Lessons from a solar storm chaser | Miho Janvier

翻译人员: Hong Li 校对人员: Phoebe Ling Zhang

It is almost the end of the winter,

冬天快要结束了，

and you've woken up to a cold house,

你醒来，发现房子里很冷，

which is weird, because you left the heater on all night.

很奇怪，因为你的暖气是整晚开着的。

你去开灯。

You turn on the light.

It's not working.

没反应。

Actually, the coffee maker, the TV -- none of them are working.

你还发现咖啡机、电视， 统统都打不开了。

Life outside also seems to have stopped.

户外已经完全没有生机。

There are no schools,

学校放假了，

most of the businesses are shut,

大部分商店都关门了，

and there are no working trains.

火车也停运了。

This is not the opening scene of a zombie apocalypse movie.

这可不是某部僵尸电影的开场。

This is what happened in March 1989 in the Canadian province of Quebec,

而是1989年3月， 在加拿大魁北克省

when the power grid lost power.

发生的大停电事故。

The culprit?

问题出在哪儿？

A solar storm.

是太阳风暴。

Solar storms are giant clouds of particles

太阳风暴是从太阳抛射出来的

escaping from the Sun from time to time,

巨大的粒子云雾，

and a constant reminder that we live in the neighborhood of an active star.

它时刻提醒我们，我们生活在 一颗活跃的恒星附近。

And I, as a solar physicist,

作为一名太阳物理学家，

I have a tremendous chance to study these solar storms.

我有很好的机会 来研究这些太阳风暴。

But you see, "solar storm chaser"

但“太阳风暴追随者”

is not just a cool title.

不光听起来很酷。

My research helps to understand where they come from,

我的研究还能帮助我们 理解太阳风暴从何而来，

how they behave

有什么特点，

and, in the long run,

而且从长远来看，

aims to mitigate their effects on human societies,

要缓解其对人类社会的影响，

这一点我稍后再讲。

which I'll get to in a second.

At the beginning of the space exploration age 50 years ago only,

在50年前，太空探索时代 刚刚开始时，

the probes we sent in space

我们送入太空的探测器

revealed that the planets in our Solar System

发现太阳系里的行星

constantly bathe in a stream of particles that are coming from the Sun

会不断遭遇来自太阳的粒子流，

and that we call the solar wind.

我们称之为太阳风。

And in the same way that global wind patterns here on Earth

就像地球上的飓风，

can be affected by hurricanes,

会扰乱全球气流分布，

the solar wind is sometimes affected by solar storms

太阳风有时候也会被太阳风暴影响，

that I like to call "space hurricanes."

我将后者称为“太空飓风”。

When they arrive at planets,

当它们抵达行星时，

they can perturb the space environment,

会扰乱太空环境，

which in turn creates the northern or southern lights,

引起北极光或南极光，

比如在地球上看到的，

for example, here on Earth,

but also Saturn

在土星也有，

and also Jupiter.

在木星上也是如此。

Luckily, here on Earth,

幸运的是，在地球上，

we are protected by our planet's natural shield,

我们有一个天然保护盾，

a magnetic bubble that we call the magnetosphere

就是这个我们称为 “磁层”的磁性泡泡，

and that you can see here on the right side.

就是右边的这个。

Nonetheless, solar storms can still be responsible

尽管如此，太阳风暴还是会影响

for disrupting satellite telecommunications and operations,

卫星通信和运行，

for disrupting navigation systems, such as GPS,

扰乱导航系统，像GPS，

as well as electric power transmission.

还有电力传输系统。

All of these are technologies on which us humans rely more and more.

所有这些技术 都是人类越来越依赖的。

I mean, imagine if you woke up tomorrow without a working cell phone --

想象一下，如果你 明早起来发现手机用不了，

no internet on it,

没有网络，

which means no social media.

就意味着用不了社交媒体。

I mean, to me that would be worse than the zombie apocalypse.

对我来说简直比僵尸爆发更糟糕。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

By constantly monitoring the Sun, though,

通过持续监控太阳，

we now know where the solar storms come from.

我们知道了太阳风暴是从何而来的。

They come from regions of the Sun

它们来自太阳的某些区域，

where a tremendous amount of energy is being stored.

那里存储了大量的能量。

You have an example here,

这里有个例子，

as a complex structure hanging above the solar surface,

就像浮在太阳表面的一个复杂结构，

just on the verge of erupting.

就在喷发物的边缘。

Unfortunately, we cannot send probes

遗憾的是，我们无法将探测器

in the scorching hot atmosphere of the Sun,

送到太阳大气层，那里温度太高，

where temperatures can rise up to around 10 million degrees Kelvin.

能达到摄氏1000万度左右。

So what I do is I use computer simulations

因此我用的是计算机模拟的方法，

in order to analyze but also to predict the behavior of these storms

来分析并且预测 太阳风暴的行为特征，

when they're just born at the Sun.

就在它刚刚从太阳上生成的时候。

This is only one part of the story, though.

但这仅仅是故事的一方面。

When these solar storms are moving in space,

当太阳风暴进入太空后，

some of them will inevitably encounter space probes

其中一些会不可避免的 遇上我们发射的探测器，

that we humans have sent in order to explore other worlds.

发射它们的目的是探索其他的世界。

What I mean by other worlds is, for example, planets,

所谓其他的世界，我指的是其他行星，

such as Venus or Mercury,

比如金星或者水星，

but also objects, such as comets.

或者其他天体，比如彗星。

And while these space probes have been made

尽管制造这些探测器的目的，

是为了不同的科学事业，

for different scientific endeavors,

they can also act like tiny cosmic meteorological stations

但它们也可以充当 小型的宇宙气象站，

and monitor the evolution of these space storms.

用来监控宇宙风暴的演变。

So I, with a group of researchers, gather and analyze this data

因此我跟一群研究者一起， 收集并分析这些

coming from different locations of the Solar System.

来自太阳系不同位置的数据。

And by doing so, my research shows that, actually,

我的研究显示，实际上，

solar storms have a generic shape,

太阳风暴都有一个普遍特征，

and that this shape evolves as solar storms move away from the Sun.

这一特征随着太阳风暴 远离太阳而演变。

And you know what?

你们知道吗？

This is key for building tools to predict space weather.

这是建造宇宙天气 预测工具的关键。

I would like to leave you with this beautiful image.

我想留给大家这幅美丽的图画。

This is us here on Earth,

这是我们所在的地球，

this pale blue dot.

这个暗淡的蓝点。

And while I study the Sun and its storms every day,

在我研究太阳的时候， 几乎每天都有太阳风暴，

I will always have a deep love for this beautiful planet --

我将永远深爱着这个美丽的星球，

a pale blue dot indeed,

它其实就是一个淡蓝色的点，

but a pale blue dot with an invisible magnetic shield

但就是这个淡蓝色的点， 有一个看不见的磁性盾牌，

that helps to protect us.

在时刻保护着我们。

Thank you.

谢谢大家。

(Applause)

（掌声）