评论
打印
“So Hubble's pictures have been fantastic, pioneering work.
“哈勃拍的照片的确是非常棒，而且是具有开创性意义的。
But, they are somehow they've been pushed to their limit.
但从某种程度来说，那些照片也已经是它们的极限水平了。
So, what I'm expecting is this 30 meter telescopes to do exactly the same revolution, as Hubble did 20 years ago.”
所以，我希望我们的30米望远镜能像20年前的哈勃望远镜那样完成革命性的创举。
But one major challenge these ground based scopes have to contend with is our planet’s atmosphere.
但这些地面望远镜必须应对的一个主要挑战是地球的大气层。
“The problem is the light from the stars that's traveled for millions of years or sometimes billions of years through the universe and through the galaxy,
“因为恒星发出的，在宇宙和星系中穿行了数百万年，有时甚至数十亿年的光
when it hits our atmosphere, the light kind of wiggles as it goes through.”
在穿越我们的大气层的过程中会发生摆动。”
This is what gives the stars their classic twinkle, but it causes problems for astronomers who want super sharp images.
这也是星星典型地闪烁的原因，但这也给想要超级清晰的观测图像的天文学家造成了困扰。
This is where the next key advance comes in.
接下来太空望远镜关键的技术突破点也就在这里。
“Recently over the last ten years, there's been a lot of development, what is called adaptive optics.”
“在过去十年里，我们的天空望远镜研发取得了很多进展，这个阶段我们称之为‘自适应光学’。”
Here’s how it works.
它的原理是这样。
Lasers from the telescope are shot into space,
望远镜发出的激光射入太空，
exciting the atoms in the sodium layer of the upper atmosphere and causing them to glow.
激发上层大气的钠层中的原子并使其发光。
That glow acts as an artificial star that astronomers can use to calculate the amount of atmospheric turbulence.
那个光就像一颗人造恒星，天文学家可以用它来计算大气湍流的水平。
Then, the mirrors will flex and deform by computer controlled actuators to correct the blur.
然后，通过计算机控制的驱动器使镜子弯曲变形，以纠正模糊。
“and, walla, you make sharp images.
“嗒哒，清晰的照片就拍出来了。”
The challenge is you have to do that 500 to 1,000 times a second
问题是你必须每秒重复上述步骤重复500到1000次，
and you have to do that to about 1/20th of the wavelength of light in precision.”
而且，精度要达到光波波长的1/20。 "
With unprecedented light-collecting capability and advanced optical geometry,
有了前所未有的集光能力和先进的光学几何科学，
these new observatories will tackle some of the most complex questions known to science.
这些新天文台将能解决科学界已知的复杂程度最高的一些问题。
“There's been a lot of recent discovery of exoplanets...We can see, more or less, how distant they are from the planet.
“最近发现了很多系外行星……”我们可以看到，多多少少能看到，它们离地球有多远。
But we would like to understand how they are made of.
但我们还想知道它们的组成成分。
Do they have an atmosphere which is similar to Earth, or not?
它们是否也有与地球类似的大气层?
How do you form all these planets?
这些行星都是如何形成的?
That's only one aspect.
这些还只是研究的一个方面。
Then, understanding how different galaxies formed and evolved across the cosmic time, you know for 13.5 billion years.
其次是了解不同星系是如何在宇宙时间中形成和演化了135亿年的。
And then, we can move to cosmology and understanding how dark matter and dark energy formed.
然后我们才可以转向宇宙学，理解暗物质和暗能量是如何形成的。
We are increasing the size so much, the capabilities are so powerful that it will open completely new discoveries in space.
由于我们的望远镜的尺寸已经扩大得太多，观测能力也已经变得太强，势必会开启全新的发现。
And we don't really know where they will take us, and that's to me the real beauty of this new facilities.”
我们并不知道这些新设备到时候会有怎样的发现，不过，对我来说，这恰好也是它们的魅力所在。”
“Our telescopes while they might seem big they're really small compared to the size of the earth or the size of the universe,
“我们的望远镜虽然看起来很大，但与地球或宇宙的大小相比，真的算很小很小了，
so if we can collect more light,
如果我们能收集更多的光，
we have a better chance of seeing those galaxies and black holes back when the universe was less than one billion years old.
那么，我们看到宇宙还不到10亿年的时候的那些星系和黑洞的可能性也就越大。
And that's one of our key drivers is to look back and see when did we transition from the universe being dark, the end of the dark ages to the first time it lit up, what we call cosmic dawn.
我们关键的一个驱动力就是回头看我们是什么时候从黑暗的宇宙，到黑暗时代的结束，过渡到第一次被点亮，也就是所谓的‘宇宙黎明’的时候的。
That's something that all astronomers would like to see and study the first light in the universe.”
所有的天文学家都希望有机会看到并研究宇宙中的第一束光。”
“The universe is a much bigger place than just what we experience here in our daily lives on the earth,
“宇宙比我们在地球上的日常生活中感受到的要大得多，
and it‘s rich, it's full of completely unexpected and diverse phenomina, and it's something that just is bigger than any of us.
而且它还很丰富，充满了完全出乎意料的，各种各样的现象，比我们任何一个星球都大。
For more science documentaries check out this one right here.
想了解更多的科学纪录片，请点击这里。
Don't forget to subscribe, and keep coming back to Seeker for more videos.
别忘了订阅，继续回来观看更多视频噢。
