Juna Kollmeier: The most detailed map of galaxies, black holes and stars ever made
朱娜 · 柯邁耶: 有史以來最詳細的星系、黑洞、恆星圖
Using all the techniques known to astronomy -- mathematics, computers and data from telescopes on the ground and in space -- Juna Kollmeier seeks to understand how the universe formed by mapping stars, galaxies and black holes at scale. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
I was afraid of the dark.
outside of my bedroom
turned to curiosity.
我對黑暗的恐懼變成了好奇。
is something that's fascinated humans
人類一直在試圖了解黑暗,
of their attempts to map the sky.
發現先民嘗試繪製的天空圖。
有 3 萬多年歷史。
that it's a carving of Orion
in ancient China.
foot in the middle --
that you're looking at the Moon phases
也能認出這是月相,
that's the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters.
昴宿星團,又稱七姊妹星。
mapping the sky for a long time.
一直試圖描繪天空。
as a species in the galaxy
我們人類的特點就是理解事物。
against the darkness.
going to engage in this battle,
three essential elements.
that are giving off light,
that are collecting that light,
what that light is.
the Moon phases over time
your more basic telescope.
what that means with your brains,
of your more basic instruments.
extremely precisely.
一千顆恆星的地圖。
the front line to the battle.
and his buddy, or his assistant, really,
泰谷.布拉赫和他的夥伴,
約翰尼斯.克卜勒做的事。
is just infinite, which it is,
事實也的確如此,
在有限的範圍打贏這場仗。
with one or two of your besties.
而且技藝精湛的軍隊,
can accomplish the extraordinary.
完成非凡的任務。
of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, SDSS.
巡天專案,簡稱 SDSS。
to shepherd individual curiosity
天文學家們就藉此
to make discoveries
to truly advance the frontier.
來真正地擴展疆界。
into three mappers:
分割成三個區域來探索:
depending on how you count,
換個算法可能變成 11 個、
plus or minus a few hundred billion stars.
誤差可能就有幾千億。
that you hold in your head.
make practical sense
都沒有實際的意義。
in your hand. You know?
2500 億顆糖,對吧?
all of those stars yet.
我們還差得很遠。
the most interesting ones.
6 百萬顆恆星的位置。
the age of a star,
spread all throughout the Milky Way.
and fossil record of our galaxy
銀河系的歷史和化石記錄。
right to the chase here.
objects in the universe.
math incarnate, in a physical form,
然後以實體的形式存在。
and walking around the corridors here.
在這裡的走廊走來走去。
擠壓成一個小點,密度變得很大,
and it's super dense and that's weird.
and we know that now.
about black holes
by studying the material
黑洞一去不返的「極限點」,
of no information return.
and optical and UV and radio waves.
可見光、紫外線和無線電波。
how these objects grow.
half a million supermassive black holes,
超過 50 萬個超大黑洞。
you guys are all familiar with that.
average galaxy.
and all the Milky Ways,
以及所有的銀河系,
amount of energy.
how does this transformation happen?
這種變化是怎麼發生的?
to the bellies of the beast
這個怪物的內部,
where they are occurring
grows up into Ward Cleaver.
如何變成普通人。
hosts the Sloan telescope in New Mexico,
設置的史隆望遠鏡,
telescope, the du Pont.
is the size of our mirror,
它其實並不大,
on these old telescopes
舊望遠鏡上裝了新儀器,
of those objects into our aperture,
都捕捉到光圈哩,
at the focal plane,
and process that light.
entirely robotic.
全自動化機器人。
the Blade Runners among you,
of each telescope in each hemisphere.
都有 500 個這個儀器。
galaxies, black holes.
as we pass over them
機器人移動至視野中的觀測物上,
and black holes, and yes,
that black holes are weird.
黑洞本來就是很怪的東西。
in our cosmic backyard.
在我們星系附近爆炸的恆星。
map the sky one time.
to each part of the sky multiple times
每個部分我們都會觀測多次,
these objects change over time.
隨著時間的變化。
encode the physics,
are growing and changing.
millions of objects, mow the sky,
數百萬個觀測物、望遠鏡掃天空、
一定是個先進的大團隊,
industrial machine going,
lone wolf genius," right?
沒甚麼發展空間。」對吧?
曾是一名荷蘭教師,
versions of the SDSS data,
incredibly rare type of object,
and by mandate from the Sloan Foundation,
由史隆基金會的授權,
對,是應該鼓掌,
a fancy astrophysicist to participate.
了不起的天文物理學家也能參與。
"Can moons have moons?"
「月亮可以有月亮嗎?」
four-year-olds over all of time
都問過這個問題。
didn't know the answer.
也不知道答案。
that can host hypothetical submoons.
理論上可能有子衛星的衛星。
that there are so many basic questions
基本問題仍待回答。
important point about SDSS.
the black holes, the robots --
on a rubble pile
一個普通的恆星,
上面住著一種不起眼的生物,
in a totally average galaxy
to understand their world.
in large surveys since about 1980.
所觀測到的星系數量。
2000 年左右啟動。
in the observable universe by 2060.
可觀測宇宙中每一個大星系的圖。
from arranging clamshells
我們已經從排列蛤殼,
in a few thousand years --
再到現在的 SDSS。
of our right to understand our universe.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Juna Kollmeier - Theoretical astrophysicistUsing all the techniques known to astronomy -- mathematics, computers and data from telescopes on the ground and in space -- Juna Kollmeier seeks to understand how the universe formed by mapping stars, galaxies and black holes at scale.
Why you should listen
As she tells it, Juna Kollmeier believes "all humans have an inalienable right to know about their world. For the past two decades, I have been studying the cosmos -- from planets to galaxies to black holes. I am currently making a new map of the sky -- the fifth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey."
Led to a career in astrophysics by "a STEM camp in Michigan," Kollmeier is currently an astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Her research focuses on the emergence of structure in the universe on multiple scales and how the tiny fluctuations in density that were present when the universe was only 300,000 old became the stars, galaxies and black holes that we see now. Her goal is to complete this new SDSS sky map and to make sure these data remain available to the public for study.
Juna Kollmeier | Speaker | TED.com