毁灭宇宙的三种方式：英语精读讲义

One day the universe will die.

有一天，宇宙将会死亡。

But why?

但是为什么？

And how?

又会怎样发生？

And will the universe be dead forever?

宇宙会永远死亡吗？

And how do we know that?

我们又是如何知道的呢？

First of all, 表達脈絡

首先，

the universe is expanding.

宇宙正在膨胀。

And not only that, 表達脈絡

不仅如此，

the rate of its expansion is accelerating.

其膨胀速度还在加快。

The reason?

原因是？

Dark energy.

暗能量。

Dark energy is a strange phenomenon that scientists believe permeates the universe.

科学家认为暗能量是一种弥漫在宇宙中的奇异现象。

Until 1998,

直到1998年，

we thought that the universe must work a bit like a ball 表達脈絡

我们还以为宇宙的运作方式有点像个球，

that you throw into the sky.

就是你抛向天空的那个。

The ball moves up,

球往上升，

but at some point it has to come down again. 短語動詞

但到了某个时候它肯定会落下来。

But the expansion of the universe is actually speeding up. 短語動詞

但是宇宙的膨胀实际上正在加速。

That's like throwing a ball up

这就像把一个球抛向天空，

and watching it fly away faster and faster and faster. 語法

然后看着它越来越快、越来越快地飞走。

Where is this acceleration coming from?

这种加速度是从哪里来的呢？

Well,

好吧，

we don't know.

我们也不知道。

But we call it dark energy. 語法

但我们称之为暗能量。

Einstein thought of it first,

爱因斯坦最先想到了它，

and then decided it was stupid.

后来又认为这太愚蠢了。

Now,

现在，

astrophysicists have decided it is plausible.

天体物理学家认为这说得通。

Trouble is, 表達脈絡

问题是，

this is all very theoretical,

这些都非常理论化，

and we don't actually know what the properties of dark energy are.

实际上我们并不知道暗能量的特性是什么。

But there are various theories,

但有各种各样的理论，

and they lead us to three scenarios for the end of the universe. 短語搭配

它们为我们引出了宇宙终结的三种可能场景。

One,

第一，

the Big Rip.

大撕裂。

Since its birth, 語法

宇宙自诞生以来，

the universe has been expanding.

就一直在膨胀。

For unknown reasons,

出于未知的原因，

new space is created everywhere equally.

每一处都在均等地创造出新的空间。

The space between galaxies expands,

星系之间的空间不断膨胀，

so they move apart. 短語動詞

所以它们越离越远。

The space inside galaxies also expands,

星系内部的空间也在膨胀，

but here gravity is strong enough to keep them together. 語法

但这里的引力足够强大，能把它们维系在一起。

In the Big Rip scenario,

在大撕裂的情景中，

the expansion accelerates up to a point 語法

膨胀会加速到一个临界点，

where space expands so fast 語法

届时空间膨胀得太快，

that gravity can't compensate for this effect anymore.

以至于引力再也无法抵消这种效应。

The result is a Big Rip.

结果就是大撕裂。

At first,

起初，

only large structures like galaxies are torn apart, 短語動詞

只有像星系这样的大型结构会被撕裂，

since space between the single objects expands very fast.

因为单一物体之间的空间膨胀得非常快。

Next,

接下来，

big bodies like black holes, stars, and planets die.

像黑洞、恒星和行星这样的大质量天体也会消亡。

Their gravity isn't strong enough to keep them together,

它们的引力不足以将自身维系在一起，

so they dissolve into their components. 短語搭配

所以它们会解体成原本的组成部分。

In the end,

最终，

space would expand faster than the speed of light.

空间的膨胀速度将超过光速。

Atoms would now be affected,

这时原子也会受到影响，

and they would just disband.

它们直接就散架了。

Once space is expanding faster than light, 語法

一旦空间的膨胀速度超过光速，

no particle in the universe

宇宙中的任何粒子

can interact with any other particle anymore.

都无法再与其他任何粒子发生相互作用。

The universe would dissolve into countless lonely particles 習語

宇宙将分解成无数孤独的粒子，

that won't be able to touch anything else

它们将无法接触任何其他东西，

in a strange timeless universe.

存在于一个奇异的没有时间概念的宇宙中。

Hmm.

嗯。

And you thought you felt lonely. 語氣意圖

亏你还觉得自己很孤独。

Two,

第二，

heat death,

热寂，

or a Big Freeze.

或者叫大冻结。

In a nutshell, 習語

简而言之，

the difference between the Big Rip and heat death is that 語法

大撕裂和热寂的区别在于，

in a heat death scenario,

在热寂的情景下，

matter stays intact

物质保持完好，

and is converted over an incredibly long but finite period of time 短語搭配

并在一段漫长但有限的时间内

into radiation while the universe expands forever.

转化为辐射，而宇宙则永远膨胀下去。

But how does this work?

但这到底是怎么发生的呢？

Let's talk about entropy. 表達脈絡

我们来谈谈熵。

Every system tends towards the state of highest entropy. 短語搭配

每个系统都趋向于最高熵的状态。

Like when we have a latte macchiato.

就像我们喝一杯拿铁玛奇朵。

Initially,

一开始，

it has different regions,

它有不同的层次，

but over time they will cool down and disintegrate until it's uniform.

但随着时间的推移，它们会冷却并瓦解，直到完全均匀。

And this also applies to the universe.

这同样适用于宇宙。

So while the universe gets bigger and bigger, 語法

所以当宇宙变得越来越大时，

matter slowly decays and spreads out. 短語動詞

物质会慢慢衰变并消散。

At some point,

到了某个时候，

after lots of generations of stars,

在无数代恒星之后，

all the gas clouds necessary to form stars will be exhausted, 用詞

形成恒星所需的所有气体云都将耗尽，

so the universe will turn dark.

因此宇宙将会变暗。

The remaining suns will die.

剩下的恒星将会消亡。

Black holes will slowly degenerate and evaporate over trillions of years

几万亿年后，黑洞会慢慢退化并蒸发，

due to what's known as Hawking radiation. 短語搭配

这就是所谓的霍金辐射。

When this process is complete,

当这个过程结束时，

only a dilute gas of photons and light particles remains

只剩下由光子和光粒子组成的稀薄气体，

until even this decays.

直到连这些也衰变掉。

All activity in the universe ceases at this point.

此时宇宙中的所有活动都将停止。

Entropy is at its maximum,

熵达到了极大值，

and the universe is dead forever.

宇宙就永远死亡了。

Unless,

除非，

theoretically,

理论上来说，

it might be possible that 語法

可能会有这种情况：

after an incredibly long amount of time,

在经历了极其漫长的时间之后，

there might be a spontaneous entropy decrease

也许会由于一种叫做量子隧穿的现象，

as a result of something called quantum tunneling, 短語搭配

导致自发性的熵减，

leading to a new Big Bang. 語法

从而引发一次新的大爆炸。

Three,

第三，

Big Crunch and Big Bounce.

大挤压与大反弹。

This is the most uplifting scenario.

这是最令人振奋的设想。

If there is less dark energy than we think or it decreases over time,

如果暗能量比我们想象的要少，或者它随时间衰减，

gravity will be the dominating force in the universe one day.

那么总有一天引力会成为宇宙中的主导力量。

In a few trillion years,

几万亿年后，

the rate of expansion of the universe will slow down and stop. 短語動詞

宇宙的膨胀速度将会减缓并停止。

After that,

之后，

it reverses.

它发生逆转。

Galaxies will race at each other,

星系将冲向彼此，

merging as the universe becomes smaller and smaller.

随着宇宙变得越来越小而发生合并。

Since a smaller universe also means a hotter universe,

因为更小的宇宙也意味着更热的宇宙，

temperatures rise everywhere all at once.

各个地方的温度同时飙升。

100,000 years before the Big Crunch,

在大挤压发生前10万年，

background radiation would be hotter than the surfaces of most stars,

背景辐射的温度将超过大多数恒星的表面温度，

which means that they would be cooked from the outside. 用詞

这意味着它们会被从外面烤熟。

Minutes before the Big Crunch happens,

在大挤压发生前几分钟，

atom cores are ripped apart

原子核被撕裂，

before supermassive black holes devour everything.

随后超大质量黑洞吞噬一切。

Finally,

最终，

all black holes would merge into a supermassive mega black hole

所有黑洞会合并成一个超大质量的巨型黑洞，

that contains the entire mass of the universe.

它包含了宇宙的全部质量。

And in the last moment before the Big Crunch,

而在大挤压发生前的最后一刻，

it would devour the universe,

它将吞噬整个宇宙，

including itself.

包括它自己。

The Big Bounce theory states that this has happened a lot of times, 語法

大反弹理论认为，这种情况已经发生过很多次，

and that the universe goes through an infinite cycle of expansion and contraction. 短語搭配

宇宙正经历着膨胀与收缩的无限循环。

Well,

哎呀，

wouldn't that be nice? 語氣意圖

那样不是很好吗？

So what will actually happen to the universe in the end?

那么宇宙最后到底会怎样呢？

At the moment,

目前看来，

heat death seems the most likely. 語法

热寂似乎是最可能的。

But we at Kurzgesagt hope that this dead forever stuff is wrong, 用詞

但我们在Kurzgesagt希望这种永远死亡的说法是错的，

and the universe will start over and over again. 講解

宇宙能够一次又一次地重新开始。

We don't know for sure either way.

我们无法确定哪一种才是真的。

So let's just assume the most uplifting theory is true. 語氣意圖

所以我们就假设最令人振奋的理论是对的吧。

By the way, 表達脈絡

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