探測神秘的“暗物質(zhì)”

Look up at the skies and you see stars. But this telescope in the deserts of Chile is able to see the Universe as it really is, filled with a mysterious substance called dark matter. It can't be seen ­– but this instrument can detect dark matter by the way it distorts starlight.

仰望夜空，你會看到繁星點點。但這座位于智利沙漠中的望遠鏡能夠看到宇宙的真實面貌，里面充滿了一種神秘的物質(zhì)，被稱作 “暗物質(zhì)”。雖然暗物質(zhì)不可見，但這臺儀器可以通過暗物質(zhì)扭曲星光的方式來探測到它。

Professor Ofer Lahav, University College London

This is a map of matter in the Universe.

奧弗·拉哈夫教授 倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院

“這是宇宙物質(zhì)的地圖。”

And that's allowed astronomersto produce this map of how it's spread across the expanse of space.

這得以讓天文學(xué)家們繪制出了這張地圖，展現(xiàn)了暗物質(zhì)在無盡的太空中的分布情況。

Professor Ofer Lahav, University College London

It's an element of, you know, unveiling mystery – something you couldn't see before, and suddenly it's there. And you think – wow!

奧弗·拉哈夫教授 倫敦大學(xué)學(xué)院

“這就好比揭開了一個謎團，你以前看不到的東西突然出現(xiàn)在眼前。你會稱奇道絕！”

Pallab Ghosh, BBC Correspondent

So what is dark matter – and where is it in space? Well, let's start off with our own sun. It's one of a hundred billion stars that make up our galaxy– the MilkyWay. Which, in turn, is one of countlessothers throughout the Universe. Dark matter permeatesspace, with galaxieslike tiny gemson a tangledcosmic web.

帕拉布·戈什 BBC通訊員

“什么是暗物質(zhì)呢？它處于太空中的什么位置？讓我們從恒星太陽說起。太陽是構(gòu)成我們銀河系中的千億顆恒星之一。銀河系繼而也是宇宙中無數(shù)的星系之一。太空中到處都是暗物質(zhì)，而星系就像是鑲嵌在錯綜復(fù)雜的宇宙網(wǎng)上的一顆顆小寶石。”

The bright areas are where dark matter is most concentrated, and it's here that galaxies form. But the map is not what astronomers expected – the matter should be slightly more clumpedtogether. Instead, it's smoother than predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which helps determine how the matter should have spread out after the Big Bang.

亮處是暗物質(zhì)最集中的地方，星系就是在這里形成的。但這張地圖并不如天文學(xué)家所預(yù)期的那樣，圖中的物質(zhì)本應(yīng)稍微更聚集在一起。相反，它比愛因斯坦的廣義相對論所預(yù)期得更平滑，廣義相對論幫助確定了物質(zhì)在大爆炸后應(yīng)如何分布。

Dr Niall Jeffrey, Ecole Normale Superieure

If the structures in this map are smoother than we expect them to be, which is what the results seem to hint at, it means that Einstein's theory is wrong. So you might think that is a bad thing, that maybe ‘oh no physics is broken', but for a physicistit's extremely exciting, because it means that we can find out something new about the way the Universe really is.

奈爾·杰弗里博士 巴黎高等師范學(xué)院

“如果這張地圖中的結(jié)構(gòu)比我們預(yù)期得要平滑，結(jié)果似乎也暗示了這一點，那就意味著愛因斯坦的理論是錯誤的。你可能認(rèn)為這是一件壞事，也許會想：哦，物理學(xué)會徹底瓦解的，但對一名物理學(xué)家來說，這是極其令人振奮的，因為這意味著我們可以發(fā)現(xiàn)一些有關(guān)宇宙本質(zhì)的新認(rèn)知。”

Building on the work of Einstein, Carlos Frenk was among a group of scientists that developed the current model of cosmology.

卡洛斯·弗倫克的工作建立在愛因斯坦的理論基礎(chǔ)之上，他是其中一位研發(fā)了當(dāng)前宇宙學(xué)模型的科學(xué)家。

Professor Carlos Frenk, Durham University

Hearing now that there may be something not quite right with the theory is very disconcerting. It' s very alarming – and in a way frightening to see that maybe my whole life's work might crumblein front of me. But at the same time, it is immensely exciting.

卡洛斯·弗倫克教授 杜倫大學(xué)

“現(xiàn)在聽到愛因斯坦的理論可能有不太正確的地方，非常令人不安。這很嚇人，在某種程度上，看到自己畢生的工作可能就要在我面前灰飛煙滅，是很可怕的。但與此同時，這也非常令人興奮。”

Astronomers believe that we are at the start of a new revolution in cosmology that will give us a fuller understanding of how the Universe began – and how it will evolve.

天文學(xué)家相信，我們正處于宇宙學(xué)新革命的開端，這將使我們更全面地了解宇宙的起源，以及它將如何演變下去。