In Chile a Window to the Universe

智利觀測站 向宇宙開窗

By Simon Romero

LLANO DE CHAJNANTOR, Chile – Trucks stall on the road to this plateau 5,058 meters up in the Atacama Desert, where scientists are installing one of the world’s largest ground-based astronomical projects. Heads ache. Noses bleed. Dizziness overcomes the researchers toiling in the shadow of the Licancabur volcano.
卡車經常在通往海拔5058公尺的智利阿塔卡瑪高原沙漠的途中拋錨。科學家正在這裡設置規模在世上名列前茅的地面天文觀測站。頭疼、流鼻血。在里坎卡伯爾火山陰影下辛苦工作的研究人員暈眩難當。

“Then there’s what we call ‘jelly legs,’” said Diego García-Appadoo, a Spanish astronomer. “You feel shattered, as if you ran a marathon.”
西班牙天文學家阿帕度說：「還有我們所謂的果凍腳。你會覺得全身就要散了一般，彷彿跑了一場馬拉松。」

Still, the same conditions that make the Atacama, Earth’s driest desert, so inhospitable make it beguiling for astronomy. In northern Chile, it is far from big cities, with little light pollution. Its arid climate prevents radio signals from being absorbed by water droplets. The altitude, as high as the Himalaya base camps for climbers preparing to scale Mount Everest, places astronomers closer to the heavens.
阿塔卡瑪沙漠是舉世最乾燥的沙漠，然而使得它不適人居的天然條件，卻對天文學家散發出無法抵擋的魅力。它位於智利北部，遠離大城市，光害少。它的乾燥氣候使無線電信號不至於被小水滴吸收。它的高海拔與攀登艾佛勒斯峰的喜馬拉雅山基地營相同，使天文學家更接近天空。

The array’s construction, said Jesús Mosterín, a prominent Spanish philosopher who writes about the frontier between science and philosophy, and who visited the observatory last year, is taking place at “the only time in history that windows into the universe are being thrown wide open.”
西班牙知名哲學家莫斯特林著作遊走於科學與哲學之間，曾於去年參觀當地的天文觀測站。他說，觀測陣列的組裝時間「適值宇宙之窗大開的唯一歷史良機」。

Chile is not the only country luring big investments in astronomical projects. South Africa and Australia are competing to host an even bigger radio telescope, the Square Kilometer Array, which would be fully operational by 2024. China has begun building its own large radio telescope in a craterlike setting in the southern province of Guizhou.
智利不是致力吸引大手筆天文計畫投資的唯一國家。南非與澳洲正在爭取規模更大的「平方公里陣列」無線電望遠鏡進駐；這個望遠鏡預定2024年全面運作。中國大陸也已經開始在貴州省一處有如火山口的地點自力組建大型的無線電望遠鏡。

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, known as ALMA, which opened in October, will have spread 66 radio antennas near the spine of the Andes by the time it is completed next year. Drawing more than $1 billion in funding mainly from the United States, European countries and Japan, ALMA will help the oxygen-deprived scientists who are flocking to this region to study the origins of the universe.
阿特卡瑪大型毫米/次毫米陣列（ALMA）去年十月開始組裝，明年完工時，66組無線電天線將散布在安地斯山山脊附近。它耗資超過10億美元，主要來自美國、歐洲國家與日本，可協助在當地缺氧環境下工作的科學家探究宇宙起源。

The project also strengthens Chile’s position in the vanguard of astronomy. Observatories are already scattered throughout the Atacama, including the Cerro Paranal Observatory, where scientists discovered in 2010 the largest star observed to date.
這項計畫也強化智利在天文學領域的先導地位。阿塔卡瑪高原已經散布著一些天文觀測站，包括科學家2010年發現歷來所見最大天體所在的塞洛‧帕拉納爾天文觀測站。

The ALMA project opens a new stage for astronomy in Chile, which is favored by international research organizations for the stability of its economy and legal system. Like other radio telescopes, the array does not detect optical light but radio waves, allowing researchers to study parts of the universe that are dark, like the clouds of cold gas from which stars are formed.
許多國際研究團隊相中智利的經濟穩定與法律制度，ALMA計畫更為它的天文研究開啟新頁。一如其他無線電望遠鏡，這套陣列不偵測可見光，卻可以測到無線電波，使科學家得以研究宇宙的黑暗部分，如形成星球的冰冷氣雲。

With the array, astronomers hope to see where the first galaxies were formed, and perhaps even detect solar systems with the conditions to support life. But the scientists here express caution about their chances of finding life elsewhere in the universe, explaining that such definitive proof is likely to remain elusive.
科學家希望透過這些陣列看到第一批銀河在何處形成，而且希望能夠看到適合生命存在的太陽系。不過在阿卡塔瑪高原工作的科學家說，在宇宙其他位置發現生命的機率微乎其微，因為相關的確切證據可能仍然難以找到。

“We won’t be able to see life, but perhaps signatures of life,” said Thijs de Graauw, a Dutch astronomer who is the project’s director.
主持這項計畫的荷蘭天文學家狄格勞說：「我們沒辦法找到生命，但或許可以發現生命的印記。」

Still, scientists believe the array will make transformational leaps possible in the understanding of the universe, enabling a hunt for so-called cold gas tracers, the ashes of exploded stars from a time about a few hundred million years after the Big Bang that astronomers call “cosmic dawn.”
不過科學家認為，這套陣列或許可使我們對宇宙的了解有所突破，進而探尋所謂的冰冷氣體示蹤物。這些物質是天文學家稱為「宇宙破曉」的大爆炸發生數億年後，天體爆炸產生的灰燼。

At ALMA, a sense of awe still accompanies the installation of each antenna. Two giant German-manufactured transporters, each with 28 tires and engines equivalent to two Formula 1 racing vehicles, are used to transport the antennas. Called Otto and Lore, they look like massive mechanized centipedes making their way across the arid landscape.
在ALMA，每當一組天線組建完成，依然令人肅然起敬。兩輛巨大的德國製運輸車各配置28個輪胎，以及馬力相當於兩輛一級方程式賽車的引擎，專門用於運送這些天線。它們名為「奧托與洛爾」，看起來就像巨大的機械蜈蚣橫越不毛之地。

But the financial crisis in rich industrialized countries has raised concerns that funding for some ambitious astronomy projects could face constraints.
然而富裕工業國家的金融危機令科學家擔心，部分極具企圖心的天文觀測計畫資金方面可能受到限制。

“It would be very sad for humankind if we were so spiritually decadent to forgo the pleasures of consciousness and of knowledge,” said Mr. Mosterín. “These things make human beings a very interesting animal indeed.”
莫斯特林說：「如果我們因為靈性墮落而放棄意識與知識的愉悅，那將是人類的一大悲哀。這些東西使人類成為非常有趣的動物。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/world/americas/high-in-chilean-desert-a-huge-astronomy-project.html

Slideshow: High in Chilean Desert, a Huge Astronomy Project
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/04/07/world/americas/20120408-CHILE.html?ref=americas

2012-04-24聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十版左