1909: tam se je zmotil

since the Siberia blast of 1909,

where he got the date wrong, but that's OK.

v datumu, ampak ni problema. (smeh)

(Laughter)

Bilo je leta 1908. To je v redu. Lahko živim s tem.

It was 1908. That's fine. I can live with that.

(smeh)

(Laughter)

Another rock came into the Earth's atmosphere

Še ena skala je priletela v Zemljino atmosfero,

and this one blew up above the ground,

a ta se je razletela nad površjem, več kilometrov

several miles up above the surface of the Earth.

nad površjem Zemlje.

The heat from the explosion set fire to the forest below it,

Vročina, ki je pri tem nastala, je zažgala

gozd spodaj in temu je sledil val,

and then the shock wave came down and knocked down trees

ki je dosegel Zemljo in podrl drevesa

for hundreds of square miles.

v območju več sto kvadratnih kilometrov, v redu?

This did a huge amount of damage.

To je naredilo ogromno škode.

And again, this was a rock probably roughly the size

In spet, ta skala je bila verjetno približno

of this auditorium that we're sitting in.

take velikosti kot avditorij, kjer sedimo.

In Meteor Crater, it was made of metal,

Tista v meteorskem kraterju je bila sestavljena iz kovin

and metal is much tougher, so it made it to the ground.

in kovine so veliko trdnejše, zato je

dosegla tla.

The one over Tunguska was probably made of rock,

Tista nad Tungusko je bila verjetno

and that's much more crumbly, so it blew up in the air.

iz kamnin, ki so bolj drobljive, zato

Either way, these are tremendous explosions -- 20 megatons.

jo je razneslo v zraku. Kakorkoli že, šlo je za

ogromne eksplozije, dvajset megaton.

Now, when these things blow up,

Ko take stvari eksplodirajo, ne bodo

they're not going to do global ecological damage.

naredile globalne ekološke škode.

They're not going to do something like the dinosaur killer did.

Ne bodo povzročile nečesa takega kot

je storil morilec dinozavrov.

They're just not big enough.

Enostavno niso dovolj velike.

But they will do global economic damage,

A povzročile bodo globalno ekonomsko škodo,

because they don't have to hit, necessarily,

saj jim za kaj takega

to do this kind of damage.

sploh ni treba zadeti Zemlje.

They don't have to do global devastation.

Ni treba, da so uničujoče na globalni ravni.

If one of these things were to hit pretty much anywhere,

Če bi ena od njih zadela

katerikoli del Zemlje, bi povzročila paniko.

it would cause a panic.

But if it came over a city, an important city --

A če bi zadela mesto, pomembno mesto...

in ne pravim, da so nekatera mesta pomembnejša od drugih,

not that any city is more important than others,

a od nekaterih smo bolj odvisni,

but some of them we depend on more on the global economic basis --

ekonomsko odvisni... bi to lahko

that could do a huge amount of damage to us as a civilization.

povzročilo veliko škodo

civilizaciji.

So, now that I've scared the crap out of you --

No, zdaj ko sem vas do kraja prestrašil...

(Laughter)

(smeh)

what can we do about this?

kaj lahko storimo? V redu?

This is a potential threat.

To je potencialna grožnja.

Let me note that we have not had a giant impact like the dinosaur killer

Naj omenim, da tako velikega udarca,

kot je bil morilec dinozavrov, nismo imeli

for 65 million years.

že 65 milijonov let. Zelo redki so.

They're very rare.

The smaller ones happen more often,

Manjši se zgodijo pogosteje, vendar

but probably on the order of a millennium,

ne več kot na tisočletje,

every few centuries or every few thousand years.

vsakih nekaj stoletij ali vsakih nekaj tisoč let,

a vseeno se tega moramo zavedati.

But it's still something to be aware of.

Well, what do we do about them?

In kaj lahko naredimo?

The first thing we have to do is find them.

Najprej jih moramo najti.

This is an image of an asteroid that passed us in 2009.

Tole je podoba asteroida, ki je letel mimo nas

leta 2009.

It's right here.

Tule je.

But you can see that it's extremely faint.

Lahko vidite, da je zelo medel.

I don't know if you can see that in the back row.

Ne vem, če ga sploh lahko vidite,

These are just stars.

če ste v zadnji vrsti. To so samo zvezde.

This is a rock that was about 30 yards across,

Tale skala je bila široka slabih trideset metrov,

so roughly the size of the ones that blew up over Tunguska

torej približno toliko kot tisti

nad Tungusko in Arizono pred 50.000 leti.

and hit Arizona 50,000 years ago.

These things are faint.

Te stvari so medle.

They're hard to see, and the sky is really big.

Težko jih je videti in nebo je res veliko.

We have to find these things first.

Najprej jih moramo najti.

Well, the good news is, we're looking for them.

Dobra vest je, da jih iščemo.

NASA has devoted money to this;

NASA namenja sredstva za to.

the National Science Foundation and other countries

Nacionalna znanstvena fundacija pa tudi druge

države se zelo zanimajo za to.

are interested in doing this.

We're building telescopes that are looking for the threat.

Gradimo teleskope, ki iščejo

grožnjo. To je pomemben prvi korak,

That's a great first step. But what's the second step?

a kateri je naslednji? Drugi korak je,

The second step is if we see one heading toward us, we have to stop it.

da če vidimo kakšnega, ki se nam bliža,

ga moramo ustaviti. Kaj storiti?

What do we do?

You've probably heard about the asteroid Apophis.

Verjetno ste slišali za asteroid

Apophis. Če niste, pa še boste.

If you haven't yet, you will.

If you've heard about the Mayan 2012 apocalypse,

Če ste slišali za majevsko napoved

you're going to hear about Apophis,

apokalipse leta 2012, boste spoznali tudi Apophis,

because you're keyed in to all the doomsday networks, anyway.

saj kaže, da ste seznanjeni z vsemi omrežji,

povezanimi s koncem sveta.

(Laughter)

Apophis is an asteroid that was discovered in 2004.

Apophis je asteroid, ki so ga odkrili leta 2004.

It's roughly 250 [meters] across, so it's pretty big --

Ima okoli 230 metrov premera, torej

je precej velik - velik je, veste,

bigger than a football stadium.

večji od nogometnega stadiona - in mimo Zemlje

And it's going to pass by the Earth in April of 2029.

bo potoval aprila 2029.

And it's going to pass us so close

Prišel bo tako blizu, da bo

that it's actually going to come underneath our weather satellites.

pravzaprav letel pod

našimi vremenskimi sateliti.

The Earth's gravity is going to bend the orbit of this thing so much

Zemljina gravitacija bo ukrivila orbito

te zadeve do te mere, da če bo vse po sreči,

that if it's just right,

if it passes through this region of space,

če bo letel skozi to območje v vesolju,

this kidney-bean-shaped region called the keyhole,

skozi tole regijo v obliki ledvice, ki ji pravimo

the Earth's gravity will bend it just enough that seven years later,

ključavnica, bo Zemljina gravitacija ukrivila orbito

ravno toliko, da bo sedem let kasneje,

on April 13 -- which is a Friday, I'll note -- in the year 2036 --

13. aprila, ki je, naj povem, petek,

leta 2036 ... (smeh)

(Laughter)

you can't plan that kind of stuff --

... takih stvari ne morete načrtovati...

(Laughter)

Apophis is going to hit us.

takrat nas bo Apophis zadel. In ker meri

And it's 250 meters across, so it would do unbelievable damage.

250 metrov, bo naredil

neverjetno škodo.

The good news is that the odds of it actually passing through this keyhole

Dobra novica je, da je verjetnost, da bi

dejansko potoval skozi to ključavnico in nas zadel

and hitting us next go-around are one in a million, roughly --

ob naslednjem prihodu, ena proti milijon,

very, very low odds.

približno toliko ... to je zelo zelo majhna verjetnost, zato jaz

So I personally am not lying awake at night worrying about this at all.

zaradi tega ne izgubljam spanca od skrbi.

Mislim, da Apophis ni problem.

I don't think Apophis is a problem.

Pravzaprav je Apophis sreča v nesreči,

In fact, Apophis is a blessing in disguise,

saj nas opozarja na nevarnost

because it woke us up to the dangers of these things.

takih stvari.

This thing was discovered just a few years ago

Tole so odkrili pred nekaj leti

and could hit us a few years from now.

in lahko bi nas zadelo čez nekaj let.

It won't, but it gives us a chance to study these kinds of asteroids.

Ne bo nas, a omogoča nam, da preučujemo

tovrstne asteroide. Prej nismo zares

We didn't really necessarily understand these keyholes, and now we do,

razumeli teh ključavnic, zdaj pa jih

in izkaže se,

and it turns out that's really important,

da je to zelo pomembno, kajti kako

because how do you stop an asteroid like this?

ustaviti takšen asteroid?

Well, let me ask you:

Naj vas vprašam, kaj se zgodi,

What happens if you're standing in the road and a car's headed for you?

če stojite sredi ceste in se vam približuje avto?

Kaj storite? Tole.

What do you do?

You do this. Right? Move, and the car goes past you.

Je res? Premaknete se. Avto pelje mimo.

But we can't move the Earth, at least not easily,

A Zemlje ne moremo premakniti, vsaj

ne zelo lahko, lahko pa premaknemo majhen asteroid.

but we can move a small asteroid.

And it turns out, we've even done it.

In kot se izkaže, smo to celo storili.

Leta 2005 je NASA lansirala sondo

In the year 2005, NASA launched a probe called Deep Impact,

z imenom Deep Impact, ki je treščila v...

which slammed a piece of itself into the nucleus of a comet.

treščila v jedro kometa.

Comets are very much like asteroids.

Kometi so zelo podobni asteroidom.

The purpose wasn't to push it out of the way;

Namen pa ni bil iztiriti komet.

the purpose was to make a crater to excavate the material

Namen je bil napraviti krater in izkopati

material, da bi videli, kaj je pod

and see what was underneath the surface of this comet,

površino kometa, o čemer smo dobili

which we learned quite a bit about.

kar nekaj informacij.

We did move the comet a little tiny bit --

Komet smo rahlo premaknili,

not very much, but that wasn't the point.

ne zelo, a to niti ni bil namen.

However, think about this:

Ampak premislite.

This thing is orbiting the Sun at 10, 20 miles per second.

Tale stvar kroži okoli sonca s hitrostjo

15 km ali 30 km na sekundo.

We shot a space probe at it and hit it, OK?

Vanjo izstrelimo sondo in jo zadenemo. Prav?

Predstavljajte si, kako težko mora to biti, a uspelo je.

Imagine how hard that must be, and we did it.

That means we can do it again.

To pomeni, da nam lahko spet uspe.

If we see an asteroid that's coming toward us, headed right for us,

Če bi bilo treba, če bi videli, da se nam bliža asteroid,

da gre naravnost proti nam

and we have two years to go?

in da imamo dve leti časa, bum! Zadeli bi ga.

Boom! We hit it.

You know, if you watch the movies --

Lahko poskusite... saj veste, če gledate filme,

(Laughter)

bi lahko prišli na idejo,

you might think:

Why don't we use a nuclear weapon?

čemu ne uporabiti jedrskega orožja?

Well, you can try that, but the problem is timing.

No, lahko poskusite, ampak problem je v časovni usklajenosti.

Shoot a nuclear weapon at this thing,

Če v to stvar izstrelite jedrsko orožje,

you have to blow it up within a few milliseconds of tolerance,

jo morate razstreliti v nekaj milisekundah,

sicer jo boste zgrešili.

or else you'll miss it.

And there are a lot of other problems with that; it's very hard to do.

Obstaja pa še kup drugih težav s tem.

To bi bilo zelo težko izvesti.

But just hitting something? That's pretty easy.

A samo zadeti nekaj? To je dokaj enostavno.

I think even NASA can do that, and proved that they can.

Mislim, da celo NASA to zmore,

in dokazali so, da lahko. (smeh)

(Laughter)

The problem is, if you hit this asteroid, you've changed the orbit,

Problem je v tem, kaj se zgodi, če zadenemo

asteroid, mu spremenimo orbito,

you measure the orbit,

then you find out, oh yeah, we just pushed it into a keyhole,

jo izmerimo in ugotovimo,

da smo ga tako potisnili v ključavnico

and now it's going to hit us in three years.

in da nas bo zadel čez tri leta.

Well, my opinion is: fine!

No, po moje je to v redu. Okej?

It's not hitting us in six months --

Ne bo nas zadel čez šest mesecev. To je dobro.

that's good.

Now we have three years to do something else.

Zdaj imamo tri leta časa, da naredimo nekaj drugega.

And you can hit it again.

Lahko ga spet zadenemo. To je malo

That's kind of ham-fisted;

nerodno. S tem bi ga lahko potisnili v tretjo

you might just push it into a third keyhole or whatever,

ključavnico ali kaj takega, torej ne delajte tega.

so you don't do that.

Tole pa je del, ki ga naravnost ljubim.

And this is the part --

it's the part I just love.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

After the big macho "Grr ... bam! We're gonna hit this thing in the face,"

Po velikem mačističnem "Rrrrr BAM! Tole stvar

bomo treščili v obraz,"

si nataknemo žametne rokavice.

then we bring in the velvet gloves.

(smeh)

(Laughter)

There's a group of scientists and engineers and astronauts,

Obstaja skupina znanstvenikov in inženirjev

in astronavtov in imenujejo se

and they call themselves The B612 Foundation.

Fundacija B612. Za tiste med vami,

For those of you who've read "The Little Prince,"

ki ste prebrali Malega princa,

you understand that reference, I hope --

je referenca razumljiva, vsaj upam. Mali princ

the little prince lived on an asteroid called B612.

je živel na asteroidu, ki se je imenoval B612.

These are smart guys -- men and women -- astronauts, like I said, engineers.

To so pametni moški in ženske,

astronavti, kot pravim, inženirji.

Rusty Schweickart, who was an Apollo 9 astronaut, is on this.

Rusty Schweickart, ki je bil astronavt na Apollu 9,

je del skupine. Dan Durda, moj prijatelj,

Dan Durda, my friend who made this image,

ki je napravil tole podobo, dela tule na

works here at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, on Walnut Street.

Southwest Research Institutu v Boulderju,

na Walnut Street. Tole sliko je naredil za to priložnost

He created this image for this.

in je v bistvu eden od astronomov,

He's actually one of the astronomers who works for them.

ki dela zanje. Če vidimo asteroid,

If we see an asteroid that's going to hit the Earth

ki naj bi zadel Zemljo, in če imamo

and we have enough time,

dovolj časa, ga lahko zadenemo in premaknemo

we can hit it to move it into a better orbit.

v boljšo orbito. Potem pa sprožimo

But then what we do is launch a probe that has to weigh a ton or two.

sondo, ki mora tehtati tono ali dve.

Ni treba, da je ogromna... nekaj ton,

It doesn't have to be huge -- a couple of tons, not that big --

ne prav velika... in jo parkiramo blizu asteroida.

and you park it near the asteroid.

You don't land on it, because these things are tumbling end over end.

Ne pristanemo na njem, ker se te zadeve

kar naprej prevračajo. Zelo težko je pristati na njih.

It's very hard to land on them.

Instead you get near it.

Namesto tega se mu približamo.

The gravity of the asteroid pulls on the probe,

Gravitacija asteroida privlači sondo

and the probe has a couple of tons of mass.

in sonda ima nekaj ton mase.

It has a little tiny bit of gravity,

Ima majceno gravitacijo, a dovolj,

but it's enough that it can pull the asteroid,

da povleče asteroid, mi pa imamo

and you have your rocket set up --

pripravljene rakete, da lahko ... oh, tule se komaj kaj vidi,

you can barely see it here, but there's rocket plumes --

ampak tole so raketna krila...in

v bistvu sta ti dve zadevi povezani

and these guys are connected by their own gravity,

z njuno lastno gravitacijo, in če sondo zelo

and if you move the probe very slowly -- very, very gently,

počasi, zelo zelo nežno premaknete, lahko brez težav

you can very easily finesse that rock into a safe orbit.

potisnete skalo v varno orbito.

Lahko bi jo celo postavili v orbito okoli Zemlje,

You can even put in orbit around the Earth where we could mine it,

kjer bi lahko na njej rudarili, ampak to je

although that's a whole other thing; I won't go into that.

čisto nekaj drugega. Ne bom šel v podrobnosti.

(smeh)

(Laughter)

But we'd be rich!

Ampak postali bi bogati!

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So think about this, right?

Razmislite o tem, prav?

Tam zunaj okoli nas letajo ogromne skale

There are these giant rocks flying out there, and they're hitting us,

in nas zadevajo in nam povzročajo

and they're doing damage to us.

škodo, ampak ugotovili smo, kako se s tem soočiti

But we've figured out how to do this,

in vsi koščki, ki jih potrebujemo, so na svojem mestu.

and all the pieces are in place to do this.

We have astronomers with telescopes, looking for them.

Imamo astronome s teleskopi,

ki jih iščejo. Imamo pametne ljudi,

We have very, very smart people,

zelo zelo pametne ljudi, ki jih to skrbi

who are concerned about this and figuring out how to fix the problem,

in ugotavljajo, kako urediti težavo,

imamo pa tudi tehnologijo.

and we have the technology to do this.

This probe actually can't use chemical rockets.

Tale sonda ne more uporabljati kemičnih raket.

Chemical rockets provide too much thrust, too much push.

Kemične rakete povzročijo prevelik sunek, preveč

potiska. Sonda bi enostavno odletela stran.

The probe would just shoot away.

Izumili smo nekaj, kar se imenuje ionski pogon,

We invented something called an ion drive,

kar je motor z zelo zelo nizkim sunkom.

which is a very, very, very low-thrust engine.

It generates the force a piece of paper would have on your hand --

Ustvarja silo, kakršno bi imel košček papirja

na vaši dlani, neverjetno lahko,

incredibly light, but it can run for months and years,

a lahko teče mesece in leta

in zagotavlja ta nežen potisk.

providing that very gentle push.

If anybody here is a fan of the original "Star Trek,"

Če je kdo med vami ljubitelj originalnega Star Treka,

oni so naleteli na vesoljsko ladjo, ki je imela

they ran across an alien ship that had an ion drive,

ionski pogon, in Spock je dejal:

and Spock said, "They're very technically sophisticated.

"Tehnično so zelo razviti.

They're a hundred years ahead of us with this drive."

S tem pogonom so sto let pred nami."

Ja, zdaj pa imamo ionski pogon. (smeh)

Yeah, we have an ion drive now.

We don't have the Enterprise, but we've got an ion drive now.

Nimamo ladje Enterprise, ampak

imamo pa ionski pogon.

(Laughter)

(aplavz)

(Applause)

Spock.

Spock.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

So ...

Torej...

That's the difference --

to je razlika, to je razlika

that's the difference between us and the dinosaurs.

med nami in dinozavri.

This happened to them.

Njim se je to zgodilo.

It doesn't have to happen to us.

Ni treba, da se tudi nam.

The difference between the dinosaurs and us

Razlika med dinozavri in nami

is that we have a space program

je v tem, da imamo vesoljski program

in volilno pravico,

and we can vote,

and so we can change our future.

tako da lahko spremenimo prihodnost.

(Laughter)

(smeh)

We have the ability to change our future.

Imamo sposobnost spreminjati svojo prihodnost.

Sixty-five million years from now,

Čez 65 milijonov let

we don't have to have our bones collecting dust in a museum.

ni treba, da bi naše kosti

zaprašene sedele v kakem muzeju.

Thank you very much.

Hvala lepa.

(Applause)

(aplavz)