旅行到宇宙边缘JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE(中英对照)

1、-作者xxxx-日期xxxx旅行到宇宙边缘JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE(中英对照)【精品文档】JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE UNIVERSE Our world. warm, comfortable, familiar.But when we look up, we wonder:Do we occupy a special place in the cosmos?Or are we merely a celestial footnote？Is the universe welcoming or hostile?We could

2、 stand here forever, wonderingOr we could leave home on the ultimate adventureTo discover wondersConfront horrorsBeautiful new worldsMalevolent dark forcesThe Beginning of time.The moment of creation.Would we have the courage to see it through?Or would we run for home?There's only one way to fin

3、d outOur journey through time and space begins with a single step.At the edge of space, only 60 miles up.just an hour's drive from homeDown there, life continues.The traffic is awful, stocks go on trading.and Star Trek is still showingWhen we return home, if we return home.will it be the same?Wi

4、ll we be the same?We have to leave all this behindTo dip out toes into the vast dark oceanOn to the Moon.旅行到宇宙边缘我们的世界 温暖、舒适 熟悉但当我们仰望天空 我们想知道我们是居住在宇宙中一个独特的地方或仅仅是太空的小小一隅?宇宙是友善的还是充满敌意？我们是一直站在这里猜想还是离开故园来一次终极探险去发现奇观直面恐怖美丽的新世界邪恶的黑暗势力时间的起点创世的时刻我们是否有坚持到底的勇气或是逃回家？想找到答案只有一个方法我们开始一步步时空之旅离地面60英里（100公里）高度,就是太空边缘

5、.仅仅一个小时车程地面上，生活在继续车水马龙 商业繁忙星际迷航还在播出当我们回到家 如果我们还能回家一切还会如初吗？我们还是原来的我们吗？我们必须抛掉这一切步入前方广阔的黑暗海洋前往月球Dozens of astronauts have come this way before usTwelve walked on the moon itselfJust a quarter of a million miles from home.Three days by spacecraftBarren.Desolate.It's like a deserted battlefieldBut od

6、dly familiar.So close, we've barely left homeNeil Armstrong's first footprints.Looks like they were made yesterdayThere's no air to change them.They could survive for millions of yearsMaybe longer than us.Our time is limitedWe need to take our own giant leapOne million miles, 5 million,

7、20 million miles.We're far beyond where any human has ever venturedOut of the darkness, a friendly faceThe goddess of love, Venus.The morning star.The evening star.She can welcome the new day in the east.say good night in the westA sister to our planet.she's about the same size and gravity a

8、s Earth.We should be safe hereBut the Venus Express space probe is setting off alarmsIt's telling us, these dazzling clouds, they're made of deadly sulfuric acidThe atmosphere is choking with carbon dioxideNever expected this Venus is one angry goddess. 在我们之前，已有数十名宇航员前往月球其中12人踏上了月球月球距离地球只有25

9、万英里（40万公里）坐宇宙飞船需要3天贫瘠荒芜月球看起来就像一个遗弃的战场但是惊人的熟悉那么近，就像我们几乎没有离开家尼尔·阿姆斯特朗的第一个脚印看起来就像在昨天留下的那里没有能够改变脚印的空气这些足迹会存在数百万年或许比人类存在的时间都长我们的时间是有限的我们必须自己踏出自己的一大步1百万英里 5百万英里 2千万英里远征前人未曾到达的地方一个友善的面孔从黑暗中浮现爱之女神 金星启明星长庚星它可以在东方迎接新的一天.还会在西方道晚安金星是地球的姊妹星.大小和引力与地球相仿我们在这里应该是安全的但是金星快车空间探测器却时刻提醒着我们告诉我们那些耀眼的云层是由致命的硫酸构成金星的大气层充

10、斥着二氧化碳没想到金星是一个愤怒的女神The air is noxious, the pressure unbearable.And it's hot, approaching 900 degreesStick around and we'd be corroded suffocated, crushed and bakedNothing can survive here.Not even this Soviet robotic probe.Its heavy armor's been trashed by the extreme atmosphere.So lovel

11、y from Earth, up close, this goddess is hideousShe's the sister from hell.Pockmarked by thousands of volcanoesAll that carbon dioxide is trapping the Sun's heat.Venus is burning up.It's global warming gone wildBefore it took hold, maybe Venus was beautiful, calm.more like her sister plan

12、et, Earth.So this could be Earth's futureWhere are the twinkling stars?The beautiful spheres gliding through space?Maybe we shouldn't be out here, maybe we should turn backBut there's something about the Sun, something hypnotic, like the MedusaToo terrible to look at, too powerful to res

13、istLuring us onward on, like a moth to a flame.Wait ,there's something else, obscured by the sunIt must be Mercury.Get too close to the sun, this is what happens.Temperatures swing wildly hereAt night, it's minus 275 degreese midday, it's 800 plus.Burnt then frozen.The MESSENGER space pr

14、obe is telling us something strange.For its size, Mercury has a powerful gravitational pull.It's a huge ball of iron, covered with a thin veneer of rock有毒的空气 难以忍受的压力还有炙热 温度接近900度（500°C）多呆一会 我们会被腐蚀、窒息、压碎和烤焦任何东西都无法在这里生存即使像前苏联金星号机器人探测器它的厚重装甲已被这极端的大气环境给毁了从地球看她是多么可爱 近观这个女神却是可怕的她是来自地狱的姊妹数千座火山犹如长满

15、了痘疮大气层中的二氧化碳留住了太阳热量金星正在燃烧这是无节制的全球气候变暖在它变暖之前或许是美丽而平静的.很像她的姊妹星 地球也许就它是我们地球的未来那些闪烁的星星哪里去了？美丽的圆球滑进了太空？或许我们不应该来这里 我们应该回去但是太阳有催眠般的魔力 象美杜莎（古希腊神话中3位蛇发女怪之一）可怕的让人无法正视，也无法抗拒她的力量引诱我们继续前进 像飞蛾扑火等等，这里还有其他东西被太阳炙烤它一定是水星太靠近太阳，就会这样这里温度剧烈变化晚上会到零下275度（-170°C）.正午则超过800度（400°C）烧焦再被冰冻信使号空间探测器发现了一些奇怪的现象相对体积来说，小小的水

16、星具有强大的引力它就像一个裹着薄薄岩石层的大铁球The core of what was once a much larger planet.So where's the rest of it?Maybe a stray planet slammed into Mercury.blasting away its outer layers in a deadly game of cosmic pinballWhole worlds on the loose careening wildly across the cosmos.destroying anything in their pa

17、thAnd we're in the middle of itVulnerable, exposed, smallEverything is telling us to turn back.But who could defy this?The Sun in all its mesmerizing splendorOur light, our lives.everything we do is controlled by the SunDepends on itIt's the Greek god Helios driving his chariot across the sk

18、yThe Egyptian god Ra reborn every dayThe summer solstice sun rising at Stonehenge.For millions of years.this was as close as it got to staring into the face of GodIt's so far away.it is burned out, we wouldn't know about it for eight minutesIt's so Big, you could fit one million Earths i

19、nside itBut who needs number? we've got the real thingWe see it every day, a familiar face in our skyNow, up close, it's unrecognizable.A turbulent sea of incandescent gasThe thermometer pushes 10,000 degreescan't imagine how hot the core is ,could be tens of millions of degreesHot enoug

20、h to transform millions of tons of matter into energy every secondMore than all the energy ever made by mankind这是一颗大行星留下的核心其他部分去哪里了呢？或许是一个迷路的行星猛地撞进了水星.在一场致命的宇宙弹球游戏中水星的外层被炸掉了这些游荡的行星在宇宙中疯狂地掠过.毁掉他们道路上的一切我们就在其中脆弱、裸露而且渺小这一且都在告诉我们该回去了但是谁又能抗拒的了散发着迷人光彩的太阳？我们的光线，我们的生命我们的一切都被太阳控制着依赖于它它是驾着战车穿越天际的希腊美男子太阳神是每天重生的

21、埃及神“拉”（埃及神话里的太阳神）以及巨石阵夏至的日出数百万年来我们对太阳神的景仰止于远观由于实在太远如果太阳熄灭了，8分钟后我们才会知道太阳大到可以装下100万颗地球谁需要这些数字呢 我们看到了它的真面目我们每天看到太阳挂在天空的熟悉面孔现在近观它，又陌生起来由炙热气体形成的汹涌大海表面温度超过1万度（5000°C）难以置信的是它的核心温度则可以到数千万度这里热到足以能够每秒钟把数百万吨物质转化成能量超过人类有史以来产生的所有能量Dwarfing the power of all the nuclear weapons on Earth.Back home, we use this

22、 energy for light and heatBut up close, there's nothing comforting about the Sun.Its electrical and magnetic forces erupt in giant molten gas loops.Some are larger than a dozen EarthsMore powerful than 10 million volcanoes.And when they burst through they expose cooler layers below.making sunspo

23、ts.A fraction cooler than their surrounding, sunspots look black.But they're hotter than anything on Earth.And massive up to 20 times the size of Earth.But one day, all this will stopThe Sun's fuel will be spent.And when it dies, the Earth will followThis god creates life, destroys it.and de

24、mands we keep out distanceThis comet strayed too closeThe Sun's heat is boiling it away.creating a tail that stretches for millions of miles.It's freezing in here.There's no doubt where this comet's from, the icy wastes of deep spaceBut all this steam and geysers and dust.it's th

25、e Sun again, melting the comet's frozen heart.Strange.A kind of vast, dirty snowball, covered in grimy tarTiny grains of what looks like organic material.preserved on ice, since who knows when.maybe even the beginning of the solar system.Say a comet like this crashed into the young Earth billion

26、s of years ago.Maybe it delivered organic material and water.the raw ingredients of life地球上所有的核武器对于它都是小巫见大巫在地球，这些能量是我们利用的光和热近距离观看时，却是令人感到不安太阳的电磁活动迸发出巨大的炙热气体环状物（日珥）有的足有一打地球那么大释放的能量超过一千万个火山当它喷发的时候 就会露出下面温度较低的部分形成太阳黑子太阳黑子比周围温度低一些 所以看起来是黑的但仍比地球任何东西都热太阳黑子同样巨大，超过地球大小的20倍但是总有一天，这一切都会结束太阳的燃料会耗尽太阳死去，地球也会随之死亡

27、这个神祗创造了生命，也会摧毁生命要求我们保持距离这个彗星太靠近太阳了它被太阳的热量蒸发产生绵延数百万英里的彗尾这里冰冷彻骨我们清楚彗星来自哪里 它来自深太空的冰冻垃圾但你看这些蒸汽、间歇泉和尘埃这是太阳正在融化彗星的冰冻核心太奇异了犹如外面包裹着肮脏沥青的巨大脏雪球看起来像是有机物的小颗粒被冷冻保存 谁会知道已经保存了多久也许和太阳系同龄如果像这样一颗彗星在数十亿年前撞到年轻的地球也许带来了有机物和水. 生命的原始物质It may even have sown the seeds of life on Earth.that evolved into you and meBut say it c

28、rashed into the Earth nowThink of the dinosaurs, wiped out by a comet or asteroid strikeIt's only a question of time.Eventually, one day, we'll go the way of the dinosaursIf life on Earth was wiped out, we'd be stuck out here.homeless, adrift in a hostile universeWe'd need to find an

29、other homeAmong the millions, billions of planets.there must be one that's not too hot, not too cold, with air, sunlight, water.where, like Goldilocks, we could comfortably liveThe red planetUnmistakably Mars.For centuries, we've looked to Mars for company.for signs of lifeCould there be ext

30、raterrestrial life here?Are we ready to rewrite the history books, to tear up the science books.to turn our world upside down?What happens next could change everythingMars is the planet that most captures our imagination.Think of B-movies, sci-fi comics, what follows?Martians?It's all just ficti

31、on, right?But what it there really is something here?Hard to imagine, though. Up close, this is a dead planetThe activity that makes the Earth livable shut down millions of years ago hereRed and deadMars is a giant fossil.Wait. Something is aliveA dust devil, a big one彗星甚至可能在地球上播下生命之种后来进化成你和我如果彗星现在撞

32、上地球想想恐龙吧 被彗星或是小行星的撞击彻底灭绝这只是时间问题毫无疑问，总有一天我们会步恐龙的后尘如果地球上的生命灭绝了 我们会被困在这里无家可归，漂泊在危险宇宙中我们需要找一个新家在几百万甚至数十亿的行星中一定会有一个行星不会很热，也不会很冷 有空气、阳光和水可以让我们舒适居住,生活红色行星我们都熟知的火星几个世纪以来，我们一直都在寻找火星上的同伴寻找生命迹象那里有外星生物吗？我们准备好改写史书，撕毁科学书籍颠覆我们的世界了吗？接下来发生的可能会改变一切火星比任何其他行星都能激发我们的遐想想到科幻电影、漫画，你会联想到什么-火星人？这都是虚构的，对吗？但如果这里真的有生物呢？无法想象，近观火

33、星是一个死去的行星使得地球适宜居住的演化过程几亿年前在火星上就停止了红色、死寂火星是一块巨大的化石等一下，还有东西在活动一个巨大的尘暴Bigger than the biggest twisters back home.There's wind hereAnd where there's wind, there's airCould that air sustain extraterrestrial life?It's too thin tor us to breathe.And there's no ozone layerNothing to prot

34、ect us against the Sun's ultraviolet rays.There is water.But frigid temperatures keep it in a constant deep freezeIt's hard to believe anything could live hereBack on Earth, there are creatures that survive in extreme cold, heat.even in the deepest ocean trenchesIt's as though life is a

35、virus.It adapts, spreadsMaybe that's what we're doing right now.carrying the virus of life across the universe.Even in the most extreme conditions life usually finds a way.But on a dead planet?With no way to replenish its soil, no heat to melt its frozen water?All this dust, it's hard to

36、 see where we're goingOlympus Mons, named after the home of the Greek godsA vast ancient volcano.Three times higher than Everest.There's no sign of activity.Since its discovery in the 1970s, it's been declared extinctHang on.These look like lava flows.But any sign of lava should be long

37、gone. obliterated by meteorite cratersUnless, this monster isn't dead, just sleepingThere could be magma flowing beneath the crust right now.building up, waiting to be unleashed绝对超过地球上最大的龙卷风这里有风有风说明有空气可以维持外星生物的空气但对我们的呼吸来说，火星的空气太稀薄了而且这里没有臭氧层没有什么能够保护其不受太阳紫外线的伤害这里有水但在彻骨的严寒中只能永远被冰冻很难相信有什么可以在这里生存但是在地

38、球 极冷和极热的地方都有生物存在即使在最深的海沟生命好像病毒会适应环境、会散播也许我们现在正在携带着生命的病毒穿越宇宙即使在最极端的环境里，生命都会找到生存的办法但在这个死去的行星上没有活动去补充它土壤中的成分 没有热量使其冰冻水融化还有大量尘埃，让我们无法辨别方位奥林匹斯山，以希腊众神的家乡命名一座巨大的古火山超过珠穆朗玛峰的三倍高。没有活动的迹象自1970年代发现它时就宣告它是一座死火山等等好像是熔岩流但是任何熔岩流早就该静止了，在陨石撞击下都会被毁灭除非这个怪物没有死，只是休眠了火星的坚硬地表下可能有岩浆积累着，等待喷发的一刻Volcanic activity could be melt

39、ing frozen water in the soil.pumping gases into the atmosphere, recycling minerals and nutrientsCreating all the conditions needed for lifeThis makes the Grand canyon look like a crack in the sidewalkEndless desolation.so vast it would stretch all the way across North America.But here, signs of acti

40、vity, erosion, and what looks like dried up river bedsMaybe volcanic activity melted ice in the soil.sending water gushing through this canyon.Underground volcanoes could still be melting ice, creating waterAnd where there's water, there could be lifeThe hunt for life is spearheaded by this humb

41、le fellow.the NASA rover, Opportunity.It's finding evidence that these barren plains.were once ancient lakes or oceans that could have harbored lifeLook at those gullies.Probes orbiting Mars keep spotting new ones.More proof that Mars is alive and kicking.that water is flowing beneath its surfac

42、e right nowWater that could be sustaining Martian lifeNow, all we have to do is find itMaybe we've already found what we're looking for on EarthSome think that life started here and then migrated to EarthAn asteroid impact could've blasted fragments of Mars.plete with tiny microbes out i

43、nto space.and onto the young Earth where they sowed the seeds of lifeNo wonder we find Mars fascinating, this could be our ancestral homeIt could be we are all MartiansThe Mars we thought we knew is gone.replaced by this new, active, changing planet.And if we don't know Mars, our next door neigh

44、bor. 火山活动会融化土壤里的冰冻水将气体充入大气中 循环利用矿物质和养分，创造出适合生命生存的环境这让美国大峡谷看起来像是人行道上一条裂缝无尽的荒凉长度足以横跨北美洲但是这里有活动的迹象：侵蚀 看起来像干涸的河床也许是火山活动融化了土壤中的冰形成洪水冲出巨大峡谷可能地下火山仍在融冰成水哪里有水，那里就可能会有生命搜寻生命的前锋就是这个简陋的家伙美国宇航局的机遇号火星漫游车它找到的证据证明这些贫瘠的平原曾是古代湖泊或海洋 这些有水的地方可能会藏匿着生命看看这些山沟火星轨道探测器总能发现一些新的山沟这进一步证明火星仍活蹦乱跳也许是火星地表之下的水正在流淌水可能维持火星上的生命现在我们要做的就是

45、找到这些生命或许我们已经找到了，不是在火星，而是在地球有人认为生命起源于火星，后来迁移到地球可能是一颗小行星撞击火星使得包含微生物的火星碎片飞向太空进入年轻的地球 在地球上播种下生命的种子难怪我们觉得火星那么迷人 它可能就是我们祖先的家园我们可能都是火星人我们熟知的火星远去了取而代之是这个活跃变化的新行星如果我们连我们的隔壁邻居火星都不了解,.how can we even imagine what surprises lie aheadOur compass points across the cosmos.back in time 14 billion years.to the momen

46、t of creation.This is getting scary.It's like being inside a giant video gameBut these are all too real.Asteroids, some of them hundreds of miles wideThis one must be about 20 miles long.And there, perched on it, a space probe.Can't have been easy.parking on an asteroid traveling at 50,000 m

47、iles an hour.It's a lot of effort just to investigate some rubble.Rubble that regularly collides.breaks up and rains down on Earth as meteorites.Our ancestors saw shooting stars as magical omens.And they were rightRubble like this came together to make the planets.including our ownPretty magical

48、.By dating the meteorites found on Earth.we can tell the planets were born 4.6 billion years ago.These are the birth certificates of our solar system.For some reason, these rocks didn't form into a planetSomething must have stopped themSomething powerful.Jupiter.What a monsterAt least a thousand

49、 time bigger than Earth.so vast you could fit all the other planets inside itSomething this massive dominates its neighbors我们怎么能想象前方的惊奇?我们的方向指向宇宙回到140亿年前创世的那一刻此情此景开始让人害怕就像置身于一个巨大的视频游戏但这些也是真实的小行星，其中有些有数百英里宽这个约有20英里长你看，上面有个空间探测器降落在一个时速达5万英里的小行星上可不是件容易的事我们一直在努力研究这些碎石碎石之间经常碰撞碎片后来落在地球上，就形成了地球上看到的陨石我们的古人把

50、流星雨看做是魔法的征兆他们是对的就是这样一些碎石聚在一起就会形成行星包括我们的地球多美的魔法通过测定地球上发现的陨石年龄我们知道行星诞生于45亿年前这些殒石是我们太阳系的出生证明但有些原因导致这些岩石没有形成行星一定是什么阻止了他们某种强大的力量木星犹如巨大的怪物至少比地球的大1000倍大到可以装下太阳系其它所有行星木星的巨大体积对它周围产生很大的影响Its gravity is pulling the asteroids apartAnd it's breathtakingBut this beauty is a beast.It's almost all gas.Land

51、here and we'd sink straight through its layers into oblivion.And Jupiter's good looks?The product of ferocious violenceIt's spinning at an incredible rate.whipping up winds to hundreds of miles an hour.contorting the clouds into stripes eddies, whirlpools.and this, the legendary Great Re

52、d SpotThe biggest, most violent storm in the solar system.At least three times the size of Earth, it's been raging for over 300 yearsAll these churning clouds must have sparked an electrical stormJust one bolt is 10,000 times more intense than any at home.Looks like the safest place to see Jupit

53、er is from a distanceUp there at the poles.those dancing lights, they're like the auroras back home.But the Geiger counter is going wildEven these are deadly, generated by lethal radiationOut here, nothing is what it seems.The universe is full of terrors, traps.Maybe this is a safe haven, the mu

54、lti-colored moon, IoWrongVery wrong.Those brilliant colors are molten rock, volcanoes spewing lava.Our journey across the universe is turning into a struggle for survivalWe've got to hope that if we outlast the dangers.we'll be rewarded by wonders beyond imaginationFour hundred million miles

55、 from Earth. 它的引力正在把这些小行星形成扯开真是美极了但这个美人是个巨兽木星几乎都是由气体构成的如果在这里着陆，我们会径直穿过它的外层一去不复返木星的美丽面孔是它极端狂暴的产物木星自转极快卷起时速数百英里的飓风把云层扭曲成条状和大大小小的漩涡这就是传说中的大红斑它是太阳系中最大、最猛烈的风暴至少有地球的3倍大 已经肆虐了超过300年了这些翻腾的云产生闪电雷暴任何一个闪电都比我们地球上的强一万倍远观眺望才是最好最安全的在它的两极那些光就像我们地球的极光一样在翩翩起舞但盖格计数器的读数开始发狂致命辐射产生的光看起来也是能致人死地太空中凡事不可貌相宇宙充满了恐怖和陷阱也许这个五彩缤纷的

56、木卫一是一个避风港错了大错特错那些闪亮的颜色是融岩、火山喷出的岩浆我们神奇的宇宙之旅开始变成了生存之战我们曾希望只要战胜这些危险我们就会看到无法想象的奇观离开地球4亿英里.flying a commercial airliner here would take nearly a centuryWhat a weird looking place.and yet, strangely familiarA bit like the Arctic, with all that ice, all those ridges and cracksIt's Jupiter's moon, E

57、uropa.And maybe, like the Arctic, this ice is floating on water, liquid waterBut we're half a billion miles from the Sun.Surely, Europa is frozen solidUnless, Jupiter's gravity is creating friction deep inside.heating the ice into water, allowing life to develop in the water.beneath its frozen crust.We might be feet away from aliensFrom a whole ecosystem of microbes, crustaceans, maybe even squidThe only thing between us and the possibility of alien life.this layer of ice.But until we send a spacecraft to drill here.Europa's secrets will remain beyond reachIt'