评论
打印
From meteorite samples to atmosphere simulations, this week has been a banner week for finding out what space is made of!
从陨石样本到大气层模拟，本周堪称发现宇宙组成奥秘之周。
And not to spoil it or anything, but it's some pretty cool stuff. First up: meteorites!
咱们也来说说这些事儿，毕竟这都是很酷的事情啊，首先陨石！
Last week at a meeting of the American Physical Society, a team of scientists announced that they'd found the first confirmed superconductors in meteorites.
上周在美国物理学会的一次会议上，一组科学家宣布，他们第一次在陨石样本里发现了经过证实的超导体存在。
Besides being a first, their discovery could someday help us make super-efficient technology here on Earth.
这不仅是人类史上的第一次，这次发现也将有朝一日帮助人类在地球上研制超高效的技术。
Normally, when electricity flows through a conductor, like a copper wire, the conductor resists that flow, and some of the energy is lost to heat.
正常情况下，电流流过铜线等导体时，导体会产生电阻，从而导致部分电能转化为热能。
This means most machines that use conductors aren't totally efficient. Superconductors can get around this problem.
这表明，大多数使用导体的机器，效率都无法达到100%，但超导体就能克服这个问题。
They're materials with virtually no resistance to electrical flow, although they have to be really cold to do it.
所谓超导体，就是不会对电流产生电阻的材料，虽然要真正实现这点，需要极低的温度。
Like, anywhere from -140 to -270°C!
比如，周遭环境要达到零下140-270摄氏度。
At these temperatures, the atoms' electrons start pairing up, which allows them to flow extra smoothly with basically no energy loss.
在这样的温度范围内，超导体各原子中的电子会开始配对，从而平稳流过，而不会有能量的损失。
As a bonus, superconductors also have a property called the Meissner effect: They repel weak magnetic fields around them.
此外，超导体还有一种特性是会产生迈斯纳效应：会排斥周围强度不大的磁场。
This is one reason why, if you put a superconductor in a magnetic field, it'll float!
这就是将超导体放在磁场里的时候，它会漂浮起来的原因哦！
Scientists are interested in these materials because we could use them in all kinds of applications.
科学家之所以对超导体感兴趣，是因为超导体可以用于各种应用。
They'd be great for building machines that have very little energy loss.
超导体很适合用于构建能量流失很少的机器。
Researchers are also on the hunt for ones that work at room temperature,
研究人员也在寻找可以在室温下工作的超导体，
since those would be way easier to use than ones that have to be cold.
毕竟这种超导体要比只能在低温下工作的超导体更易使用。
Right now, they can make some superconducting materials in the lab, but meteorites are a great place to search for new ones, too.
现在，研究人员已经可以在实验室里制造出一些超导体材料了，但陨石样本也是寻找超导体的好去处。
These space rocks sometimes form under really extreme pressures and temperatures that can't be replicated in a lab,
陨石这种宇宙里的石头有时候会在极大压力以及极低温度下形成，而这种压力和温度是实验室无法提供的，
so they might have all kinds of weird, neat stuff in them!
所以陨石里面可能会有各种奇怪而又干净的材料。
People had been looking for superconductors in meteorites for a while, but no one had found any yet,
科学家在陨石里面寻找超导体已有时日了，但尚无任何进展，
partly because the available techniques led to pretty imprecise measurements.
这其中的部分原因是：当前可用的技术只能进行相当不精确的测量。
But this team picked them out. And they did it by creating a new technique based on the Meissner effect.
但这个小组还是设法找到了材料，他们的做法是：利用迈斯纳效应创造了一种新技术。
It's called magnetic field modulated microwave spectroscopy, or MFMMS.
这种新技术名为磁场微波调制谱(MFMMS)。
It uses superconductors' magnetic properties to locate them in impure samples.
这种技术利用超导体的磁场特性来对有杂质的样本进行定位。
In this new method, a couple of magnetic fields are applied to the meteorites.
这种新技术对陨石施加了一些磁场。
And ultimately, these fields force any superconducting materials in the rocks in and out of superconducting mode.
最后，这些磁场可以迫使岩石中的任何超导材料进入或者退出超导体模式。
That creates a signal that the team can use to pinpoint the metals. And it works really well!
这就会给研究组产生是否可以精确超导体位置的信号，这种技术效果奇佳！
These scientists were able to identify mixtures of indium and tin in the rocks,
这些科学家能够在陨石的石块中找到铟锡混合物
along with indium-tin mixes that had something else in them, maybe lead.
或者掺有其他金属（如铅）的铟锡混合物。
All of these are confirmed superconductors, though they only work at about -270°C.
这些金属都是经过证实的超导金属，虽然他们进入超导体模式的环境温度大约是零下270摄氏度。
So they aren't the room-temperature holy grail we've been looking for.
所以，它们并不是我们要寻找的、在室温下就能运作的神器。
But these results are still important, because they show us that superconductors are probably widespread in rocks throughout the universe!
但上述研究结果依然十分重要，因为结果让我们知道：超导体可能在整个宇宙的岩石里都有广泛存在。
They also show us how this new technique can be used to find all kinds of materials, even ones we've never seen. So let the discoveries commence.
结果还表明，可以如何用这项新技术来找到各种材料，甚至是一些我们见所未见的材料，所以，开启发现之旅吧！
Now, you can't simulate how all meteorites form in a lab, but one thing you can simulate are the atmospheres of other planets.
现在，我们无法模拟出陨石可以以怎样的方式在实验室里形成，但有一件事情我们是可以模拟的，那就是：其他行星的环境。
You just pump some gases into containers and see what happens!
只需要将一些气体灌进容器里，然后看看会发生什么就可以了！
It sounds pretty simple, but these experiments are especially important when it comes to studying exoplanets, and figuring out which ones could support life.
这种做法听起来简单，但实验过程尤为重要，尤其是在我们要研究外星行星以及弄清楚哪些外星行星可以孕育生命的时候。
Last week in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of scientists based at Johns Hopkins University published a paper about their new atmosphere simulations.
上周，《自然-天文学》上，美国约翰霍普金斯大学的一组科学家发表了一篇论文，内容与他们对大气层的最新模拟有关。
And they're going to really help out our telescope game.
他们的研究确实会帮助我们摆脱禁锢于望远镜研制的困境。
Specifically, this team wanted to see which kinds of atmospheres develop photochemical hazes.
具体来说，这组研究人员想看看哪种大气层可以产生光化学烟雾。
These are those sort of smoky fogs created when sunlight reacts with chemicals in the air.
光化学烟雾是日光与空气中的化学物质作用产生的。
Hazes can affect a planet's temperature and how much ultraviolet radiation reaches its surface.
烟雾会影响一个星球的温度以及其表面紫外线照射的量。
And these are both things that shape whether or not something could live there.
这两个因素都会决定这个星球是否宜居。
We've studied hazes in atmospheres like Earth's and also Pluto's, but we didn't know a lot about what they could look like in other solar systems.
我们研究过地球和冥王星大气层里的烟雾，但以前我们并不知道光化学烟雾在太阳系的其他星球里会是什么样子。
That's what this team wanted to find out. They mixed up nine different possible atmospheres in the lab, varying concentrations of nitrogen,
这正是这个小组想要弄明白的问题，他们混合了实验室里9种各自不同的可能情况，变化了氮气、
water vapor, organic materials, and other good gassy stuff.
水蒸气、有机物等气体的浓度。
Then, they heated them up with plasma to simulate stellar radiation and drive the reactions.
随后，他们通过等离子体来加热这些气体，以模拟出星体辐射的环境，并驱使这些气体发生反应。
They found that every single atmosphere they tested produced some haze, but more importantly,
他们发现，这9种测试环境中的每一种都会产生烟雾，但更重要的是他们发现，
they saw that water vapor can play a huge role in haze production.
水蒸气对烟雾的产生有重要作用。
We used to think that most of these fogs were made through interactions with hydrocarbons and nitrogen, because that's what we see around here.
我们以前以为大多数光化学烟雾都是通过与碳氢化合物、氮气作用而产生的，因为地球上就是这样。
But the two haziest atmospheres the researchers simulated had high amounts of water and low amounts of nitrogen.
但研究人员模拟的这两种烟雾环境里都有相当高的水蒸气含量和相当低的氮气含量。
So it seems like nitrogen isn't always that important and that water vapor can be a good substitute.
所以，看起来，氮气也并不总是那么重要，而水蒸气可能是必不可少的成分。
Knowing all of this will be important when NASA launches the James Webb Space Telescope, which should happen next year.
了解这一点是很重要的，因为明年美国宇航局就要推出詹姆斯·韦伯空间望远镜了。
I can't believe it's finally happening! Webb will study tons of faraway exoplanets and should give us great observations.
我简直不相信这一天真的要到来了！该望远镜可以研究遥远的外星星系，观测能力极强。
But hazes can sometimes make it hard for telescopes to determine which kinds of gases are in a planet's atmosphere.
不过，烟雾的存在有时候会给望远镜的观测增加难度，让我们无法确定某颗行星的大气层里有哪些气体。
So if we know right from the start what mixes tend to produce haze, we'll be able to better interpret and fill any holes in the data Webb provides.
所以如果我们从一开始就知道什么样的混合物会产生烟雾的话，我们就能更好地解释哈勃望远镜提供的数据，并弥补数据的漏洞。
These experiments are kind of like doing prep work before you walk into your lab class.
这些实验就像是在正是进入实验课之前所做的准备工作一样。
So thanks to these recent studies, we now know a lot more about meteorites and potentially habitable exoplanets, but somehow, we still have a lot more to learn.
所以，多亏了最近的这些研究，我们现在对陨石以及可能宜居的外星行星了解的更多了，不过我们还是有很多有待了解的东西。
Maybe thankfully, there's a long way to go, and a lot more science to tell you about.
不过欣慰的是，有更多的东西要了解，就有更多的科学知识可以跟大家分享了。
It would be kind of a shame, yeah? If we just were like Uh, science is done!
毕竟止步不前是一种耻辱，不是咩？比如，我们摆出这样的姿态，科学的大楼已经爬到顶峰了！
Thanks for participating in Scishow, we're done. All the science got finished, see ya!
感谢收看本期的《太空科学秀》，今天就到这里啦！今天和大家分享的科学知识已经全都讲完啦，下期见哦！
But that's not happening. So thank you for watching this episode of SciShow Space, brought to you by all of our patrons on Patreon!
期待下期呢！那么，感谢大家的收看以及你们对Patreon的支持！
We couldn't keep talking about space news without you, so thanks for all that you do.
如果没有大家，我们就无法在这里持续的分享与太空有关的消息，感谢一切！
If you would like to learn how to support the show, you can go to patreon.com/scishow.
如果您想知道如何支持这档节目的话，您可以登录patreon.com/scishow。
