Our compass points across the cosmos
我们的方向指向宇宙
back in time 14 billion years
回到140亿年前
to the moment of creation.
创世的那一刻
This is getting scary.
此情此景开始让人害怕
It's like being inside a giant video game
就像置身于一个巨大的视频游戏
But these are all too real.
但这些也是真实的
Asteroids, some of them hundreds of miles wide
小行星,其中有些有数百英里宽
This one must be about 20 miles long.
这个约有20英里长
And there, perched on it, a space probe.
你看,上面有个空间探测器
Can't have been easy
降落在一个时速达5万英里
parking on an asteroid traveling at 50,000 miles an hour.
的小行星上可不是件容易的事
It's a lot of effort just to investigate some rubble.
我们一直在努力研究这些碎石
Rubble that regularly collides
碎石之间经常碰撞
breaks up and rains down on Earth as meteorites.
碎片后来落在地球上,就形成了地球上看到的陨石
Our ancestors saw shooting stars as magical omens.
我们的古人把流星雨看做是魔法的征兆
And they were right
他们是对的
Rubble like this came together to make the planets
就是这样一些碎石聚在一起就会形成行星
including our own
包括我们的地球
Pretty magical.
多美的魔法
By dating the meteorites found on Earth
通过测定地球上发现的陨石年龄
we can tell the planets were born 4.6 billion years ago.
我们知道行星诞生于45亿年前
These are the birth certificates of our solar system.
这些殒石是我们太阳系的出生证明
For some reason, these rocks didn't form into a planet
但有些原因导致这些岩石没有形成行星
Something must have stopped them
一定是什么阻止了他们
Something powerful.
某种强大的力量
Jupiter.
木星
What a monster
犹如巨大的怪物
At least a thousand time bigger than Earth
至少比地球的大1000倍
so vast you could fit all the other planets inside it
大到可以装下太阳系其它所有行星
Something this massive dominates its neighbors
木星的巨大体积对它周围产生很大的影响
Its gravity is pulling the asteroids apart
它的引力正在把这些小行星形成扯开
And it's breathtaking
真是美极了
But this beauty is a beast.
但这个美人是个巨兽
It's almost all gas.
木星几乎都是由气体构成的
Land here and we'd sink straight through its layers into oblivion.
如果在这里着陆,我们会径直穿过它的外层一去不复返
And Jupiter's good looks?
木星的美丽面孔是
The product of ferocious violence
它极端狂暴的产物
It's spinning at an incredible rate
木星自转极快
whipping up winds to hundreds of miles an hour
卷起时速数百英里的飓风
contorting the clouds into stripes eddies, whirlpools
把云层扭曲成条状和大大小小的漩涡
and this, the legendary Great Red Spot
这就是传说中的大红斑
The biggest, most violent storm in the solar system.
它是太阳系中最大、最猛烈的风暴
At least three times the size of Earth, it's been raging for over 300 years
至少有地球的3倍大,已经肆虐了超过300年了