(单词翻译:单击)
Whether it's Star Trek, Stargate, Babylon 5,
无论是《星际迷航》、《星际之门》、还是《巴比伦5》，
wormholes have been showing up in science fiction for a long time.
虫洞出现在科幻片中已经有很长一段时间了。
They're just this super convenient tunnel to another part of the universe;
它们是通往宇宙另一端的超便捷通道，
a way for sci-fi writers to send their characters across huge distances in the blink of an eye.
一种科幻小说家眨眼间让他们的角色跨过遥远距离的方法。
And it turns out that they're not just science fiction: wormholes could really exist.
事实证明虫洞不只存在于科幻片中，它们可能真实存在。
But if they do, they're much weirder than anything we could make up.
但如果它们真得存在，会比我们编造的任何东西都奇怪。
In physics, a wormhole is known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge.
在物理学中，虫洞被称为爱因斯坦-罗森桥。
It's named after Albert Einstein and another physicist, Nathan Rosen.
它是以阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦和另一位物理学家内森·罗森的名字命名的。
They came up with the idea together in 1935,
他们在1935年共同提出了这个想法，
and showed that according to the general theory of relativity, wormholes are a definite possibility.
表明根据广义相对论，虫洞很有可能存在。
A wormhole acts like a tunnel between two different points in spacetime, which is,
虫洞就像时空中两个不同点之间的隧道，
you know, just the continuum of space and time that makes up the fabric of the universe.
你知道的，时空是空间和时间的连续体，它构成了宇宙结构。
According to general relativity, gravity works by bending spacetime.
根据广义相对论，引力能够使时空弯曲。
Planets and stars act like a weight in the fabric of the universe, creating a curve.
行星和恒星就像是宇宙结构中的砝码，创造出了一条曲线。
It can be kind of hard to picture what spacetime is,
我们可能很难想象时空的样子，
let alone what it would mean for it to bend,
更不用说它的弯曲了，
so physicists often talk about it by using weights on a stretched bedsheet as an analogy.
所以物理学家们经常将它和在拉直的床单上放砝码作类比。
Earth would be like a big bowling ball making a big dip in the sheet,
地球就像一个大保龄球，让床单陷下去好多，
and when something gets too close to the planet and it's pulled in by the gravity,
当物体离地球太近时，它会受其重力牵引，
it's like it's falling into that dip in the sheet.
就像它正掉进被单里。
We're just all falling down into the dip in spacetime that the Earth makes,
我们都陷入了地球创造的时空里，
and that's why I'm not floating away.
这就是我漂不走的原因。
But if spacetime can be curved, it can also be twisted and shaped in other ways,
但如果时空可以被弯曲，它也可以用其他方法扭曲变形，
like by connecting two different places with a tunnel.
比如用隧道连接两个不同的地方。
It's kind of like poking two holes into that bedsheet, folding it over,
这有点儿像在床单上戳两个洞，把床单折起来，
and then stretching the fabric so the edges of the holes can get together,
然后拉床单使孔的边缘对齐，
and you just sew them into a tunnel.
再把洞缝进隧道里。
That's a wormhole. In a bedsheet.
这就是床单上的虫洞。
But because wormholes don't seem to violate the laws of physics does not mean that they actually exist;
虫洞似乎不违反物理定律，但并不意味着它们实际存在，
they're just technically possible.
它们只是理论上可能存在。
And unfortunately, we haven't yet detected any, and we aren't even sure how they would form.
不幸的是，我们还没探测到任何虫洞，我们也不确定它是如何形成的。
If wormholes do exist, one reason we might not have spotted them is that they could be hiding behind black holes.
如果虫洞存在，而我们又没有发现，一个原因可能是它们藏在了黑洞背面。
A black hole is what happens when there's so much mass squeezed into an object
黑洞是在大量物质挤进一个物体时发生的，
that it ends up with such a strong force of gravity that even light can't escape its pull.
它拥有强大的引力，甚至光都不能逃脱。
Once you get too close to a black hole, you're toast:
你一旦靠近黑洞就完了，
there's no escaping being smushed into oblivion.
绝不会逃过湮没的下场。
In the bedsheet model, black holes and wormholes look very similar,
在床单模型中，黑洞和虫洞看起来非常相似，
they both have a steep falloff that seems to go on forever.
它们似乎都有一个永无止境的深洞，
Except, with a wormhole, the steep drop actually leads somewhere.
区别在于虫洞通向某地。
According to general relativity, wormholes could have black holes at each end,
根据广义相对论，虫洞两端可能有黑洞，
meaning that after diving into a black hole on one end,
这意味着一旦从一端深入黑洞，
the energy that was once your body could get spewed out somewhere totally different in the universe.
曾是你身体的能量就会从宇宙的不同地方喷出。
Of course, you would not survive that trip.
当然，这个过程你是不可能存活的。
All that would be left is radiation and subatomic particles.
剩下的东西只有辐射和亚原子粒子。
So, I can't see anyone volunteering to test that out anytime soon.
所以，我看不到任何志愿者在短期内进行测试。
Then there are white holes, which are the opposite of black holes:
然后就是与黑洞完全相反的白洞：
They spew out matter with such force that it would be impossible to enter them.
它们喷出物质所用的力让物体进不去。
If black holes are infinite weights on a bedsheet,
如果黑洞是床单上无限重的砝码，
white holes would be like hills:objects pushing up on the bedsheet.
那么白洞就像小山，是床单上堆高的物体。
Like wormholes, these are a thing that could exist, the math does check out, we're just not sure how they'd form.
和虫洞一样，有一种东西可能存在，而且数学上能够检验出来，但我们不确定它是如何形成的。
But we know that if they exist, they could be found at either end of a wormhole, too.
但我们知道如果它们存在，它们也可能在虫洞的两端找到。
So, maybe if there was a black hole at one end of the wormhole and a white hole at the other,
所以，虫洞的一端可能是黑洞，另一端是白洞，
we could go in the black hole end, and be blasted out the white hole end. Maybe.
我们可以从黑洞一端进入，从白洞一端迸发出来。或许吧。
But you'd still probably be crushed by the black hole in the process.
但你仍可能在这一过程中被黑洞压碎。
Not to mention it would definitely be a one-way trip.
更不必提这肯定是一次单程旅行了。
And there are a few other problems with wormholes:
关于虫洞还有几个问题：
For one thing, they'd probably be dangerous.
首先，它们可能很危险。
Sudden unexpected collapse, weird exotic particles, a ton of radiation...it's not a vacation spot.
意外的突然坍塌、奇异的外来粒子、大量的辐射...它不是旅游景点。
In fact, travelling through a wormhole could instantly collapse it, because they'd probably be unstable.
事实上，穿越虫洞的旅行会立刻使它崩溃，因为它们可能很不稳定。
And then there's the fact that wormholes might not be a shortcut at all.
还有一个事实，虫洞可能根本不是一条捷径。
A random wormhole could easily be a longer-than-normal path.
一个随机的虫洞很容易成为比正常路径更长的路。
Size is also a problem. A real-life wormhole could be too small for us to travel through.
大小也是个问题。现实生活中的虫洞可能太小，我们无法穿越。
Not to mention the travel time, which could be millions or billions of years,
更不用说旅行时间了，可能是几百万年或几十亿年，
making some wormholes pretty useless.
这使得一些虫洞相当无用。
So, that's a lot of problems.
所以，问题很多。
The biggest hope actually comes from how little we know.
最大的希望源于我们的无知。
A lot of this depends on physics that we haven't quite worked out yet,
这在很大程度上取决于我们还没有完全解决的物理问题，
or on facts about our universe's history and geometry that we just don't know for sure.
或者是我们不确定的宇宙历史和几何结构。
Once we have all that figured out, the final barrier would be technology and opportunity.
一旦我们将这些搞清楚，最后的障碍就是技术和机遇了。
Right now, we definitely don't know how to make a wormhole,
现在，我们肯定不知道怎么制造虫洞，
and we'd have to be super lucky to find one that was useful to us, if they exist at all.
如果它们存在的话，我们必须非常幸运地找到一个对我们有用的。
So, it's pretty clear that we won't be sliding through any wormholes anytime soon.
因此，很明显我们不能很快得滑行于任何虫洞中。
But we know that they could be out there, hiding in some of the most extreme places in the universe.
但我们知道它们可能存在，藏于宇宙中某些最极端的地方。
And who knows? Maybe our ideas about wormholes will be totally different in the future.
谁知道呢？或许我们对于虫洞的想法与未来毫不相同。
People living just a few hundred years ago couldn't have even imagined particle accelerators or YouTube videos.
几百年前的人们还无法想象粒子加速器或YouTube视频呢。
And the possibility of a future like Stargate,
像《星际之门》一样，未来可能
where you just "dial in" a few symbols and walk into another world halfway across the galaxy, sounds pretty awesome.
你只“拨入”几个符号，就走进了另一个横跨银河系的世界，听起来很了不起。
Let's keep writing TV shows about it.
我们继续写这样的电视节目吧。
Until then, we will keep exploring the universe right here at home.
在此之前，我们将继续在地球上探索宇宙。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space!
感谢收看本期的太空科学秀！
If you are interested in learning more about sci fi space travel,
如果你想学习更多的科幻太空旅行，
you can check out our video on photonic propulsion.
你可以看看我们关于光子推进的视频。
