纪录片《重力错乱》 第19期 中子星（在线收听）

One of the things I hope to see is when you get two stars called neutron stars.

一个我希望看到的东西是看到两颗所谓的中子星。

A neutron star is probably twice or three times as heavy as the sun,

中子星的质量大概是太阳的两至三倍，

but compressed into a ball about ten kilometres across, so the size of a city.

但是被压缩成10公里直径的球，大小如一个城市。

And there are places where there can be two of those things

有些地方会有两个那样的物体

orbiting around each other at about 100 or even 1,000 times a second.

相互围绕着运转，每秒钟100圈甚至1000圈。

The incredibly dense neutron stars spin round each other, churning up the space time.

难以相信这些致密的中子星相互快速旋转，搅动着时空。

As they spiral in, going faster and faster,

由于它们的旋转越来越快，

Einstein predicts this sort of violent cosmic event will create something called gravitational waves.

爱因斯坦预言这种剧烈的宇宙事件将会制造出所谓的引力波

But what exactly is a gravitational wave?

但是引力波究竟是什么东西呢？

It's not that easy to describe.

很难形容。

If a wave came through this room it'd...what can I say?

如果波经过这个房间，就会……怎么说呢？

Eh...ripples, yeah.

呃……泛起波澜，对。

Space time isn't just something that's...

时空不只是……

you know up there amongst the stars, it's here.

在恒星的上面，它在这里。

It's in front of me, and it's inside me.

它在我面前，在我里面。

So, when I move, I disturb it - I send out ripples in it.

那么，我运动时，我影响到它，我在它里面泛起波澜。

It's just like if I jump into a swimming pool and start swimming.

这就象是我跳进了游泳池去游泳。

I'll send out ripples on the surface of the water.

我会在水面泛起波澜。

It's the same with space time.

时空也是一样的。

In theory, these waves would cause space and time to stretch and shrink

理论上，这些波会引起空间与时间的伸缩，

as they pass through the universe.

随着它们经过宇宙。