We've come to America's Deep South, not far from New Orleans.
我们来到了美国的最南部,离新奥尔良不远的地方。
These are the famous bayou swamplands of Louisiana.
这里是路易斯安那州著名的河口沼泽。
It's out here that scientists are trying to peer deep into the darkest and most brutal corners of the universe.
在这里,科学家正在努力紧盯着宇宙间最黑暗,最暴戾的角落。
Louisiana's one of those places that you always think of as being...
路易斯安那是一个你一直认为是……
well, laden with black magic and things, certainly not a rational exploration of the universe.
充满着魔法和事情不断的地方,当然不是合理的宇宙探索之地。
In these alligator-infested backwoods,
在这些鳄鱼出没的荒芜之地,
the final piece in the puzzle of Einstein's universe is being put to the test.
爱因斯坦的宇宙之谜的最后片段正在接受测试。
This place stands at the leading edge of the exploration of gravity.
这个地方处于引力探索的领先地位。
it's really what we want to do here...
这就是我们想做的事……
Joe Giami is the head man.
Joe Giami是这里的领导人。
Gravity will probably and hopefully confuse us for a long time before we figure out what it really is,
引力的可能与希望困扰着我们很长时间了,直到我们解决它究竟是怎么回事为止,
and scientists are happy when confused and chasing something fun.
科学家在困扰时、在追求某些感兴趣的东西时是幸运的。
Rising out of the swamp in the shape of a giant L,
巨大的L形冒出沼泽,
this is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory or LIGO, for short.
这是激光干涉仪引力波天文台,简称LIGO。
Any signal we see is gonna be from something really, really interesting and cool.
我们看到的所有信号是来自很有趣和很酷的地方。
Data from those sources would be valuable to learn things about gravity and nature gravity.
来自那些源头的数据对研究引力及其性质很有价值。
This machine was built as an observatory,
这部机器作为一座天文台,
a chance to witness violent galactic events beyond anything we've ever seen before.
有机会见证我们以前从没见到过的剧烈的星系事件。