NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in an astronomy class.

旁白：请听一段天文学课上的讲座。

MALE PROFESSOR:So your reading assignment focused on the technology… telescopes… and how they’ve changed astronomy.

教授：你们的阅读的作业重点讲了技术、望远镜以及它们如何改变了天文学。

And there was a section on the Hooker telescope… So why was the Hooker telescope so important?

有一个部分讲到了胡克望远镜。那么为什么胡克望远镜如此重要呢？

Let’s talk about that before we move on to some of the newer technologies.

在继续讨论一些较新的技术之前，让我们先讨论一下这个问题。

Now back in the 1920s, the Hooker telescope was the most powerful telescope in the world.

现在，回到十九世纪二十年代，胡克望远镜是世界上最强大的望远镜。

And through it we could see, see for the first time, that the universe extends far, far beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

通过它，我们第一次看到宇宙延伸很远，远远超出了银河系。

We could see that there are multiple galaxies beyond it… and all these galaxies are moving away from one another.

我们可以看到在它之外还有多个星系，所有这些星系都在彼此远离。

So multiple galaxies… moving away from each other… led to the theory…

所以多个星系相互远离导致了理论…

MALE STUDENT：The big bang theory?

学生：大爆炸理论？

MALE PROFESSOR：Exactly. And that theory, that 15 billion years ago an explosion started the expansion of the universe, well, at the time that was a pretty revolutionary idea.

教授：没错。这理论认为150 亿年前的爆炸开启了宇宙的膨胀，嗯，在当时，这是一个非常具有革命性的想法。

MALE STUDENT：And the Hooker telescope was responsible for that?

学生：这是由胡克望远镜带来的发现。

MALE PROFESSOR：Yes, because it allowed us to see that far, and being able to see that far led to, well it led to the big bang theory…

教授：是的。因为它让我们看得那么远。而且能看到那么远就导致了…？它导致了大爆炸理论。

But let’s move on. The reading assignment discussed another tool for scanning the universe: the interferometer.

但让我们继续。阅读作业讨论了另一种扫描宇宙的工具——干涉仪。

Claudia, what can you tell me about interferometers?

克劳迪奥，你能告诉我干涉仪是什么吗？

FEMALE STUDENT：OK. An interferometer is a machine, made of two or more conventional telescopes.

学生：好的，干涉仪是由两个或多个传统望远镜组成的机器。

I think the example they gave in the book was made from six?

我记得书中给出的例子是由六个组成的。

And they’re spread out; they’re not right next to each other.

而且它们分散开来。它们不是紧挨着的。

And then the light, the starlight that those telescopes gather, travels through pipes to some computers, and then the computers put all the light together to make one image.

然后这些望远镜收集的光，星光通过管道传输到计算机，然后计算机将所有光合成一张图像。

MALE PROFESSOR：OK. Good. Although, maybe that explanation is a bit simplistic.

教授：很好。虽然这个解释可能有点简单。

There may be a thousand or so meters of pipe carrying the starlight from the telescopes to the computers.

可能有一千米左右的管道将星光从望远镜传送到计算机里。

And then getting all those components to work together, to synchronize, so the light from all the different telescopes reaches the computers at exactly the same time, that’s the challenge of working with interferometers.

然后，让所有的星光同步起作用，于是来自所有不同望远镜的光会同时到达计算机，这就是使用干涉仪的挑战。

What else can you tell me, what’s the advantage here, Paul?

还记得有什么吗？保罗，这样做有什么优势？

MALE STUDENT：Alright, I think the idea isn’t that it sees farther, but that the image you see is a lot sharper. There’s more detail.

学生：我认为这个想法不是它看得更远，而是让看到的图像更清晰，有更多细节。

MALE PROFESSOR：A lot more detail. The image we get is something like 50 times finer than what you get with a single-mirror, conventional telescope.

教授：细节多了去了。得到的图像比使用单镜传统望远镜的成CC像要精细 50 倍。

So, why is that important?Now, think back a minute.

那么为什么这很重要？现在回想一下。

A couple weeks ago we looked at Castor, in the Gemini constellation. What do you remember about that?

几周前，我们研究了双子座中的Castor星。关于它，你们还记得什么内容？

FEMALE STUDENT：Well, through our telescope here, a conventional telescope, Castor looked like a single star, but you told us that it wasn’t.

学生：通过我们这里的，传统的望远镜，Castor 看起来像一颗恒星，但您告诉我们它不是。

It’s actually six stars orbiting, kind of dancing, around each other. Oh, I get it.

它实际上是六颗恒星围绕着彼此运转，像跳舞一样。哦，我明白了。

MALE STUDENT：And an interferometer would be able to see six separate stars?

学生：干涉仪能看到六颗不同的恒星吗？

MALE PROFESSOR：Yes. Remember, single stars like our Sun are the exception, not the rule. So more often than not you have two, three, or more stars clustered around each other, like Castor.

教授：是的。请记住，像我们的太阳这样的单恒星是例外，而不是普遍规则。所以通常情况下，你会有两颗、三颗或更多的恒星围绕在一起，就像蓖麻星一样。

Not only that, but even a star’s dimensions, um, a conventional telescope won’t tell you, you can’t determine a star’s dimension because you can’t tell exactly how far away it is.

不仅如此，连恒星的尺寸，传统的望远镜都不能测出来，你无法确定恒星的尺寸，因为无法准确地知道它有多远。

And there are other things as well: How do stars behave as they age?

还有其他的问题。随着年龄变大，恒星的行为会有什么变化？

Why do they cluster together? What was our Sun like in the past? Can we predict giant flares or periods of dimming?

为什么它们会聚集在一起？过去我们的太阳是什么样子的？我们能预测巨大的耀斑或变暗期吗?

And interferometers will certainly help us find planets, and of course the more planets you find, the greater the possibility of finding planets that may support life.

干涉仪肯定会帮助我们找到一些行星，当然，你找到的行星越多，发现能够支持生命的行星的可能性就越大。

MALE STUDENT：So do you think interferometers will have the kind of impact the Hooker telescope had?

学生：那么您觉得干涉仪会有胡克望远镜那种影响吗？

MALE PROFESSOR：I doubt it. Remember, big bang was a really revolutionary theory.

教授：我不这么想。记住，大爆炸是一个真正革命性的理论。

But then again, if an interferometer is used to locate a planet that supports life… well that’s another story altogether.

但是话又说回来，如果使用干涉仪确定了一颗真正支持生命的行星，那就另当别论了。