Discovering the Universe’s best kept secrets 水下望遠鏡探索宇宙奧秘

本集內容

學習要點

有關 “science（科學）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

Which Russian lake is this telescope being dropped into?

文字稿

This is the world’s biggest underwater telescope – plunging into the world’s deepest waters to discover some of the tiniest particles known to man.

這是世界上最大的水下望遠鏡，潛入世界上最深的水域，探索人類已知的最小微粒。

This massive space telescope is what it takes to detect the Universe’s best kept secrets – neutrinos – also nicknamed ‘ghost particles’.

科學傢們需要用這臺大型太空望遠鏡來探測宇宙中最隱蔽的秘密，即中微子，別名 “幽靈粒子”。

Made of strings, glass and stainless steel, Russian scientists are plunging it more than 700 metres into Russia’s Lake Baikal.

這臺望遠鏡由細線、玻璃和不銹鋼制成，俄羅斯的科學傢們正在把它投入俄羅斯貝加爾湖700多米深的地方。

Bair Shaiybonov, Senior Researcher, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
Lake Baikal is perhaps the only lake where a neutrino telescope can be deployed due to its depth. We need the greatest possible depth, over a kilometre. Fresh water is also important for its transparency. And we also have an ice covering lasting two to two and a half months, which is very important for the deployment of the telescope.

拜爾·沙伊博諾夫杜佈納聯合核子研究所高級研究員
“貝加爾湖可能是唯一一個可以安置中微子望遠鏡的湖泊，因為它很深。我們需要盡可能深，超過一千米深。淡水也很重要，因為它的透明度高。此外，貝加爾湖面一年中有兩到兩個半月被冰層覆蓋，這對望遠鏡的安置來說非常重要。”

So why go to all this effort? Neutrinos are subatomic particles, and while there are plenty in the Universe, they’re very hard to detect.

為什麼要如此大費周折？中微子是次原子粒子，雖然宇宙中有大量中微子，但它們很難被探測到。

Scientists are hoping that by capturing the elusive neutrinos, they’ll be able to better understand the Universe – finding out how it came to be and how it’s evolved to what we know today.

科學傢們希望，通過捕捉這些難以找到的中微子，他們能夠更好地瞭解宇宙，並探索宇宙的誕生及演變至今的過程。

It seems some of the Universe’s biggest secrets are locked in a tiny package.

宇宙中的一些最重大的秘密似乎就藏在毫厘之間。