TED演讲:创造历史的黑洞图像(1)

（单词翻译）

Shep, thank you so much for coming. I think your plane landed literally¹ two hours ago in Vancouver.

克里斯·谢普，感谢你的到来。我听说你乘坐的航班两个小时前刚到达温哥华。

Such a treat to have you. So, talk us through how do you get from Einstein's equation to a black hole?

非常高兴今天你能来这里。那么，给我们讲讲你是如何从爱因斯坦方程式中提取黑洞信息的？

Over 100 years ago, Einstein came up with this geometric theory of gravity which deforms² space-time.

100多年前，爱因斯坦提出了引力的几何理论，这个理论改变了时空。

So, matter deforms space-time, and then space-time tells matter in turn how to move around it.

所以，物质改变了时空，而时空反过来规定了物质的运行规律。

And you can get enough matter into a small enough region that it punctures⁴ space-time,

你可以将足够多的物质聚集到一个非常小的空间里撞击时空，

and that even light can't escape, the force of gravity keeps even light inside.

即使是光也无法逃离，引力的作用会使得光困在里面。

And so, before that, the reason the Earth moves around the Sun is not because the Sun is pulling the Earth as we think,

在那之前，地球之所以围绕太阳公转的理由并不是我们以为的太阳吸引着地球，

but it's literally changed the shape of space so that we just sort of fall around the Sun.

而是字面意义上的太阳改变了宇宙的形状，所以地球可以说是正在向太阳靠近并公转。

Exactly, the geometry of space-time tells the Earth how to move around the Sun.

没错，时空的几何结构规定了地球围绕太阳公转的轨道。

You're almost seeing a black hole puncture³ through space-time,

你几乎能看到一个黑洞穿过时空，

and when it goes so deeply in, then there's a point at which light orbits the black hole.

当它进入很深的时候，在某个时刻光就会围绕黑洞运转。

And so that's, I guess, is what's happening here. This is not an image,

我猜这就是现在我们所看到的景象。这不是一张照片，

this is a computer simulation of what we always thought, like, the event horizon around the black hole.

这是电脑模拟下我们所想象的在黑洞周围的事件视界。

Until last week, we had no idea what a black hole really looked like.

直到上周，我们才知道黑洞的真实样貌。

The best we could do were simulations like this in supercomputers,

我们所能做的就是用超级电脑构建类似的模拟场景，

but even here you see this ring of light, which is the orbit of photons.

但即使是现在，你看到的这个光圈，其实是光子的运行轨道，

That's where photons literally move around the black hole,

它展现了光子围绕黑洞的运行轨道，

and around that is this hot gas that's drawn⁵ to the black hole, and it's hot because of friction⁶.

在它的周围是高热气体，被拉近黑洞，它们之所以很热是因为摩擦。

All this gas is trying to get into a very small volume, so it heats up.

这些气体试图压缩体积，所以它们的温度会上升。