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The winter solstice events at Maeshowe demonstrate
梅萧韦古墓葬的冬至事件
an intimate and precise knowledge of
展现了古人
the sun's movements through the sky.
对太阳运行轨迹的精确了解
It was the first step on ourjourney to understand
若说了解太阳及太阳对我们的诸多影响
the sun and its many effects on us.
是一趟旅程，那么这是第一步
To complete that journey we've had to travel to
要完成这趟旅程
the furthest depths of space
我们必须远赴太空的最深处
and to the heart of the smallest atom.
及探入最小原子的核心
And with every closer look the sun has always surprised us.
每一次近距离观察太阳，就多一次惊喜
To our ancestors,
对我们的祖先而言
its power was its reliability.
太阳的力量代表它的恒定
Always on time. Never changing.
永不迟到，永不改变
But the reality is proving to be very different.
但事实则大不相同
Most people think of the sun as quite a boring,
大多数人都认为太阳是个无聊
constant sort of thing,but in fact it's not at all,
恒常的东西
it's changing all the time,
事实不然，它无时无刻不在变化
and if you look you can see those changes on a matter
只要仔细观察就会发现
of minutes or hours.
改变往往发生在几分钟或几小时内
And it's far from static and boring,
太阳绝对不是一个静止或无聊的东西
it, it's changing and it's got a life of its own.
太阳时时刻刻都在变化，而且自有其生命力
Modern solar observatories magnify and filter the sun's light,
现代太阳观测站能放大及过滤日光
to get past the constant glare,
穿透太阳发出的眩光
and give a clear view of the surface.
让我们清楚看到太阳表面
This is the actual face of the sun.
这才是太阳的真面目
It is turbulent and boiling.
动荡、沸腾
Never the same from one second to the next the surface bubbles
瞬息万变
like a giant bowl of porridge.
太阳表面像一大碗粥般地冒着泡泡
Each bubble is a 1000 miles across.
每个泡泡的直径都有一千哩
The heat and light brought to the surface
太阳表面的温度因光和热
raises its temperature to 6000 degrees centigrade.
而升高至摄氏六千度
Enough to vaporise solid rock.
连岩石都能汽化
And the sun is huge.
太阳体积庞大
You could fit the Earth inside it a million times over.
足以容纳一百万个地球
Periodically huge explosions rip through the surface,
大规模的爆炸，会定期撕裂太阳表面
releasing the energy of a billion atomic bombs in seconds.
在数秒中内释放相当于十亿颗原子弹的能量
All this is on the surface.
这一切都发生在太阳表面
To understand the sun we must know what is going on deep inside.
想要了解太阳就必须厘清其深处所发生的事情
That is where the power is generated.
太阳的力量来自内部
So for centuries scientists have been devising ways
数世纪以来，科学家为了探索太阳的核心
to probe the heart of the sun.
想出许多方法
Some of them have been complex and some of them are very simple.
有的方法十分复杂，有的则十分简单
And the first step is to figure out just how powerful the sun is.
第一步是搞清楚，太阳的力量究竟有多大
