This new telescope might show us the beginning of the universe | Wendy Freedman

翻译人员: Caroline Cai 校对人员: Gabriella Hu

When I was 14 years old, I was interested in science --

十四岁的时候，我对科学产生了兴趣，

fascinated by it, excited to learn about it.

我痴迷于科学，乐此不疲的学习它。

And I had a high school science teacher who would say to the class,

可我的高中科学老师却对我们班级说：

"The girls don't have to listen to this."

“女孩子们不需要学这个。”

Encouraging, yes.

真是鼓舞人心，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I chose not to listen -- but to that statement alone.

我选择不听他的那一句话。

So let me take you to the Andes mountains in Chile,

接下来让我带你们看一看 位于智利的安第斯山脉，

500 kilometers, 300 miles northeast of Santiago.

它位于圣地亚哥东北部，绵延上千里。

It's very remote, it's very dry and it's very beautiful.

它地处偏远，干涸贫瘠，但却美艳动人。

And there's not much there.

那里人迹罕至

There are condors, there are tarantulas,

唯秃鹰与狼蛛相伴。

and at night, when the light dims,

每当入夜，日息之时，

it reveals one of the darkest skies on Earth.

这里便会出现地球上最暗的天幕之一。

It's kind of a magic place, the mountain.

这山，便仿佛成为魔法之地。

It's a wonderful combination of very remote mountaintop

这里简直就是一块遥远山顶与望远镜技术

with exquisitely sophisticated technology.

相结合的宝地

And our ancestors, for as long as there's been recorded history,

有史以来，我们的祖先就早已经开始

仰望星空，思考人类存在的意义。

have looked at the night sky and pondered the nature of our existence.

And we're no exception, our generation.

而我们这一辈人，也不例外。

The only difficulty is that the night sky now is blocked

而唯一的困难在于现在的夜空都被

by the glare of city lights.

耀眼的城市之光给挡住了。

于是天文学家们纷纷去往偏远的高山之巅，

And so astronomers go to these very remote mountaintops

to view and to study the cosmos.

以观察和探索宇宙的奥秘。

So telescopes are our window to the cosmos.

所以说，望远镜是我们的宇宙探索之窗

It's no exaggeration to say that the Southern Hemisphere is going to be

毫不夸张地说，南半球将会成为

the future of astronomy for the 21st century.

21世纪天文学的要冲。

在智利安第斯山脉，

We have an array of existing telescopes already,

我们已经部署了一组望远镜部队.

in the Andes mountains in Chile,

and that's soon to be joined by a really sensational array of new capability.

而且很快，它们将与拥有 超高性能的设备构架成一体。

There will be two international groups that are going to be building

未来将有两个跨国集团 会在此建造大型的望远镜群，

giant telescopes, sensitive to optical radiation, as our eyes are.

它们可如人眼一般对光辐射敏感。

There will be a survey telescope

未来会有一个巡天望远镜，

that will be scanning the sky every few nights.

每隔几个晚上，它便会扫描夜空。

There will be radio telescopes,

我们还将有无线电天文望远镜，

sensitive to long-wavelength radio radiation.

其可探测到长波无线电辐射。

然后还有太空望远镜。

And then there will be telescopes in space.

There'll be a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope;

未来将有一个哈勃太空望远镜的后继者，

it's called the James Webb Telescope,

我们叫它詹姆斯·韦伯望远镜 （詹姆斯·韦伯为美国宇航局第二任局长）

and it will be launched in 2018.

它将于2018年发射。

我们还将发射一颗命名为TESS的卫星，

There'll be a satellite called TESS

that will discover planets outside of our solar system.

它将用于探索太阳系外的行星。

For the last decade, I've been leading a group --

在过去十年里，我领导了一个团队，

a consortium -- international group,

其实是一个国际财团，

to build what will be, when it's finished,

建造了一个即将会成为

the largest optical telescope in existence.

历史上最大的光学望远镜。

It's called the Giant Magellan Telescope, or GMT.

它叫巨型麦哲伦望远镜，GMT。

This telescope is going to have mirrors that are 8.4 meters in diameter --

这个望远镜将有直径长达8.4米的镜片组，

each of the mirrors.

每片镜子都这么大。

That's almost 27 feet.

大概27英尺左右。

So it dwarfs this stage -- maybe out to the fourth row in this audience.

它比这个舞台还要大， 大概要到观众席第四排的样子。

Each of the seven mirrors in this telescope

这个望远镜的所有七片镜子，

will be almost 27 feet in diameter.

每一片的直径都将达到27英尺。

Together, the seven mirrors in this telescope will comprise

七片镜子组合到一起， 将使这个望远镜的直径

80 feet in diameter.

达到80英尺（24米）。

So, essentially the size of this entire auditorium.

所以，它的整体大小相当于这整个讲堂。

The whole telescope will stand about 43 meters high,

整个望远镜将有43米高。

and again, being in Rio,

再形象点说，在里约的话，

some of you have been to see the statue of the giant Christ.

你们一定见过那个巨型基督像。

The scale is comparable in height;

它大概跟这个望远镜差不多高吧。

in fact, it's smaller than this telescope will be.

事实上，它将比望远镜稍矮一点。

It's comparable to the size of the Statue of Liberty.

而望远镜的大小跟自由女神像差不多。

And it's going to be housed in an enclosure that's 22 stories --

然后它将被包围在一个有22层楼高的外壳内，

60 meters high.

其可达60米高。

But it's an unusual building to protect this telescope.

但这个用来保护望远镜的房子比较特别，

It will have open windows to the sky,

为了能够观察和对准天空，

be able to point and look at the sky,

它将有开放式的天窗，

and it will actually rotate on a base --

同时这个望远镜将能够旋转观测，

2,000 tons of rotating building.

其旋转基底重达2000吨。

The Giant Magellan Telescope will have 10 times the resolution

巨型麦哲伦望远镜的分辨率将比

of the Hubble Space Telescope.

哈勃空间望远镜强十倍。

It will be 20 million times more sensitive than the human eye.

其灵敏度是人眼的2000万倍。

And it may, for the first time ever, be capable of finding life on planets

并且它将可能发现太阳系外的行星生命，

outside of our solar system.

这将是人类有史以来的第一次。

It's going to allow us to look back at the first light in the universe --

它将使我们观测到宇宙的第一道光，

literally, the dawn of the cosmos.

正如字面意义所说，就是宇宙的曙光，

The cosmic dawn.

宇宙之初。

It's a telescope that's going to allow us to peer back,

这个望远镜能让我们回望宇宙，

witness galaxies as they were when they were actually assembling,

让我们见证星系衍生的过程，

the first black holes in the universe, the first galaxies.

看到第一个黑洞和第一个星系。

Now, for thousands of years, we have been studying the cosmos,

到现在为止， 我们研究宇宙已经有好几千年了，

we've been wondering about our place in the universe.

我们一直想知道我们位于宇宙何方。

The ancient Greeks told us

古希腊人曾说，

that the Earth was the center of the universe.

地球是宇宙的中心。

Five hundred years ago, Copernicus displaced the Earth,

五百多年前，哥白尼推翻了它，

and put the Sun at the heart of the cosmos.

而视太阳为宇宙的中心。

And as we've learned over the centuries,

然后随着几个世纪的研究，

since Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist,

自从意大利科学家伽利略

first turned, in that time, a two-inch, very small telescope, to the sky,

开始从他第一次把一个直径 两英寸的小型望远镜指向天空开始，

every time we have built larger telescopes,

每当我们造出更大的望远镜，

we have learned something about the universe;

我们就对宇宙多了解一分，

we've made discoveries, without exception.

无一例外，我们都有新发现。

We've learned in the 20th century that the universe is expanding

20世纪的时候，我们发现宇宙在膨胀，

and that our own solar system is not at the center of that expansion.

并发现我们的太阳系并不处于膨胀中心。

We know now that the universe is made of about 100 billion galaxies

现在我们知道了宇宙有大约1000亿个星系，

that are visible to us,

这仅仅是我们可探测到的。

and each one of those galaxies has 100 billion stars within it.

而每一个星系中都有约1000亿颗恒星。

So we're looking now at the deepest image of the cosmos

我们正在看的是目前为止拍摄到的

that's ever been taken.

最远的宇宙照片

It was taken using the Hubble Space Telescope,

这是用哈勃望远镜拍下的，

and by pointing the telescope at what was previously a blank region of sky,

拍摄当时把它指向了在它发射之前

太空中的一块空白区。

before the launch of Hubble.

And if you can imagine this tiny area,

然后你可以想象一下它的面积，

it's only one-fiftieth of the size of the full moon.

它只有满月的五十分之一的大小。

So, if you can imagine the full moon.

如果你能想象出满月的话，

而在那张影像里可观测到的星系就有一万个。

And there are now 10,000 galaxies visible within that image.

And the faintness of those images and the tiny size is only a result

而他们看起来那么微弱渺小只是因为

of the fact that those galaxies are so far away, the vast distances.

这些星系离我们太远太远了。

And each of those galaxies may contain within it

然后在每一个星系里，

a few billion or even hundreds of billions of individual stars.

都有数十亿甚至上千亿颗恒星。

Telescopes are like time machines.

望远镜就像时光机器一样。

So the farther back we look in space, the further back we see in time.

我们在太空里看得有多远， 就是多遥远的过去。

And they're like light buckets -- literally, they collect light.

它们也像是光篮子一样， 意思是，它们搜集光。

So larger the bucket, the larger the mirror we have,

越大的镜片就相当于越大的篮子， 就有越多的光被我们采集到，

the more light we can see, and the farther back we can view.

然后看到越远的过去。

So, we've learned in the last century

接着，我们在上个世纪发现了

that there are exotic objects in the universe -- black holes.

宇宙中有种奇异的东西 -- 黑洞。

We've even learned that there's dark matter and dark energy

我们也得知了暗物质和暗能量的存在，

that we can't see.

这些东西是肉眼不可见。

So you're looking now at an actual image of dark matter.

所以，你们现在正在看的就是一团暗物质

(Laughter)

You got it. Not all audiences get that.

（笑声）

你们懂的。不是所有的听众都懂这点哦

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So the way we infer the presence of dark matter --

所以，尽管暗物质不可见

we can't see it -- but there's an unmistakable tug, due to gravity.

我们还是通过重力作用产生的 显而易见的拖曳发现了它们。

We now can look out, we see this sea of galaxies

再看看别的，这是位于一个

in a universe that's expanding.

膨胀宇宙中的星际海洋。

What I do myself is to measure the expansion of the universe,

我所做的是观测，记录宇宙的膨胀。

and one of the projects that I carried out in the 1990s

在上世纪90年代我所带领的项目中,

used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure how fast the universe is expanding.

有一项就是通过哈勃望远镜 来测量宇宙膨胀速度。

We can now trace back to 14 billion years.

我们现在可以追溯回140亿年前了。

We've learned over time that stars have individual histories;

随着研究的进展我们也看到了恒星们的历史。

that is, they have birth, they have middle ages

它们有出生之时，它们有中年之境，

and some of them even have dramatic deaths.

甚至它们中的一些还有如戏剧般的死亡。

So the embers from those stars actually then form the new stars that we see,

而这些死去的恒星留下的余烬 也形成了我们现在看到的新恒星，

most of which turn out to have planets going around them.

它们中的大多数也都有绕其而转的行星。

And one of the really surprising results in the last 20 years

过去20年里，最令人惊讶的成果之一

has been the discovery of other planets going around other stars.

就是其他恒星系中绕日行星的发现。

These are called exoplanets.

它们被称为外星行星。

And until 1995, we didn't even know the existence of any other planets,

一直到1995年， 我们才知道除了我们太阳系以外，

other than going around our own sun.

还有其他行星的存在。

But now, there are almost 2,000 other planets orbiting other stars

而现在，有将近两千颗外星行星

被我们找到，还测量出了它们的质量。

that we can now detect, measure masses for.

There are 500 of those that are multiple-planet systems.

其中有500颗还是多行星系统。

And there are 4,000 -- and still counting -- other candidates

有待确定的外星行星还有四千多颗，

for planets orbiting other stars.

并且数目还在增长。

They come in a bewildering variety of different kinds.

它们的种类繁多。

有些炽热的行星有木星那么大，

There are Jupiter-like planets that are hot,

there are other planets that are icy, there are water worlds

有一些就像冰球，有一些行星充满了水，

and there are rocky planets like the Earth, so-called "super-Earths,"

有一些岩态行星如地球一样，如所谓的“超级地球”，

and there have even been planets that have been speculated diamond worlds.

还有一些被推测为钻石世界的行星。

So we know there's at least one planet, our own Earth, in which there is life.

所以我们认识到至少会有一个 像我们地球一样的行星，存在着生命。

We've even found planets that are orbiting two stars.

我们甚至发现了绕着两个恒星公转的行星。

That's no longer the province of science fiction.

它们已不再只是科幻小说的内容了。

So around our own planet, we know there's life,

接着回到我们地球，这里有着生命，

we've developed a complex life, we now can question our own origins.

也发展出了复杂的生命结构， 所以我们现在可以思考自己的起源。

And given all that we've discovered, the overwhelming numbers now suggest

考虑到我们所有的探索发现， 铺天盖地的数据指出

that there may be millions, perhaps -- maybe even hundreds of millions --

可能有着近百万，甚至近亿万的行星，

of other [planets] that are close enough --

它们离自己的恒星足够近，

just the right distance from their stars that they're orbiting --

近到拥有恰当的公转距离，

以至于拥有了水的存在 从而也许可以支持生命的存在。

to have the existence of liquid water and maybe could potentially support life.

So we marvel now at those odds, the overwhelming odds,

所以我们感到惊诧， 惊诧这些惊人的奇迹，

and the amazing thing is that within the next decade,

同时令人惊诧的是在未来十年里，

the GMT may be able to take spectra of the atmospheres of those planets,

GMT或能够拍到这些行星大气表面的光谱，

and determine whether or not they have the potential for life.

从而确定他们是否有潜在的生命。

So, what is the GMT project?

那么，什么是GMT项目呢？

It's an international project.

这是一个国际项目工程。

It includes Australia, South Korea, and I'm happy to say, being here in Rio,

参与的国家有澳大利亚， 韩国，并且在这里，在里约，

that the newest partner in our telescope is Brazil.

我很高兴向大家介绍我们的新成员是巴西

(Applause)

（欢呼、掌声）

It also includes a number of institutions across the United States,

参与项目的还有一些美国的机构，

including Harvard University,

包括有哈佛大学、

the Smithsonian and the Carnegie Institutions,

史密森学会和卡内基学院、

and the Universities of Arizona, Chicago, Texas-Austin and Texas A&M University.

还有亚利桑那州大学、芝加哥大学、 德州大学奥斯丁分校和德州农工大学。

It also involves Chile.

智利同时也参与其中。

So, the making of the mirrors in this telescope is also fascinating

而望远镜的镜片制造本身

in its own right.

就很令人着迷。

Take chunks of glass, melt them in a furnace that is itself rotating.

取一大块的玻璃， 置于一个旋转着的熔炉中熔融。

This happens underneath the football stadium

这是在一个橄榄球球场之下进行的，

at the University of Arizona.

亚利桑那州大学球场。

It's tucked away under 52,000 seats.

它隐藏在五万两千张椅子之下，

Nobody know it's happening.

没人知道它的存在。

And there's essentially a rotating cauldron.

那本来就有一个旋转式大锅。

The mirrors are cast and they're cooled very slowly,

镜片被浇铸并缓慢冷却，

and then they're polished to an exquisite precision.

然后极其精细地打磨。

And so, if you think about the precision of these mirrors,

你可以想象一下镜子的打磨程度，

the bumps on the mirror, over the entire 27 feet,

整个直径27英尺的镜子，

隆起总计不超过百万分之一英寸。

amount to less than one-millionth of an inch.

所以，你能想象到么那个样子么？

So, can you visualize that?

Ow!

噢！（拔了根头发）

(Laughter)

（笑声）

That's one five-thousandths of the width of one of my hairs,

看我的头发，在27英尺的镜片上

它只有我的头发粗细的千分之五。

over this entire 27 feet.

It's a spectacular achievement.

这是个惊人的成果。

It's what allows us to have the precision that we will have.

它让我们得以获得我们想要的精度。

So, what does that precision buy us?

那么，这样的精度会给我们带来什么呢？

So the GMT, if you can imagine --

用GMT的话，你们可以想象一下，

if I were to hold up a coin, which I just happen to have,

如果我举起这枚我刚才碰巧得到的硬币，

and I look at the face of that coin, I can see from here

我从这个距离看它上面的人脸，我可以看清

the writing on the coin; I can see the face on that coin.

上面的文字以及肖像。

My guess that even in the front row, you can't see that.

但我猜即使坐在前排，你们也无法看清这些。

But if we were to turn the Giant Magellan Telescope,

但如果我用GMT来看的话，

all 80-feet diameter that we see in this auditorium,

我们在这会堂里用直径80英尺的GMT，

and point it 200 miles away,

把它对准200英里以外，

if I were standing in São Paulo, we could resolve the face of this coin.

如果我站在圣保罗， 大家也依旧可以看清这枚硬币。

That's the extraordinary resolution and power of this telescope.

这就是这个望远镜极其非凡的分辨力和能力，

And if we were --

如果…如果…如果我们…

(Applause)

（掌声）

If an astronaut went up to the Moon, a quarter of a million miles away,

如果一个宇航员去到月球， 离这里25万英里开外，

然后点起一根蜡烛，就单独一根蜡烛，

and lit a candle -- a single candle --

then we would be able to detect it, using the GMT.

我们用GMT也能够发现它。

Quite extraordinary.

极其非凡的能力。

This is a simulated image of a cluster in a nearby galaxy.

这有一张图， 这是一个临近星系的一个星团的模拟图像，

"Nearby" is astronomical, it's all relative.

这个“临近”是天文学概念，相对的概念。

It's tens of millions of light-years away.

其实这离我们有上千万光年之远。

This is what this cluster would look like.

这是这个星团的大概样子，

So look at those four bright objects,

看这四个明亮的物体，

and now lets compare it with a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.

现在让我们拿哈勃望远镜上的照相机 做一下对比。

You can see faint detail that starts to come through.

你可以看到模糊的细节， 一些行星都显现出来了。

And now finally -- and look how dramatic this is -- this is what the GMT will see.

最后看这个，看这图有多动人， 这是用GMT将能看到的样子。

So, keep your eyes on those bright images again.

再注意看那几个亮点。

This is what we see on one of the most powerful existing telescopes on the Earth,

这张是用现有的地球上 最强大的望远镜看到的，

and this, again, what the GMT will see.

然后，这是GMT将能看到的。

Extraordinary precision.

及其非凡的精准度。

So, where are we?

那么，我们进行到哪一步了呢？

We have now leveled the top of the mountaintop in Chile.

我们现在已经把智利的山顶弄平了，

We blasted that off.

我们炸平了它。

We've tested and polished the first mirror.

我们已经调式并抛光好了第一面镜片。

We've cast the second and the third mirrors.

我们已经浇铸好了第二和第三面镜片。

And we're about to cast the fourth mirror.

然后我们即将开始浇铸第四面镜片。

We had a series of reviews this year,

今年我们做了一系列的审核，

international panels that came in and reviewed us,

国际座谈小组也已经来过并审核通过了我们，

and said, "You're ready to go to construction."

他们说：“你们已经能够开始建造工作了。”

And so we plan on building this telescope with the first four mirrors.

所以我们在计划用前四面镜片 建造起这个望远镜。

We want to get on the air quickly, and be taking science data --

我们想尽早完工以能够开始搜集科学数据，

what we astronomers call "first light," in 2021.

即我们天文学家所谓的“第一束光”， 预计在2021年实现。

And the full telescope will be finished in the middle of the next decade,

整个望远镜的组建将在十年的中期完工，

with all seven mirrors.

七面镜片将悉数完工。

So we're now poised to look back at the distant universe,

我们平复一下看回到遥远的宇宙去，

看看宇宙之初。

the cosmic dawn.

We'll be able to study other planets in exquisite detail.

我们将能够很详尽地研究其他的行星。

But for me, one of the most exciting things about building the GMT

但对我而言， 最令人激动的关于建造GMT的事情之一，

is the opportunity to actually discover something

莫过于探索事物的机会，

that we don't know about -- that we can't even imagine at this point,

探索那些我们不知道的， 甚至我们根本无法想象的东西，

something completely new.

那些全新的世界。

And my hope is that with the construction of this and other facilities,

而我的希望是通过这些望远镜等设备的帮助，

that many young women and men will be inspired to reach for the stars.

年轻人们可以受到鼓舞而去探索那些星星。

Thank you very much.

十分感谢。

Obrigado.

谢谢！（葡萄牙语）

(Applause)

（掌声）

Bruno Giussani: Thank you, Wendy.

Bruno Giussani: 谢谢你，Wendy！

Stay with me, because I have a question for you.

稍等一下，我有一些问题想请教你。

You mentioned different facilities.

你提到了那些不同的设施。

So the Magellan Telescope is going up, but also ALMA and others in Chile

所以说麦哲伦望远镜正在阿尔玛、智利、

and elsewhere, including in Hawaii.

以及夏威夷等地方建造着。

Is it about cooperation and complementarity, or about competition?

它们会涉及合作、互补、或者竞争吗？

I know there's competition in terms of funding, but what about the science?

我知道有关于经费的竞争， 那关于科学方面的内容呢？

Wendy Freedman: In terms of the science, they're very complementary.

Wendy Freedman: 关于科学方面， 他们是完全互补互助的。

The telescopes that are in space, the telescopes on the ground,

不论是空间望远镜、接地望远镜、

telescopes with different wavelength capability,

探测不同波长的望远镜、

telescopes even that are similar, but different instruments --

以及相似但却有不同设备的望远镜，

they will all look at different parts of the questions that we're asking.

它们能够从不同的角度探究我们共同的问题

所以当我们探索其他行星的时候， 我们就能够检验不同的观察报告，

So when we discover other planets, we'll be able to test those observations,

we'll be able to measure the atmospheres,

我们将能够测量大气状况、

be able to look in space with very high resolution.

能够在观测太空时得到很高的分辨率。

So, they're very complementary.

所以说，他们是完全互补互助的。

You're right about the funding, we compete;

关于资金方面，你说的对，我们有竞争，

but scientifically, it's very complementary.

但从科学方面讲，却是完全互补的。

BG: Wendy, thank you very much for coming to TEDGlobal.

Bruno Giussani: Wendy， 十分感谢你能来 TEDGlobal。

WF: Thank you.

Wendy Freedman: 也谢谢你们！

（掌声）

(Applause)