Humanity's Search for Cosmic Truth and Poetic Beauty | Maria Popova | TED

譯者: Wei C. 審譯者: Shelley Tsang 曾雯海

[The Universe in Verse]

［宇宙的詩］

[Prelude]

［前言］

In 1908,

1908 年

Henrietta Swan Leavitt,

亨麗埃塔·史旺·勒維特

one of the women known as the Harvard Computers,

是其中一位哈佛的女計算員

who changed our understanding of the universe

她在遠早於女性有投票權之前

long before they could vote,

改變了我們對宇宙的理解

was cataloging photographic plates at the Harvard College Observatory,

她當時正在哈佛大學天文台 分類照相底片

single-handedly analyzing 2,000 variable stars --

隻手整理了兩千顆變星

stars with fluctuating brightness,

變星是會閃爍的星星

kind of like a lighthouse beacon --

就像是燈塔一般

when she began noticing a distinct correlation

當時她開始注意到它們

between their brightness and their blinking pattern.

亮度與閃爍模式中的獨特關聯

That correlation made it possible to measure the distance of stars

這個關係使得我們首次能夠測量

for the very first time,

這些星體間的距離

furnishing the yardstick of the universe.

更新了宇宙的距離衡量標準

Meanwhile, a dutiful teenage boy in the Midwest

與此同時，一個非常 盡本分的中西部少年

was repressing his childhood love of astronomy

正在壓抑自己童年對天文學的熱愛

and beginning his legal studies to fulfill his dying father's demand

開始學習法律 以此完成父親的遺願

for an ordinary, reputable life.

過一個平凡且受人尊敬的生活

When his father died,

當他父親去世時

Edwin Hubble turned that passion for the stars into formal study

愛德溫‧哈伯將他對於 星星的熱情轉為正式的研究

and discovered two revolutionary facts about the universe:

並發現了兩個革命性的宇宙事實

that it is tremendously bigger than we thought

這項事實的遠大超乎我們的想像

and that it's getting bigger and bigger by the blink.

並且每看一次就變得更為重要

One October evening in 1923,

1923 年十月的一個傍晚

perched at the foot of the largest telescope in the world,

哈伯睡在 離這裡不遠的

at Mount Wilson Observatory, not far from here,

威爾遜山天文台內 全世界最大的望遠鏡底下

Hubble took a 45-minute exposure of Andromeda,

他將仙女座星系 曝光拍攝了 45 分鐘

which was then thought to be one of many spiral nebulae in our Milky Way.

這個星系在後來被視為我們 銀河系中眾多之一的螺旋星系

The notion of a galaxy,

星系的這個概念

a gravitationally bound cluster of stars and dust and dark matter,

一個星星、星塵與暗物質組成 由重力簇擁成的團體

didn't exist at the time.

在當時並不存在

The Milky Way, which, by the way, was coined as a term

銀河系是喬叟在 14 世紀時

by Chaucer in the 14th century,

發明出來的詞

was thought to be what was called an "island universe"

當時被稱作為＂島宇宙＂

beyond the edge of which lay cold, dark nothingness.

而位在它另一端的 則是寒冷、黑暗的虛無

But when Hubble looked at the photograph the next morning

但當哈柏隔天一早看到相片

and compared it to previous ones,

並把它和之前的作比較

he furrowed his brow

他皺了皺眉

and with a gasp of revelation scribbled right on top of the plate "VAR"

突然靈光乍現，在底片的 正上方草草寫下＂VAR＂

and then drew an exclamation point

然後畫下了一個驚嘆號

because he had realized that a tiny fleck in Andromeda

因為他明白了剛剛認為是新星

previously thought to be a nova

在仙女座中的一個小斑點

could not possibly be a nova,

不可能是一顆新星

given its blinking pattern across these different photographs.

從這些不同相片中的閃爍模式來看

And it was, in fact, a variable star.

它事實上是一顆變星

Which meant, given Henrietta Leavitt's data,

也就是說，根據 亨麗埃塔·勒維特的數據

that it was very, very far away,

它存在一個非常遙遠的地方

farther than the edge of the Milky Way.

超越了銀河系的邊際

Which meant that Andromeda was not a nebula in our own galaxy,

代表仙女座不是 我們星系中的一個星雲

but a whole other galaxy,

而是另一個完整的星系

out there, in the cold, dark nothingness.

存在於那寒冷、黑暗的虛無中

Suddenly, the universe was a garden, blooming with galaxies,

剎那間，宇宙彷彿一座花園 各個星系在其中欣欣向榮

with ours but a single bloom.

我們只是萬花叢中的一點綠

That same year, in another country,

同年在另一個國家

suspended between two World Wars,

與世界大戰隔絕的地方

another young scientist came up with the radical idea

另一個年輕科學家 想到了一個激進的想法

of using rocket technology,

運用火箭技術

this deadly military technology,

這個致命的軍事技術

to mount an enormous telescope and launch it into Earth's orbit.

來搭載巨大望遠鏡 並發射到地球軌道上

Not only closer to the stars, but bypassing the atmosphere

不僅離星星更近，還避開了

that occludes our terrestrial instruments.

阻撓地表儀器的大氣層

It would take another two generations of scientists

經歷了兩個世代的科學家

to make that telescope a reality:

才造出了這個望遠鏡

a shimmering poem of metal, physics and perseverance

一本鋼鐵、物理與毅力 交織出的璀璨詩篇

bearing Hubble's name.

承載著哈伯的名號

But when the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990,

但當哈伯太空望遠鏡 於 1990 年升空時

our human fallibility had slipped into the precision of the instrument,

人類所犯的錯 影響到了儀器的精確度

and it turned out that its primary mirror

而原來主要錯誤

was ground into the wrong spherical shape,

要歸因於錯誤的球面形狀

warping these long-awaited images of the unfathomed universe.

能將長久期盼 神秘宇宙影像盡收的面鏡

Up the coast from Mount Wilson Observatory,

在威爾遜山天文台的岸邊

a teenage girl watched her father, who had worked on the Hubble,

一個年輕女孩看著自己 為哈伯望遠鏡工作的父親

one of NASA's first Black engineers, come home brokenhearted.

這位 NASA 最早期的 黑人工程師，心碎的回到家中

He didn't know that his observant daughter

他並不知道女兒這位見證者

would become poet laureate of his country

後來會成為這個國家優秀的詩人

and would commemorate him in the tenderest tribute

並且寫出最感人的創作來紀念他

that an artist's daughter has ever composed for a scientist father,

是藝術家女兒能夠獻給 科學家父親最溫暖的禮物

which would win her the Pulitzer Prize

這也使得她獲得了一座普立茲獎

the year the Hubble's corrected optics captured that revolutionary,

而同年哈伯望遠鏡 利用修正後的鏡片拍下

ultra-deep field image of the observable universe,

革命性的、可觀測宇宙的 超深空照片

revealing what neither Hubble

告訴了我們連哈伯

nor Henrietta Leavitt could have imagined.

跟勒維特都不能想像的事

That ours is not just one of several galaxies,

就是我們不是 少數星系的其中之一

but that there are 100 billion galaxies out there,

而是外頭有著一千億個星系

each containing 100 billion stars.

其中每一個都 包含著一千億顆星

Narrator: From “My God, It’s Full of Stars.”

節錄自＂天啊，看這滿天星斗＂

When my father worked on the Hubble Telescope, he said

家父在為哈伯望遠鏡 工作時曾說

They operated like surgeons: scrubbed and sheathed

他們如外科手術般作業 清洗後換裝

In papery green, the room a clean, cold and bright white.

換上紙質的綠色衣裳 進入冷冽明白的房

He’d read Larry Niven at home, and drink scotch on the rocks,

他會在家中讀拉瑞·尼文的書 配上加了冰塊的威士忌

His eyes exhausted and pink. These were the Reagan years,

雙眼既疲憊且紅 那是雷根總統在任之時

When we lived with our finger on The Button and struggled

那是我們活在冷戰邊緣掙扎

To view our enemies as children. My father spent whole seasons

將敵人當作孩童來看待之時 家父花了很多年

Bowing before the oracle-eye, hungry for what it would find.

在神諭之眼前鞠躬 渴望它能發現之事

His face lit-up whenever anyone asked, and his arms would rise

每當有人問起，他便眉開眼笑 手臂也隨之起舞

As if he were weightless, perfectly at ease in the never-ending

彷若他已失重 悠游在於浩瀚太空的夜晚

Night of space. On the ground, we tied postcards to balloons

在地面上我們將明信片 綁上氣球祈求和平

For peace. Prince Charles married Lady Di.

查爾斯王子迎娶戴妃

Rock Hudson died.

洛赫遜去世

We learned new words for things. The decade changed.

我們學會了新詞 十年間充滿變化

The first few pictures came back blurred, and I felt ashamed

最初照片總模糊 而我深感遺憾

For all the cheerful engineers, my father and his tribe. The second time,

為所有欣喜若狂的工程師 家父和他的同仁感到遺憾

The optics jibed. We saw to the edge of all there is --

再次回傳之時，鏡片校正了 我們看清了一切事物的邊緣

So brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back.

如此殘酷而有生命力 似乎回過頭來理解了我們