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Hey there! Welcome to Life Noggin.
大家好！欢迎来到脑洞大开的生命奇想。
Black holes are some of the strangest places in the universe. They are points in space where gravity is so strong, nothing can escape their pull.
黑洞是宇宙中最奇特的地方。它们是太空中的点，引力强大，没有什么能逃脱它们的引力。
Most black holes are created when a dying star runs out of fuel. If the star is large enough, it starts to collapse in on itself.
大多数黑洞是在恒星耗尽燃料时产生的。如果恒星足够大，它就会开始坍塌。
As its matter is compressed, it becomes so tightly packed into such a small space that its gravitational force becomes huge -- and I mean really huge.
由于它的物质被压缩，它被紧密地压缩到很小的空间，引力因而变得巨大——我的意思是非常巨大。
Black holes can pull in planets, stars... and even light cannot escape their grasp.
黑洞可以吸入行星，恒星……甚至光也无法逃脱。
The Milky Way alone contains up to a billion of these so-called stellar black holes -- stellar, because they are formed by collapsing stars, and also, I assume, because they're awesome.
银河系本身包含了多达10亿个所谓的恒星黑洞——说是恒星黑洞，是因为它们是由坍缩的恒星形成的，而且，我认为，是因为它们太棒了。
They range in mass but are formed from stars that are at least 3 times the mass of our sun. And it's the mass that counts, not the size.
它们的质量不尽相同，但它们是由至少3倍太阳质量的恒星形成的。质量才是最重要的，大小不重要。
If a star the mass of the Earth somehow became a black hole, it would end up being only the size of a marble! Imagine holding the entire mass of the earth in the palm of your hand.
如果一颗恒星与地球质量差不多，变成了一个黑洞，那么它最终只能是一块大理石的大小！想象一下，把地球的全部重量放在你的手掌上。
Of course, you couldn't really do that because the extreme gravitational pull would destroy you...along with your house, and your neighborhood, and the entire planet. Let's move on.
当然，你不能这么做，因为极端的地心引力会毁灭你…还有你的房子，你的邻居，还有整个星球。我们言归正传。
But there is something even larger than a stellar black hole. Supermassive black holes can be millions or even billions of times as massive as our sun.
但是还有比恒星黑洞更大的东西。超大质量黑洞的质量可能是太阳的几百万倍甚至数十亿倍。
They can result from stars crashing into each other or smaller black holes merging together.
它们可能是由恒星相撞或小黑洞合并而成的。
Astronomers think it's likely that every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center -- even the Milky Way.
天文学家认为，每个星系的中心可能都有一个超大质量的黑洞——甚至银河系也有。
So, should we be worried that we'll suddenly be sucked into a black hole and torn apart? Well, we're ok for now.
那么，我们是否应该担心我们会突然被卷入黑洞并被撕碎？好吧，我们现在还很好。
The closest supermassive black hole to us, Sagittarius A, is 26,000 light years away. And you can't be pulled in unless you get really close to one.
离我们最近的超大质量黑洞，人马座A，距离我们26000光年。除非非常接近，否则你不会被拉进去的。
For example, if our sun were to somehow become a black hole, it would still have the same mass, just condensed, and Earth would continue orbiting it like normal.
例如，如果我们的太阳变成一个黑洞，它质量不会变，只是体积变小，地球会照常绕着它运行。
Of course, we'd probably miss the solar radiation. But what if we did encounter a black hole? What happens inside of one?
当然，我们可能会失去太阳辐射。但如果我们遇到黑洞呢？里面发生了什么？
Every black hole contains an event horizon, the point of no return, after which nothing can escape.
每一个黑洞都包含一个视界，到这一点就不能返回，没有任何东西可以逃脱。
Inside of this is the singularity -- the place where the star has collapsed down until it has zero volume and infinite density.
在这里面是奇点——在这里恒星坍塌，直到它的体积为零，密度为无穷大。
Since everything past the event horizon disappears, it's really hard for us to know what's going on in the singularity. Maybe it's a huge party being thrown and I wasn't invited.
既然过了视界一切都消失了，我们就很难知道奇点到底发生了什么。也许是一个巨大的派对，我没有收到邀请。
In fact, because black holes don't emit anything on their own, we've never actually seen one. We only know about them because of how they affect the matter around them.
事实上，因为黑洞本身不会发射任何东西，所以我们从来没有看见过它们。我们只知道它们是如何影响周围事物的。
When the gases and dust of nearby galaxies get pulled into the event horizon, the atoms gain energy and heat up.
附近星系的气体和尘埃被吸入视界时，原子就会获得能量并升温。
This causes them to emit radiation that we can read here on Earth. Using this radiation, astronomers plan to create the first-ever image of a black hole!
这样它们就能发出辐射，我们可以在地球上看到。利用这种辐射，天文学家计划绘制出第一个黑洞图像！
This isn't the kind of picture you'd snap on your phone and share on Instagram.
这不是你在手机上拍的照片，也不是在Instgram上分享的照片。
Instead, 12 teams around the world will set up radio telescopes calibrated to the same frequency -- 230 gigahertz -- all pointed at our supermassive black hole neighbor, Sagittarius A star.
世界各地的12个团队架起无线电望远镜，校准到相同频率——230千兆赫——都指向我们超大质量的黑洞邻居——人马座A星。
Their data will be pieced together as if it came from one giant, earth-sized radio telescope.
他们的数据可以整理在一起，就好像来自一个巨大的、地球大小的射电望远镜。
If it works correctly, researchers think we'll be able to see the ring of radiation around Sagittarius A star.
研究人员认为如果它能正常工作，我们将能够看到围绕人马座A星的辐射圈。
So, although we won't technically "see" the black hole itself, we'll essentially be able to see its outline and the dark shadow that the black hole casts on the radiation.
所以，虽然我们不会真的“看到”黑洞本身，但我们基本上可以看到黑洞的轮廓和黑洞投射在辐射上的阴影。
This experiment could help us finally confirm that black holes do exist.
这个实验可以帮助我们最终确认黑洞确实存在。
It could also be used to study how black holes change over time, how their magnetic fields work, and even how they destroy materials.
它还可以用来研究黑洞是如何变化的，它们的磁场是如何运转的，以及它们是如何破坏材物质的。
It's going to take quite a few months to get the data processed, so look for results in 2018.
要处理这些数据需要几个月的时间，所以2018年再看结果吧。
But when it's done, good ol' Sagittarius A star will be the "star" of the show. I just hope it's ready for its close-up. Interesting question here.
不过到时候，人马座A星将成为“明星”。我只希望它已经准备好接受特写拍摄了。有几个有趣的问题。
What would you most want to take a picture of in space? A black hole? A distant planet? Let me know in the comments section below!
你最想在太空拍些什么？黑洞吗？还是遥远的行星？请在下面的评论部分告诉我！
So we talked about black holes, but are you curious to know how a planet dies? Well then, you should check out this video.
所以我们讨论了黑洞，但是你想知道行星是如何死亡的吗？来看一下这个视频吧！
Nowadays, Mars is a cold, dry, and dusty planet with temperatures averaging around -63 degrees Celsius. But it wasn't always like that.
如今，火星是一个寒冷、干燥、尘土飞扬的星球，平均气温在零下63摄氏度左右。但事实并非总是如此。
In fact, billions of years ago, it's thought that Mars had rivers and lakes and potentially even oceans.
事实上，人们认为，数十亿年前，火星上有河流、湖泊，甚至还有海洋。
My name is Blocko. This has been Life Noggin. Don't forget to keep on thinking!
我是宝高，这里是脑洞大开的生命奇想。思考不要停！
