TED2007
Carolyn Porco: This is Saturn
Carolyn Porco poleti z nami na Saturn
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Strokovnjakinja za planete Carolyn Porco nam bo pokazala slike s Cassinijevega potovanja na Saturn. Osredotočila se bo na njegovo največjo luno Titan in zamrznjeni Enkelad, iz katerega se očitno dvigajo curki ledu.
Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientist
As the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons. Full bio
As the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:25
In the next 18 minutes, I'm going to take you on a journey.
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V naslednjih 18 minutah vas bom popeljala na potovanje
00:28
And it's a journey that you and I have been on for many years now,
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po poti, po kateri skupaj hodimo že mnogo let.
00:33
and it began some 50 years ago, when humans first stepped off our planet.
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Začela se je pred okrog 50 leti, ko so ljudje prvič stopili z našega planeta.
00:39
And in those 50 years, not only did we literally, physically set foot on the moon,
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V teh 50 letih nismo samo dobesedno stopili na Luno,
00:46
but we have dispatched robotic spacecraft to all the planets -- all eight of them --
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ampak smo tudi poslali robotska vesoljska plovila do planetov -- vseh osmih,
00:53
and we have landed on asteroids, we have rendezvoused with comets,
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pristali smo na asteroidih, srečali smo se s kometi
00:57
and, at this point in time, we have a spacecraft on its way to Pluto,
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in prav v tem trenutku je na poti vesoljsko plovilo, ki se bo srečalo s Plutonom,
01:02
the body formerly known as a planet.
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telesom, ki je pred časom veljalo za planet.
01:05
And all of these robotic missions are part of a bigger human journey:
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Vse te robotske misije so del večjega potovanja človeka,
01:11
a voyage to understand something, to get a sense of our cosmic place,
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ki smo ga začeli, da bi razumeli naše mesto v vesolju,
01:18
to understand something of our origins, and how Earth, our planet,
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razumeli od kod izviramo in kako je nastala Zemlja, planet
01:23
and we, living on it, came to be.
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na katerem živimo, in z njim mi.
01:25
And of all the places in the solar system that we might go to
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Od vseh mest v našem osončju, kamor bi lahko odšli
01:28
and search for answers to questions like this,
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iskat odgovore na takšna vprašanja,
01:32
there's Saturn. And we have been to Saturn before --
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smo izbrali Saturn. Tam smo že bili --
01:35
we visited Saturn in the early 1980s --
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Saturn smo obiskali v zgodnjih 80-ih letih --
01:38
but our investigations of Saturn have become far more in-depth in detail
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vendar pa je naše raziskovanje Saturna postalo dosti bolj poglobljeno in podrobno,
01:43
since the Cassini spacecraft, traveling across interplanetary space
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odkar je vesoljsko plovilo Cassini po sedmih letih potovanja skozi
01:47
for seven years, glided into orbit around Saturn in the summer of 2004,
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medplanetarni prostor poleti 2004 prijadralo v tirnico okoli Saturna
01:53
and became at that point the farthest robotic outpost
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in s tem postalo najbolj oddaljeno robotsko oporišče,
01:56
that humanity had ever established around the Sun.
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ki ga je človeštvo kadarkoli postavilo okoli Sonca.
01:59
Now, the Saturn system is a rich planetary system.
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Saturnov sistem je bogat planetarni sistem.
02:04
It offers mystery, scientific insight and obviously splendor beyond compare,
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Ponuja skrivnosti, znanstvena spoznanja in seveda tudi lepoto brez primerjave.
02:11
and the investigation of this system has enormous cosmic reach.
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Raziskovanje tega sistema je nadvse pomembno za naše razumevanje kozmosa.
02:15
In fact, just studying the rings alone, we stand to learn a lot
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Samo od študija prstanov si obetamo veliko novih spoznanj
02:19
about the discs of stars and gas that we call the spiral galaxies.
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o diskih zvezd in plinov, ki jih imenujemo spiralne galaksije.
02:24
And here's a beautiful picture of the Andromeda Nebula,
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Tukaj je čudovita slika Andromedine galaksije,
02:26
which is our closest, largest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way.
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ki je Rimski cesti najbližja večja spiralna galaksija.
02:30
And then, here's a beautiful composite of the Whirlpool Galaxy,
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In tukaj je čudovita montaža galaksije Vrtinec,
02:33
taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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ki jo je posnel Hubblov vesoljski teleskop.
02:35
So the journey back to Saturn is really part of and is also a metaphor
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Tako je potovanje nazaj do Saturna v resnici del, pa tudi metafora
02:41
for a much larger human voyage
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za veliko večje potovanje človeka,
02:43
to understand the interconnectedness of everything around us,
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s katerim želimo razumeti medsebojno povezanost vsega okoli nas
02:47
and also how humans fit into that picture.
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in tudi kakšno mesto imamo v tem ljudje.
02:50
And it pains me that I can't tell you all that we have learned with Cassini.
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Žalosti me, da vam ne morem povedati vsega, kar smo se naučilli s Cassinijem --
02:57
I can't show you all the beautiful pictures that we've taken
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ne morem vam pokazati vseh čudovitih fotografij, ki smo jih naredili
03:00
in the last two and a half years, because I simply don't have the time.
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v zadnjih dveh in pol letih, zato ker preprosto nimam dovolj časa.
03:03
So I'm going to concentrate on two of the most exciting stories
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Zaradi tega se bom osredotočila na dve najbolj razburljivi zgodbi,
03:07
that have emerged out of this major exploratory expedition
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ki sta se razvili iz te velike raziskovalne ekspedicije,
03:11
that we are conducting around Saturn,
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ki jo izvajamo v okolici Saturna
03:13
and have been for the past two and a half years.
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že dve leti in pol.
03:16
Saturn is accompanied by a very large and diverse collection of moons.
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Saturn spremlja velika in raznovrstna skupina lun.
03:20
They range in size from a few kilometers across to as big across as the U.S.
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Njihove velikosti segajo od nekaj kilometrov v premeru, do velikosti, primerljivih z ZDA.
03:25
Most of the beautiful pictures we've taken of Saturn, in fact,
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Večina čudovitih slik, ki smo jih posneli, v resnici
03:28
show Saturn in accompaniment with some of its moons. Here's Saturn with Dione,
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prikazuje Saturn skupaj z nekaterimi izmed lun. Tukaj sta Saturn in Diona
03:33
and then, here's Saturn showing the rings edge-on,
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in tukaj je Saturn, s prstani z roba,
03:36
showing you just how vertically thin they are, with the moon Enceladus.
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kjer lahko vidite kako tanki pravzaprav so, z luno Enkelad.
03:40
Now, two of the 47 moons that Saturn has are standouts.
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Dve od 47 Saturnovih lun izstopata.
03:45
And those are Titan and Enceladus. Titan is Saturn's largest moon,
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To sta Titan in Enkelad. Titan je Saturnova največja luna
03:50
and, until Cassini had arrived there,
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in preden je Cassini prispel tja,
03:52
was the largest single expanse of unexplored terrain
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je predstavljal največjo enotno površino neraziskanega terena,
03:56
that we had remaining in our solar system.
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ki je ostala v našem Osončju.
04:00
And it is a body that has long intrigued people who've watched the planets.
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To je telo, ki je dolgo burilo domišljijo ljudi, ki so opazovali planete.
04:04
It has a very large, thick atmosphere,
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Ima zelo veliko, gosto atmosfero
04:08
and in fact, its surface environment was believed to be
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in v resnici smo verjeli, da so razmere na njegovem površju
04:12
more like the environment we have here on the Earth,
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bolj podobne tem, ki jih imamo na Zemlji, oziroma vsaj,
04:16
or at least had in the past, than any other body in the solar system.
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kakršne smo imeli v preteklosti, kot na kateremkoli drugem telesu v osončju.
04:20
Its atmosphere is largely molecular nitrogen, like you are breathing here in this room,
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Njegovo ozračje je večinoma molekularni dušik, ravno tak, kot ga trenutno
04:25
except that its atmosphere is suffused with
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vdihavate v tej sobi, s to razliko, da je njegova atmosfera nasičena
04:27
simple organic materials like methane and propane and ethane.
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s preprostimi organskimi snovmi, ko so metan, propan in etan.
04:31
And these molecules high up in the atmosphere of Titan
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Te molekule visoko v atmosferi Titana
04:34
get broken down, and their products join together to make haze particles.
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razpadajo in produkti tega razpada se spajajo v meglene delce.
04:39
This haze is ubiquitous. It's completely global and enveloping Titan.
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Ta megla je vseobsežna in univerzalna ter popolnoma obdaja Titan.
04:44
And that's why you cannot see down to the surface
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In to je vzrok, zakaj površja ne morete videti
04:47
with our eyes in the visible region of the spectrum.
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s prostimi očmi v vidnem delu spektra.
04:49
But these haze particles, it was surmised,
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Vendar pa smo domnevali,
04:52
before we got there with Cassini, over billions and billions of years,
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še pred prihodom Cassinija, da bi lahko ti megleni delci skozi miljarde let
04:56
gently drifted down to the surface and coated the surface
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nežno padali na površino in prekrili tla
05:00
in a thick organic sludge.
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z gosto organsko goščo.
05:01
So like the equivalent, the Titan equivalent, of tar, or oil, or what -- we didn't know what.
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Nekako tako kot Titanov ekvivalent katranu ali nafti ali -- nismo vedeli čemu.
05:08
But this is what we suspected. And these molecules,
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Ampak to je tisto, kar smo domnevali. In te molekule,
05:10
especially methane and ethane, can be liquids at the surface temperatures of Titan.
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še posebej metan in etan, lahko pri površinskih temperaturah na Titanu tvorijo tekočine.
05:19
And so it turns out that methane is to Titan what water is to the Earth.
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In tako se je izkazalo, da je metan na Titanu to, kar je voda na Zemlji.
05:24
It's a condensable in the atmosphere,
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Lahko se kondenzira v ozračju.
05:26
and so recognizing this circumstance brought to the fore
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In s tem spoznanjem smo dobili
05:31
a whole world of bizarre possibilities. You can have methane clouds, OK,
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cel svet nenavadnih možnosti. Imamo lahko metanove oblake
05:36
and above those clouds, you have this hundreds of kilometers of haze,
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in nad temi oblaki stotine kilometrov megle,
05:39
which prevent any sunlight from getting to the surface.
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ki preprečuje sončni svetlobi, da bi segla do površja.
05:41
The temperature at the surface is some 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
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Temperatura na površju je okoli 180 stopinj Celzija pod ničlo.
05:47
But despite that cold, you could have rain falling down on the surface of Titan.
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Vendar pa imamo lahko kljub mrazu na površju Titana dež.
05:53
And doing on Titan what rain does on the Earth: it carves gullies; it forms rivers
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Dež, ki ima na Titanu enako funkcijo kot na Zemlji. Dolbe struge, polni reke
05:56
and cataracts; it can create canyons; it can pool in large basins and craters.
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in doline. Lahko ustvari soteske, se nabere v velikih globelih in kraterjih.
06:03
It can wash the sludge off high mountain peaks and hills,
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Goščo s hribov in visokih gora lahko odplavi
06:06
down into the lowlands. So stop and think for a minute.
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v nižine. Ustavite se za trenutek in pomislite.
06:09
Try to imagine what the surface of Titan might look like.
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Poiskusite si predstavljati, kako bi lahko izgledala površina Titana.
06:13
It's dark. High noon on Titan is as dark as deep earth twilight on the Earth.
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Temno je -- opoldan je na Titanu tako temno kot ob mraku na Zemlji.
06:18
It's cold, it's eerie, it's misty,
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Mrzlo, grozljivo in megleno je.
06:20
it might be raining, and you might be standing
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Lahko dežuje in predstavljajte si, da stojite
06:23
on the shores of Lake Michigan brimming with paint thinner. (Laughter)
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na obali jezera Michigan, napolnjenega z razredčilom za barve.
06:27
That is the view that we had of the surface of Titan before we got there with Cassini,
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Takšna je bila predstava, ki smo jo imeli o površju Titana, preden je tja prispel Cassini
06:32
and I can tell you that what we have found on Titan, though it is not the same in detail,
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in lahko vam povem, da kljub temu, da to, kar smo tam našli, ni popolnoma takšno,
06:39
is every bit as fascinating as that story is.
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je še vedno prav tako razburljivo kot ta zgodba.
06:42
And for us, it has been like -- the Cassini people --
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In mi, člani Cassini ekipe,
06:44
it has been like a Jules Verne adventure come true.
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smo se počutili, kot da bi se uresničila avantura Julesa Verna.
06:48
As I said, it has a thick, extensive atmosphere.
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Kot sem omenila, atmosfera je gosta in obsežna.
06:50
This is a picture of Titan, backlit by the Sun, with the rings as a beautiful backdrop.
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To je slika Titana, ki ga od zadaj osvetljuje Sonce, obroči pa tvorijo čudovito ozadje.
06:55
And yet another moon there --
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In še ena luna je tam --
06:57
I don't even know which one it is. It's a very extensive atmosphere.
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pravzaprav niti ne vem katera. Zelo obsežna atmosfera.
07:00
We have instruments on Cassini which can see down to the surface
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Na Cassiniju imamo inštrumente, ki lahko vidijo skozi to atmosfero
07:03
through this atmosphere, and my camera system is one of them.
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do površine in moj sistem kamer je eden od njih.
07:07
And we have taken pictures like this.
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Posneli smo slike, kot je ta.
07:09
And what you see is bright and dark regions, and that's about as far as it got for us.
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Kar lahko vidite, so svetla in temna področja in to je približno vse, kar smo lahko posneli.
07:14
It was so mystifying: we couldn't make out what we were seeing on Titan.
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Bilo je tako skrivnostno -- nismo mogli ugotoviti, kaj smo videli na Titanu.
07:18
When you look closer at this region, you start to see things
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Ko začnete podrobno opazovati to področje, se začnejo razkrivati
07:23
like sinuous channels -- we didn't know. You see a few round things.
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stvari, ki izgledajo kot zaviti kanali. Nismo jih poznali. Vidimo nekaj okroglih stvari.
07:27
This, we later found out, is, in fact, a crater,
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Za tega smo kasneje ugotovili, da je v resnici krater.
07:29
but there are very few craters on the surface of Titan,
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Vendar je na površini Titana zelo malo kraterjev,
07:32
meaning it's a very young surface.
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kar pomeni, da je površina zelo mlada.
07:34
And there are features that look tectonic.
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In potem so tukaj lastnosti, ki so videti tektonskega izvora.
07:36
They look like they've been pulled apart.
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Kot da so bile potegnjene narazen.
07:38
Whenever you see anything linear on a planet,
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Kadarkoli vidite nekaj ravnega na planetu,
07:40
it means there's been a fracture, like a fault.
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pomeni da je to razpoka, kot prelomnica.
07:44
And so it's been tectonically altered.
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Tako je bil Titan tektonsko spremenjen.
07:46
But we couldn't make sense of our images,
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Vendar še vedno nismo našli smisla v naših slikah,
07:48
until, six months after we got into orbit,
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dokler ni preteklo šest mesecev od vstopa v orbito
07:52
an event occurred that many have regarded
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in se je zgodil dogodek, ki so ga mnogi pojmovali
07:54
as the highlight of Cassini's investigation of Titan.
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kot vrhunec Cassinijevega raziskovanja Titana.
07:57
And that was the deployment of the Huygens probe,
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To je bila odcepitev sonde Huygens,
08:00
the European-built Huygens probe that Cassini had carried
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sonde, ki je bila zgrajena v Evropi in katero je Cassini
08:03
for seven years across the solar system. We deployed it to the atmosphere of Titan,
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sedem let nosil preko sončnega sistema. Spustili smo jo v Titanovo atmosfero,
08:07
it took two and a half hours to descend, and it landed on the surface.
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za spust je potrebovala dve uri in pol, in pristala je na površju.
08:11
And I just want to emphasize how significant an event this is.
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Rada bi poudarila, kako pomemben dogodek je to.
08:15
This is a device of human making,
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To je naprava človeške izdelave,
08:18
and it landed in the outer solar system for the first time in human history.
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ki je prvič v zgodovini človeštva pristala v zunanjem Osončju.
08:22
It is so significant that, in my mind,
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Zame je to tako velik dogodek,
08:26
this was an event that should have been celebrated
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da bi ga morali praznovati
08:28
with ticker tape parades in every city across the U.S. and Europe,
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s paradami v vsakem mestu v ZDA in Evropi,
08:33
and sadly, that wasn't the case.
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a na žalost temu ni bilo tako.
08:35
(Laughter).
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(Smeh).
08:37
It was significant for another reason. This is an international mission,
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Pomemben je bil še z enega vidika. To je mednarodna odprava
08:40
and this event was celebrated in Europe, in Germany,
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in ta dogodek so praznovali v Evropi, v Nemčiji
08:43
and the celebratory presentations were given in English accents,
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in slovesne predstavitve smo lahko slišali v angleški angleščini,
08:47
and American accents, and German accents, and French and Italian and Dutch accents.
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ameriški angleščini, nemščini, francoščini, italijanščini in danščini.
08:53
It was a moving demonstration of what the words
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To je bil ganljiv vzor za to, kaj bi morale besede
08:57
"united nations" are supposed to mean:
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"Združeni narodi" v resnici pomeniti:
08:59
a true union of nations joined together in a colossal effort for good.
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resnično zvezo narodov, povezanih v veličastnem trudu za dobro.
09:05
And, in this case, it was a massive undertaking to explore a planet,
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In v tem primeru je bil to neznanski podvig v raziskovanju planeta
09:09
and to come to understand a planetary system
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z namenom razumeti planetarni sistem,
09:12
that, for all of human history, had been unreachable,
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ki nam je bil nedosegljiv skozi vso človeško zgodovino
09:16
and now humans had actually touched it.
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in sedaj so se ga ljudje dejansko dotaknili.
09:18
So it was -- I mean, I'm getting goose bumps just talking about it.
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Tako je bil to -- resnično, imam kurjo polt, pa samo govorim o njem --
09:22
It was a tremendously emotional event,
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neznansko čustven dogodek
09:24
and it's something that I will personally never forget, and you shouldn't either.
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in nekaj, česar ne bom nikoli pozabila, in česar tudi vi ne bi smeli.
09:29
(Applause).
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(Aplavz)
09:35
But anyway, the probe took measurements of the atmosphere on the way down,
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Kakorkoli, sonda je na poti navzdol naredila meritve atmosfere
09:38
and it also took panoramic pictures.
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in hkrati posnela tudi panoramske posnetke.
09:40
And I can't tell you what it was like to see the first pictures
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In ne morem vam opisati, kako je bilo, ko smo prvič videli slike
09:44
of Titan's surface from the probe. And this is what we saw.
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Titanovega površja s sonde. Videli smo tole.
09:48
And it was a shocker, because it was everything we wanted
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In bili smo pretreseni, ker smo videli vse, kar smo želeli,
09:51
those other pictures taken from orbit to be.
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da bi kazale ostale slike, ki smo jih posneli iz orbite.
09:53
It was an unambiguous pattern, a geological pattern.
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To je bil nezgrešljiv vzorec, geološki vzorec.
09:57
It's a dendritic drainage pattern that can be formed only by the flow of liquids.
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To je razvejan vzorec odtekanja, ki ga lahko ustvari samo tok tekočin.
10:02
And you can follow these channels
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In lahko sledite tem kanalom
10:04
and you can see how they all converge.
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in vidite, kako se vsi združujejo.
10:05
And they converge into this channel here, which drains into this region.
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In vsi se združijo v ta kanal tukaj, ki se steka v to področje tukaj.
10:09
You are looking at a shoreline.
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Kar vidite, je obala.
10:11
Was this a shoreline of fluids? We didn't know.
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Je to obala, ki meji na tekočino? Nismo vedeli.
10:14
But this is somewhat of a shoreline.
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Ampak to je nekakšna obala.
10:16
This picture is taken at 16 kilometers.
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Ta slika je posneta s 16 kilometrov.
10:18
This is the picture taken at eight kilometers, OK? Again, the shoreline.
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Ta slika z 8 kilometrov. Vidite? Zopet obala.
10:22
Okay, now, 16 kilometers, eight kilometers -- this is roughly an airline altitude.
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16 kilometrov, 8 kilometrov -- to je približno višina na kateri letijo letala.
10:27
If you were going to take an airplane trip across the U.S.,
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Če bi leteli z letalom čez ZDA,
10:30
you would be flying at these altitudes.
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bi leteli na taki višini.
10:32
So, this is the picture you would have at the window of Titanian Airlines
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Tak razgled bi torej imeli z letala družbe Titanian Airlines
10:36
as you fly across the surface of Titan. (Laughter)
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med letom preko Titanove površine. (Smeh)
10:39
And then finally, the probe came to rest on the surface,
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In potem se je sonda končno ustavila na površini
10:43
and I'm going to show you, ladies and gentlemen,
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in sedaj vam bom, dame in gospodje, pokazala
10:45
the first picture ever taken from the surface of a moon in the outer solar system.
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prvo sliko, ki je bila kadarkoli posneta na površini lune v zunanjem Osončju.
10:49
And here is the horizon, OK?
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In tukaj je horizont, vidite?
10:53
These are probably water ice pebbles, yes?
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To so verjetno prodniki iz vodnega ledu.
10:57
(Applause).
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(Aplavz)
11:02
And obviously, it landed in one of these flat, dark regions
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Očitno je pristala na enem od tistih ravnih, temnih področij
11:06
and it didn't sink out of sight. So it wasn't fluid that we landed in.
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in se ni takoj potopila, tako da očitno nismo pristali v tekočini.
11:11
What the probe came down in was basically
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Sonda je pristala v nečem, kar je v bistvu
11:14
the Titan equivalent of a mud flat.
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Titanov ekvivalent blatne ravnice.
11:17
This is an unconsolidated ground that is suffused with liquid methane.
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To so nestrjena tla, ki so prepojena s tekočim metanom.
11:22
And it's probably the case that this material
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Verjetno je bil ta material
11:25
has washed off the highlands of Titan
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odplavljen z višinskih predelov Titana
11:29
through these channels that we saw,
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preko kanalov, ki smo jih videli,
11:30
and has drained over billions of years to fill in low-lying basins.
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in je skozi miljarde let zapolnil nižje ležeče kotline.
11:34
And that is what the Huygens probe landed in.
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In to je bilo tisto, v čemer je pristal Huygens.
11:37
But still, there was no sign in our images,
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Vendar na slikah še vedno ni bilo,
11:41
or even in the Huygens' images, of any large, open bodies of fluids.
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tudi na slikah z Huygensa, sledu o kakršnihkoli velikih, odprtih tekočih telesih.
11:46
Where were they? It got even more puzzling when we found dunes.
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Kje so? Še bolj se je zapletlo, ko smo našli sipine.
11:51
OK, so this is our movie of the equatorial region of Titan,
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V redu, to je naš film ekvatorialnega predela Titana, ki kaže
11:54
showing these dunes. These are dunes that are 100 meters tall,
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te sipine. To so sipine, visoke 100 metrov,
11:57
separated by a few kilometers,
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nekaj kilometrov oddaljene med seboj
12:00
and they go on for miles and miles and miles.
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in se kilometre in kilometre vlečejo v dolžino.
12:03
There's hundreds, up to a 1,000 or 1,200 miles of dunes.
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Tam je na stotine, tudi do 1600 ali 2000 kilometrov sipin.
12:06
This is the Saharan desert of Titan.
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To je Sahara na Titanu.
12:09
It's obviously a place which is very dry, or you wouldn't get dunes.
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Očitno je to zelo suho območje, ker v nasprotnem primeru ne bi bilo sipin.
12:14
So again, it got puzzling that there were no bodies of fluid,
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Tako nas je zopet begalo dejstvo, da nikjer ni tekočin,
12:19
until finally, we saw lakes in the polar regions.
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dokler nismo končno zagledali jezer na polarnih območjih.
12:23
And there is a lake scene in the south polar region of Titan.
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In tukaj je posnetek jezera na južnem polarnem območju Titana.
12:27
It's about the size of Lake Ontario.
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Veliko je približno toliko kot jezero Ontario.
12:29
And then, only a week and a half ago,
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In potem, samo teden in pol po tem,
12:30
we flew over the north pole of Titan and found, again,
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smo leteli čez severni pol Titana in že spet našli
12:34
we found a feature here the size of the Caspian Sea.
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stvar, veliko kot Kaspijsko morje.
12:39
So it seems that the liquids, for some reason we don't understand,
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Tako je videti, da so tekočine, zaradi nam nerazumljivega razloga,
12:43
or during at least this season, are apparently at the poles of Titan.
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oziroma vsaj v tem letnem času, na polih Titana.
12:48
And I think you would agree that we have found Titan
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In mislim, da se strinjate, da je Titan v luči naših opazovanj
12:51
is a remarkable, mystical place. It's exotic, it's alien, but yet strangely Earth-like,
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neverjeten, mističen kraj. Je eksotičen, tuj, vendar tudi čudno podoben Zemlji,
12:58
and having Earth-like geological formations
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ker ima njej podobne geološke značilnosti
13:01
and a tremendous geographical diversity,
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in neverjetno geografsko raznolikost
13:05
and is a fascinating world whose only rival in the solar system
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in je privlačen svet, s katerim se lahko v Osončju
13:09
for complexity and richness is the Earth itself.
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v kompleksnosti in bogastvu meri le Zemlja.
13:12
And so now we go onto Enceladus. Enceladus is a small moon,
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In sedaj pojdimo na Enkelad. Enkelad je majhna luna,
13:17
it's about a tenth the size of Titan. And you can see it here next to England,
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velika približno za desetino Titana. Tukaj jo lahko primerjate z Anglijo.
13:21
just to show you the size. This is not meant to be a threat.
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Mišljeno je le kot primerjava velikosti, ne kot grožnja.
13:24
(Laughter).
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(Smeh)
13:26
And Enceladus is very white, it's very bright,
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Enkelad je zelo bel, zelo svetel
13:30
and its surface is obviously wrecked with fractures.
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in njegova površina je očitno razrita s prelomi.
13:34
It is a very geologically active body.
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Je geološko zelo aktivno telo.
13:36
But the mother lode of discoveries on Enceladus
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Kljub temu smo najboljše odkritje na Enkeladu
13:38
was found at the south pole -- and we're looking at the south pole here --
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našli na južnem polu -- in tukaj vidimo južni pol,
13:41
where we found this system of fractures.
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kjer smo našli ta sistem prelomov.
13:44
And they're a different color because they're a different composition.
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So drugačne barve, ker imajo drugačno sestavo.
13:46
They are coated. These fractures are coated with organic materials.
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So prevlečeni. Ti prelomi so prevlečeni z organskimi materiali.
13:51
Moreover, this whole, entire region, the south polar region,
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Se več, to celotno območje, to južno polarno območje,
13:55
has elevated temperatures. It's the hottest place on the planet, on the body.
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ima povišane temperature. Je najtoplejše področje na planetu, na telesu.
13:59
That's as bizarre as finding that the Antarctic on the Earth is hotter than the tropics.
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To je tako nenavadno, kot če bi bila na Zemlji Antarktika toplejša od tropov.
14:04
And then, when we took additional pictures, we discovered
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In potem, ko smo posneli dodatne fotografije, smo odkrili
14:07
that from these fractures are issuing jets of fine, icy particles
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da iz teh prelomov izhajajo curki finih ledenih delcev,
14:13
extending hundreds of miles into space.
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ki segajo kilometre daleč v vesolje.
14:15
And when we color-code this image, to bring out the faint light levels,
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In ko na tej sliki izpostavimo temne dele,
14:18
we see that these jets feed a plume
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lahko vidimo, da ti curki napajajo oblak,
14:22
that, in fact, we see, in other images, goes thousands of miles
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ki, kot lahko vidimo na ostalih slikah, sega tisoče kilometrov
14:26
into the space above Enceladus.
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v vesolje nad Enkeladom.
14:28
My team and I have examined images like this,
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Moja ekipa in jaz smo preučevali slike, kot je ta
14:31
and like this one, and have thought about the other results from Cassini.
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in kot je ta, in premišljevali o ostalih rezultatih s Cassinija.
14:35
And we have arrived at the conclusion
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Prišli smo do zaključka,
14:39
that these jets may be erupting from pockets
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da ti curki izhajajo iz žepov
14:42
of liquid water under the surface of Enceladus.
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tekoče vode pod površjem Enkelada.
14:46
So we have, possibly, liquid water, organic materials and excess heat.
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Tako imamo možnost obstoja tekoče vode, organskih materialov in odvečne toplote.
14:51
In other words, we have possibly stumbled upon
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Z drugimi besedami, mogoče je, da smo naleteli
14:54
the holy grail of modern day planetary exploration,
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na sveti gral sodobnih planetarnih raziskav.
14:58
or in other words, an environment that is potentially suitable for living organisms.
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Ali z drugimi besedami, okolje, ki je mogoče primerno za žive organizme.
15:02
And I don't think I need to tell you that the discovery of life
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In mislim, da mi ni treba posebej razlagati, da bi odkritje življenja
15:05
elsewhere in our solar system,
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drugje v našem Osončju,
15:07
whether it be on Enceladus or elsewhere,
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pa naj bo to na Enkeladu ali drugje,
15:09
would have enormous cultural and scientific implications.
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imelo neznanski kulturni in znanstveni vpliv.
15:12
Because if we could demonstrate that genesis had occurred
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Kajti če bi lahko pokazali, da se je Stvarjenje zgodilo
15:16
not once, but twice, independently, in our solar system,
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ne samo enkrat, temveč dvakrat, neodvisno v našem Osončju,
15:20
then that means, by inference, it has occurred a staggering number of times
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potem brez dvoma sledi, da se je zgodilo pretresljivo velikokrat
15:24
throughout the universe and its 13.7 billion year history.
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v celotnem vesolju v vsej njegovi 13.7 milijard let dolgi zgodovini.
15:29
Right now, Earth is the only planet still that we know is teeming with life.
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Ta trenutek je Zemlja edini planet, za katerega vemo, da je poln življenja.
15:33
It is precious, it is unique,
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Je dragocen, edinstven.
15:36
it is still, so far, the only home we've ever known.
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Trenutno je to edini dom, ki smo ga poznali.
15:39
And if any of you were alert and coherent during the 1960s --
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In če je bil kdorkoli od vas pozoren in priseben v šestdesetih letih --
15:46
and we'd forgive you, if you weren't, OK --
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in odpustim vam, če niste bili --
15:48
you would remember this very famous picture
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se bo spomnil te zelo znane fotografije,
15:50
taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968.
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ki so jo posneli astronavti Apolla VIII leta 1968.
15:54
It was the first time that Earth was imaged from space,
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To je bila prva slika Zemlje iz vesolja
15:57
and it had an enormous impact on our sense of place in the universe,
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in slika je imela neznanski vpliv na naš občutek mesta v vesolju
16:00
and our sense of responsibility for the protection of our own planet.
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in naš občutek odgovornosti za zaščito lastnega planeta.
16:05
Well, we on Cassini have taken an equivalent first,
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No, mi smo s Cassinijem posneli nekaj podobnega,
16:09
a picture that no human eye has ever seen before.
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pogled, kot ga do sedaj še ni videlo človeško oko.
16:13
It is a total eclipse of the Sun, seen from the other side of Saturn.
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To je popoln sončev mrk, kot bi ga videli z druge strani Saturna.
16:17
And in this impossibly beautiful picture,
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In to je neverjetno čudovita slika,
16:21
you see the main rings backlit by the Sun,
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na kateri lahko vidite glavne prstane, ki jih od zadaj osvetljuje Sonce,
16:23
you see the refracted image of the Sun
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vidite lahko lomljeno svetlobo Sonca
16:26
and you see this ring created, in fact,
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in vidite lahko tudi ta prstan, ki ga ustvarjajo
16:28
by the exhalations of Enceladus.
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izpusti Enkelada.
16:31
But as if that weren't brilliant enough, we can spot, in this beautiful image,
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Vendar, kakor da to še ni dovolj izjemno, lahko v tem čudovitem posnetku
16:37
sight of our own planet,
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ujamete pogled na naš lastni planet
16:39
cradled in the arms of Saturn's rings.
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v objemu Saturnovih obročev.
16:43
Now, there is something deeply moving
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Nekaj globoko ganljivega je v tem,
16:45
about seeing ourselves from afar,
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ko vidimo sami sebe od daleč,
16:47
and capturing the sight of our little, blue-ocean planet
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ko ugledamo naš mali modri oceanski planet
16:50
in the skies of other worlds.
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na nebu drugih svetov.
16:52
And that, and the perspective of ourselves that we gain from that,
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In to je, skupaj s perspektivo, ki jo pridobimo o nas samih,
16:56
may be, in the end, the finest reward that we earn
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lahko na koncu najbolj dragocena nagrada, ki jo prejmemo
17:00
from this journey of discovery that started half a century ago.
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na tem raziskovalnem potovanju, ki se je začelo pred pol stoletja.
17:03
And thank you very much.
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Najlepša hvala.
17:05
(Applause)
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(Aplavz)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Carolyn Porco - Planetary scientistAs the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn, Carolyn Porco interprets and shares the pictures coming back from this fascinating planet, its rings and its moons.
Why you should listen
Planetary scientist Carolyn Porco studies and interprets the photos from NASA space missions like the renowned Voyager mission to the outer solar system in the 1980s and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. She leads a team of scientists from the US and Europe that has been analyzing the images Cassini has sent back since it left Earth in 1997. At Saturn, they have found new phenomena everywhere they've turned their cameras … in the planet’s atmosphere, within its rings and on the surfaces of its many moons. And they've produced spectacular images and animations of these marvels in the process.
Back in the early-1980s, while still working on her doctorate, Porco was drafted onto the Voyager imaging team to assist in crunching the mountains of data coming back from Voyager’s fly-by of Saturn. Her work on the planet's rings and their relation to its moons cemented her connection with Saturn. After Voyager had flown by Neptune and was nearing conclusion, she worked together with Carl Sagan in planning Voyager’s celebrated Pale Blue Dot picture of Earth.
Her ongoing work at the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPs) has two goals: to process, interpret and archive Cassini’s images for other scientists, and to make sure the images -- in all their breathtaking poetry and mystery and sheer Save-Image-As-Desktop awesomeness -- connect with the general public. She is an advocate for the exploration and understanding of planetary space, and her frequent talks (as well as her "Captain's Log" memos on the CICLOPS website) speak to everyone, scientist and nonscientist alike. Her advocacy extends to Hollywood, where she was the character consultant on the 1997 movie “Contact,” and a consultant on the 2009 Paramount Pictures re-boot of “Star Trek.” In 2012, she was named one the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine.
Finally, in a twist on the Pale Blue Dot theme, it was she who conceived the idea to invite the people of the world to smile while Cassini imaged the Earth on July 19, 2013 in an event called “The Day the Earth Smiled.”
For more information:
Solar System Portrait: Earth as 'Pale Blue Dot'
BBC: Saturn snapped as Earth smiled
The Atlantic: The Carl Sagan of Our Time Reprises the 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo of Earth
The Day the Earth Smiled: Image
Library of Congress: Portraits of the Solar System: Talking with Carolyn Porco About Carl Sagan
Carolyn Porco | Speaker | TED.com