毀滅宇宙的三種方式：英語精讀講義

One day the universe will die.

有一天，宇宙將會死亡。

But why?

但是為什麼？

And how?

又會怎樣發生？

And will the universe be dead forever?

宇宙會永遠死亡嗎？

And how do we know that?

我們又是如何知道的呢？

First of all, 表達脈絡

首先，

the universe is expanding.

宇宙正在膨脹。

And not only that, 表達脈絡

不僅如此，

the rate of its expansion is accelerating.

其膨脹速度還在加快。

The reason?

原因是？

Dark energy.

暗能量。

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

科學家認為暗能量是一種瀰漫在宇宙中的奇異現象。

Until 1998,

直到1998年，

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

我們還以為宇宙的運作方式有點像個球，

that you throw into the sky.

就是你拋向天空的那個。

The ball moves up,

球往上升，

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

但到了某個時候它肯定會落下來。

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

但是宇宙的膨脹實際上正在加速。

That's like throwing a ball up

這就像把一個球拋向天空，

and watching it fly away faster and faster and faster. 文法

然後看著它越來越快、越來越快地飛走。

Where is this acceleration coming from?

這種加速度是從哪裡來的呢？

Well,

好吧，

we don't know.

我們也不知道。

But we call it dark energy. 文法

但我們稱之為暗能量。

Einstein thought of it first,

愛因斯坦最先想到了它，

and then decided it was stupid.

後來又認為這太愚蠢了。

Now,

現在，

astrophysicists have decided it is plausible.

天體物理學家認為這說得通。

Trouble is, 表達脈絡

問題是，

this is all very theoretical,

這些都非常理論化，

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

實際上我們並不知道暗能量的特性是什麼。

But there are various theories,

但有各種各樣的理論，

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

它們為我們引出了宇宙終結的三種可能場景。

One,

第一，

the Big Rip.

大撕裂。

Since its birth, 文法

宇宙自誕生以來，

the universe has been expanding.

就一直在膨脹。

For unknown reasons,

出於未知的原因，

new space is created everywhere equally.

每一處都在均等地創造出新的空間。

The space between galaxies expands,

星系之間的空間不斷膨脹，

so they move apart. 片語動詞

所以它們越離越遠。

The space inside galaxies also expands,

星系內部的空間也在膨脹，

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

但這裡的引力足夠強大，能把它們維繫在一起。

In the Big Rip scenario,

在大撕裂的情景中，

the expansion accelerates up to a point 文法

膨脹會加速到一個臨界點，

where space expands so fast 文法

屆時空間膨脹得太快，

that gravity can't compensate for this effect anymore.

以至於引力再也無法抵消這種效應。

The result is a Big Rip.

結果就是大撕裂。

At first,

起初，

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

只有像星系這樣的大型結構會被撕裂，

since space between the single objects expands very fast.

因為單一物體之間的空間膨脹得非常快。

Next,

接下來，

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

像黑洞、恆星和行星這樣的大質量天體也會消亡。

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

它們的引力不足以將自身維繫在一起，

so they dissolve into their components. 片語搭配

所以它們會解體成原本的組成部分。

In the end,

最終，

space would expand faster than the speed of light.

空間的膨脹速度將超過光速。

Atoms would now be affected,

這時原子也會受到影響，

and they would just disband.

它們直接就散架了。

Once space is expanding faster than light, 文法

一旦空間的膨脹速度超過光速，

no particle in the universe

宇宙中的任何粒子

can interact with any other particle anymore.

都無法再與其他任何粒子發生相互作用。

The universe would dissolve into countless lonely particles 慣用語

宇宙將分解成無數孤獨的粒子，

that won't be able to touch anything else

它們將無法接觸任何其他東西，

in a strange timeless universe.

存在於一個奇異的沒有時間概念的宇宙中。

Hmm.

嗯。

And you thought you felt lonely. 語氣意圖

虧你還覺得自己很孤獨。

Two,

第二，

heat death,

熱寂，

or a Big Freeze.

或者叫大凍結。

In a nutshell, 慣用語

簡而言之，

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

大撕裂和熱寂的區別在於，

in a heat death scenario,

在熱寂的情景下，

matter stays intact

物質保持完好，

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

並在一段漫長但有限的時間內

into radiation while the universe expands forever.

轉化為輻射，而宇宙則永遠膨脹下去。

But how does this work?

這到底是怎麼發生的呢？

Let's talk about entropy. 表達脈絡

我們來談談熵。

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

每個系統都趨向於最高熵的狀態。

Like when we have a latte macchiato.

就像我們喝一杯拿鐵瑪奇朵。

Initially,

一開始，

it has different regions,

它有不同的層次，

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

但隨著時間的推移，它們會冷卻並瓦解，直到完全均勻。

And this also applies to the universe.

這同樣適用於宇宙。

So while the universe gets bigger and bigger, 文法

所以當宇宙變得越來越大時，

matter slowly decays and spreads out. 片語動詞

物質會慢慢衰變並消散。

At some point,

到了某個時候，

after lots of generations of stars,

在無數代恆星之後，

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

形成恆星所需的所有氣體雲都將耗盡，

so the universe will turn dark.

因此宇宙將會變暗。

The remaining suns will die.

剩下的恆星將會消亡。

Black holes will slowly degenerate and evaporate over trillions of years

幾兆年後，黑洞會慢慢退化並蒸發，

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

這就是所謂的霍金輻射。

When this process is complete,

當這個過程結束時，

only a dilute gas of photons and light particles remains

只剩下由光子和光粒子組成的稀薄氣體，

until even this decays.

直到連這些也衰變掉。

All activity in the universe ceases at this point.

此時宇宙中的所有活動都將停止。

Entropy is at its maximum,

熵達到了極大值，

and the universe is dead forever.

宇宙就永遠死亡了。

Unless,

除非，

theoretically,

理論上來說，

it might be possible that 文法

可能會有這種情況：

after an incredibly long amount of time,

在經歷了極其漫長的時間之後，

there might be a spontaneous entropy decrease

也許會由於一種叫做量子穿隧的現象，

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

導致自發性的熵減，

leading to a new Big Bang. 文法

從而引發一次新的大爆炸。

Three,

第三，

Big Crunch and Big Bounce.

大擠壓與大反彈。

This is the most uplifting scenario.

這是最令人振奮的設想。

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

如果暗能量比我們想像的要少，或者它隨時間衰減，

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

那麼總有一天引力會成為宇宙中的主導力量。

In a few trillion years,

幾兆年後，

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

宇宙的膨脹速度將會減緩並停止。

After that,

之後，

it reverses.

它發生逆轉。

Galaxies will race at each other,

星系將衝向彼此，

merging as the universe becomes smaller and smaller.

隨著宇宙變得越來越小而發生合併。

Since a smaller universe also means a hotter universe,

因為更小的宇宙也意味著更熱的宇宙，

temperatures rise everywhere all at once.

各個地方的溫度同時飆升。

100,000 years before the Big Crunch,

在大擠壓發生前10萬年，

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

背景輻射的溫度將超過大多數恆星的表面溫度，

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

這意味著它們會被從外面烤熟。

Minutes before the Big Crunch happens,

在大擠壓發生前幾分鐘，

atom cores are ripped apart

原子核被撕裂，

before supermassive black holes devour everything.

隨後超大質量黑洞吞噬一切。

Finally,

最終，

all black holes would merge into a supermassive mega black hole

所有黑洞會合併成一個超大質量的巨型黑洞，

that contains the entire mass of the universe.

它包含了宇宙的全部質量。

And in the last moment before the Big Crunch,

而在大擠壓發生前的最後一刻，

it would devour the universe,

它將吞噬整個宇宙，

including itself.

包括它自己。

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

大反彈理論認為，這種情況已經發生過很多次，

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

宇宙正經歷著膨脹與收縮的無限循環。

Well,

哎呀，

wouldn't that be nice? 語氣意圖

那樣不是很棒嗎？

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

那麼宇宙最後到底會怎樣呢？

At the moment,

目前看來，

heat death seems the most likely. 文法

熱寂似乎是最可能的。

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

但我們在 Kurzgesagt 希望這種永遠死亡的說法是錯的，

and the universe will start over and over again. 講解

宇宙能夠一次又一次地重新開始。

We don't know for sure either way.

我們無法確定哪一種才是真的。

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

所以我們就假設最令人振奮的理論是對的吧。

By the way, 表達脈絡

順帶一提，

we have a Twitter account.

我們有 Twitter 帳號。