霍金:短時間內不會發現外星人

Will humanity find intelligent alien life anytime soon? Probably not, according to theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

人類會在不久之後發現外星的高級生物嗎？據著名理論物理學家史蒂芬·霍金推測這不太有可能。

Hawking made the prediction last Tuesday during the Breakthrough Starshot announcement in New York City. At the news conference, Hawking, along with Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner and a group of scientists, detailed a new project that aims to send a multitude of tiny, wafer-size spaceships into space to the neighboring star system Alpha Centauri.

霍金是在上週二於紐約市進行的關於“突破攝星”計劃的演講中做出的該預測。在新聞發佈會上，霍金和俄羅斯億萬富翁投資人尤里·米爾納以及許多科學家一起，對這個全新的太空項目進行詳細講解。該項目計劃建造大批微型星際飛船，並將其發射至臨近的半人馬座阿爾法星。

If these tiny spaceships travel at 20 percent the speed of light, they'll be able to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years, Milner said. Once there, the spacecraft will be able to do a 1-hour flyby of Alpha Centauri and collect data that's impossible to gather from Earth, such as taking close-up photos of the star system, probing space dust molecules and measuring magnetic fields, said Avi Loeb, chairman of the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee and a professor of science at Harvard University.

米爾納表示，如果這些微型星際飛船能夠以1/5的光速行駛，那麼它們就有望在20年之內到達阿爾法星。“突破攝星”計劃顧問委員會會長兼哈佛大學科學領域的專家艾維·勞埃伯提到，一旦到達阿爾法星附近，飛船將可以繞其進行一小時的近飛探測，並收集一些地球上無法獲得的數據資料。例如拍攝阿爾法星表面的近照，探索太空中的塵埃顆粒以及測量周圍的電磁場等等。

In addition to learning about space technology, the audience wanted to hear about aliens — specifically, when scientists might find them.

除了想了解太空技術之外，在場的觀衆們還特別迫切地想聽到關於外星人的相關消息，尤其是關於科學家們何時能夠發現外星人這一話題。

Hawking took questions from reporters in advance so that he would have time to prepare his answers.

霍金事先從記者那裏獲取了相關問題，以便有充足的時間來準備如何回答。

Hawking said it's not likely that scientists will find intelligent alien life in the next 20 years. "The probability is low, probably," he said.

霍金表示，在未來二十年內，科學家發現外星生命的可能性微乎其微。“這種可能性非常小。”他說道。

But the cosmologist did mention one caveat.

但是這位宇宙學家卻在此提出了一次警告。

"The discoveries of the NASA Kepler mission suggest that there are billions of habitable planets in our galaxy alone," Hawking said. "There are at least a hundred billion galaxies in the visible universe, so it seems likely that there are others out there."

霍金說道：“NASA開普勒計劃的相關發現表明：僅在我們的銀河系內就存在着數十億顆可以居住的行星。宇宙中至少存在上百億個銀河系，所以存在外星生命的可能性還是非常大的。”

Hawking has famously predicted that intelligent aliens might threaten humankind. Indeed, when asked yesterday about what Earthlings should do if we come across intelligent alien life, he said, "We should hope that they don't find us."

霍金曾經做過著名的預測，即外星生命很可能對人類生存產生威脅。當霍金被問到如果地球人真的遇見外星生物了應該如何應對這一問題，他表示：“我們應該祈禱他們不要發現我們。”