But what are those ideas?

但那些理論是什麼呢？

What's at the centre of a black hole?

黑洞中心是什麼？

Black holes are incredibly dense objects with such strong gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape their pull.

黑洞是質量相當大的物體，它們帶有很強的引力，以致沒有任何東西甚至是光，可以逃過它的引力

Hawking worked with physicist Roger Penrose to show that if you were able to travel to the centre of a black hole, you'd find something called a 'singularity'.

霍金與物理學家羅傑・潘洛斯合作，提出了如果你能夠到達一個黑洞的中央，你就會發現一個叫做「奇點」的東西

In a singularity, so much matter is squashed into such a small space that the force of gravity becomes infinite.

在奇點中，很多物質被擠壓到一個很小的空間造成無限大的引力

Everything is crushed into a point of infinite density, punching a hole through the fabric of the universe, and tearing up the rulebook of physics as we know it.

所有東西被擠壓成一個密度無限大的點，從宇宙的表面敲出了一個洞，推翻了我們原本以為物理是這麼一回事的想法

It's pretty frightening stuff.

這是蠻恐怖的一件事

What happens at the edge of a black hole?

在黑洞的邊緣會發生什麼事？

You might think that a vacuum is empty.

你可能以為真空是一無所有的

But it's not. At least, not according to quantum theory.

但不是。至少，根據量子力學來說不是這樣

It's fizzing with particles and anti-particles that pop into existence from nowhere and then disappear.

它充滿了嘶嘶作響的粒子與反粒子，它們突然憑空出現然後消失

When this happens at the edge of a black hole, one of the pair of particles can fall in, leaving the other to escape.

當這個情形發生在黑洞的邊緣 (稱為「視界」) 時，這對粒子的其中一個會掉進黑洞，另一個則會逃走

This tiny stream of escaping particles is known as, ''Hawking radiation.''

這道由逃走的粒子所造成的輻射被稱為「霍金輻射」

Now, those particles that fell into the black hole, they have a negative mass, and cause the black hole to get smaller, and smaller, until it disappears.

這時候，那些掉進黑洞的粒子，他們帶有負能量，導致黑洞越來越小，直到它消失

It will take a while, in fact a very long while, but in its final moments a black hole will explode with the energy of a million nuclear bombs – leaving nothing behind.

這要花一段時間，事實上，是很長一段時間，但在最後關頭黑洞會以一百萬個原子彈的威力爆炸 —不會留下任何東西

So why is Stephen Hawking our most famous living scientist?

所以為什麼史蒂芬霍金是我們最有名且健在的科學家呢？

Well, he showed that at one point everything in our universe was squeezed into a singularity, which then exploded into the Big Bang, eventually forming galaxies, stars, planets, you, me, and everything in existence!

嗯，他曾經指出所有我們宇宙的一切被擠壓成一個奇點，它爆炸後造成了宇宙大爆炸，最後形成了銀河、星體、星球、你和我，還有所有存在的東西

That was the beginning of our universe.

那是我們宇宙的開端

And I suppose the incredible thing is that he came up with all these profound, provocative insights without the convenience of being able to write anything down.

我認為不可思議的事情是他在生理上無法書寫的不便下，想到所有這些深奧又具啟發性的洞見。

He did it all by thought alone.

他僅僅透過思考來辦到這一切！