纪录片《重力错乱》 第11期 一对近乎孪生的星系

But outside the weather's not good.

然而外面的天气不好。

They're not opening the telescopes tonight.

他们今晚不能打开望远镜。

But here's what they saw all those years ago.

然而这里是他们所有这么多年以来所看到的东西。

Astronomers¹ were looking into the sky to find distant galaxies², billions of light years away.

天文学家深入天空寻找遥远的星系几十亿光年之外的。

And they found this. At first sight it looks like two different galaxies.

他们发现了这个乍看之下，就象是两个不同的星系。

In fact, they gave them different names, 957 and 561.

事实上，他们给它们取了不同的名字957和561。

But when they looked more closely they found that they look identical in every way.

但是当他们更接近地观察时，发现它们看上去个各方面都是完全一样的。

It's incredibly strange. It's almost like there are two twin galaxies,

怪异得出乎意料。几乎就象是一对孪生星系，

but actually they find the light was absolutely identical for which one and they seem distance apart.

但实际上他们发现它们各自发出的光完全相同，而且它们似乎距离遥远。

The interpretation³ is, this is a picture of one single galaxy⁴.

解释是，这是一张单一的星系的写照。

This certainly confused the astronomers,

这当然把天文学家搞糊涂了，

but they soon realised that the cause of this strange cosmic mirage⁵

但是他们很快就意识到了，造成这种奇怪的宇宙幻影的原因

had been predicted nearly a hundred years ago.

在大约100年前就已经被预测到了。

There's one man who, for me, really did think outside the box.

对我来说，有一个人已经从外部认识到了。

He was the first celebrity⁶ scientist, hailed by many as the greatest physicist⁷ of all time.

他是个首屈一指的科学家，他始终被许多人尊崇为最伟大的物理学家。

At the turn of the 20th century it was Albert Einstein

在20世纪初，是艾伯特.爱因斯坦

who opened our minds to a completely new way of looking at the universe.

解放了我们的思想，以一个全新的方法去观察宇宙。

Einstein's universe is made of something called space time.

爱因斯坦的宇宙是由所谓的时间和空间组成的。

Now, space is what we see around us - it's got length and breadth and height.

空间就是我们所看到周围的一切——有长度、宽度和高度。

And time... well, it just ticks along.

时间嘛……啊，只是时钟滴答不停而已。

But in Einstein's universe they're woven together into a fabric⁸.

然而在爱因斯坦的宇宙里，它们交织在一起组成了构造。

Space and time are not separate, they're one and the same thing.

空间与时间不能分离，它们是同一个东西。

And that fabric is called spacetime.

那个构造称之为时空。

1 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

3 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 mirage   

n.海市蜃楼，幻景

参考例句：

• Perhaps we are all just chasing a mirage.也许我们都只是在追逐一个幻想。
• Western liberalism was always a mirage.西方自由主义永远是一座海市蜃楼。

6 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

7 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

8 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。