加納利群島上的夢

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

My name is Maggie Aderin-Pocock， and Im an astrophysicist. As a child， I would look into the night sky and wonder what was out there， if there was another planet like ours. Its a question weve been asking for thousands of years. A question theyre trying to answer here at La Palma in the Canary Islands.

Im here because this mountaintop is home to one of the worlds best telescopes. This is the GTC， the Gran Telescopio Canarias. It acts as a time machine， and its so powerful， it can look back to the beginning of the universe.

The images captured by the GTC are 1）mesmerising. From majestic spiral galaxies to star-forming 2）nebula， the detail and clarity is [sic] extraordinary. But theres a much deeper purpose to this telescopes work. Its searching for one of astronomys holy grails—another planet similar to Earth. In its hunt for other worlds，the telescope doesnt see the planets themselves， theyre too far away. But an 3）exoplanet， a planet outside our solar system， can be detected by a 4）dip in light as it passes in front of its sun.

Riccardo Scarpa （Astronomer）： And here is a graph of an exoplanet.

Maggie： Where is this exoplanet？ Is it an Earth-like exoplanet？

Riccardo： It is an exoplanet orbiting a star in the 5）constellation Lynx at about 150 light years away.

The dip in the graph is the moment the exoplanet 6）eclipses its sun. And this one is the size of Jupiter. But its planets that are in orbits like ours that are more likely to sustain life.

Riccardo： The technique is evolving in order to find smaller and smaller planets， so eventually we will find the Earth-size planets.

我叫瑪姬·艾德林-波科克，是一名天體物理學(xué)家。小的時候，我就喜歡看著夜空，想象著那里有什么，是否還存在著跟地球一樣的另一個星球。過去幾千年人類一直在探求這個問題的答案，在加納利群島的拉帕爾馬島，也有一群人在嘗試解答同樣的問題。

我來到這是因為這座山頂上有世界上最好的天文望遠(yuǎn)鏡之一——加納利大型望遠(yuǎn)鏡，簡稱GTC。它就像時光機(jī)一樣，威力強(qiáng)大，能回望宇宙的起源。

GTC拍攝到的影像都有一種攝人心魄的美。從宏偉的螺旋星系到孕育恒星的星云，畫面的細(xì)致度和清晰度都很出色。但這座望遠(yuǎn)鏡還有著更深層的作用，它在尋找著天文學(xué)家們夢寐以求的東西——另一個“地球”。當(dāng)GTC探尋其他星球時，并不能直接看到星球，因為它們太遙遠(yuǎn)了。但對于太陽系以外的行星，也就是系外行星，我們還是可以在它運行到自己恒星的前方而導(dǎo)致恒星光度減弱時發(fā)現(xiàn)它的蹤跡。

里卡度·斯卡帕（天文學(xué)家）：這是一顆系外行星的圖像。

瑪姬：這顆系外行星在哪？是一顆類地行星嗎？

里卡度：這是天貓座中的一顆按軌道繞行恒星的系外行星，離我們約150光年遠(yuǎn)。

圖表中數(shù)值下降的區(qū)域是這顆木星大小的系外行星遮擋住自身恒星的時刻。只有那些像地球一樣按軌道運行的星球才更有可能讓生命得以延續(xù)。

里卡度：我們的技術(shù)在不斷地進(jìn)步，以求能觀測到更小的星球，最終我們會發(fā)現(xiàn)地球大小的行星。