萬物簡史 第40期:埃文斯牧師的宇宙(9)

It was he who coined the term "Big Bang," in amoment of facetiousness, for a radio broadcast in1952. He pointed out that nothing in ourunderstanding of physics could account for whyeverything, gathered to a point, would suddenly anddramatically begin to expand.

是他1952年在一篇廣播稿中開玩笑地創(chuàng)造了大爆炸這個名字。他指出，我們在理解物理學的時候，怎么也解釋不了為什么一切會聚合成一點，然后又突然戲劇性地開始膨脹。

Hoyle favored a steady-state theory in which the universe was constantly expanding andcontinually creating new matter as it went. Hoyle also realized that if stars imploded they wouldliberate huge amounts of heat—100 million degrees or more, enough to begin to generate theheavier elements in a process known as nucleosynthesis. In 1957, working with others, Hoyleshowed how the heavier elements were formed in supernova explosions. For this work, W. A.Fowler, one of his collaborators, received a Nobel Prize. Hoyle, shamefully, did not.

霍伊爾贊成恒穩(wěn)態(tài)學說，該學說認為宇宙在不斷膨脹，在此過程中不斷創(chuàng)造新的物質?；粢翣栠€意識到，要是恒星發(fā)生爆聚，便會釋放出大量熱量--溫度在1億攝氏度以上，足以在被稱之為核合成的過程中產生較重的元素。1957年，霍伊爾和別人一起，展示重元素是如何在超新星的爆炸中形成的。由于這項工作，他的合作者W.A.福勒獲得了諾貝爾獎。霍伊爾則沒有，很難為情。

According to Hoyle's theory, an exploding star would generate enough heat to create all thenew elements and spray them into the cosmos where they would form gaseous clouds—theinterstellar medium as it is known—that could eventually coalesce into new solar systems.With the new theories it became possible at last to construct plausible scenarios for how wegot here. What we now think we know is this.

根據霍伊爾的理論，一顆爆炸中的恒星會釋放出足夠的熱量來產生所有的新元素，并把它們?yōu)⒃谟钪胬?。這些元素會形成氣云--就是所謂的星際媒介--最終聚合成新的太陽系。有了這些理論，我們終于可以為我們怎么會來到這個世界的問題構筑一個貌似有理的設想。我們現在認為自己知道的情況如下。