Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

第三章

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STARS DIE? WITH PROFESSOR CRUELLA CRACKLESNAP

当恒星死亡时会发生什么？ 和克鲁拉教授一起

WELCOME TO YOUR THIRD CLASS, MALEVOLENT MONSTERS. STARS ARE A BIT LIKE PEOPLE. Not exactly like people, of course. People don't generally weigh a BILLION BILLION BILLION TONS and have nuclear reactions inside them. (If you do, please go and see the Academy nurse.) What stars have in common with people is that they are born, they live their lives, and eventually they die. When stars die, it can be very DRAMATIC. They swell up to millions of times their original size then violently explode.

欢迎来到你们的第三堂课，恶毒的怪物们。 星星有点像人。 当然，不完全像人类。 人一般不会有十亿亿亿吨重，也不会在体内发生核反应。 （如果你需要，请去找学院的护士。）星星和人的共同之处在于，他们出生，他们过着他们的生活，最终他们会死去。 当恒星死亡时，可能会非常戏剧性。 它们膨胀到原来的数百万倍，然后剧烈爆炸。

I don't know about you, but I'm quite glad that stars and people don't have this in common. In the last lesson, we went back in time and saw how the Sun formed. Today, we're going to go forward in time to see what happens when the Sun dies. TIME: 5,000,000,000 YEARS IN THE FUTURE. ABOUT 8AM.

我不知道你是怎么想的，但我很高兴明星和人没有这个共同点。 在上一课中，我们回到了过去，看到了太阳是如何形成的。 今天，我们将向前推进，看看太阳死亡后会发生什么。 时间：未来50亿年。 大约8点。

Our Sun has been happily burning HYDROGEN since it was born nearly 10 BILLION YEARS AGO. The nuclear reaction that powers the Sun uses up hydrogen (the stuff the Sun is made of), makes energy, and leaves behind HELIUM. When the SUN was first born, it was mostly pure hydrogen. But burning away for billions and billions of years makes a lot of waste, and slowly, the middle of the Sun fills up with helium. If you're a helium atom, this sounds like great news—YOU'RE HAVING A GIANT PARTY WITH ALL YOUR HELIUM FRIENDS.

我们的太阳自100亿年前诞生以来一直在愉快地燃烧氢气。 为太阳提供动力的核反应消耗了氢（构成太阳的物质），产生能量，并留下氦。 太阳刚诞生时，主要由纯氢组成。 但是数十亿年的燃烧产生了大量的废物，慢慢地，太阳的中心充满了氦。 如果你是一个氦原子，这听起来是个好消息——你正在和你所有的氦朋友们开一个巨大的派对。

BUT if you happen to be living on a planet orbiting the Sun (and, if you're reading this, you are), this is BAD NEWS. Because once the Sun's core is totally filled with helium, the Sun is going to DIE. LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF HAMSTER? Actually, that's a very stupid question. We're supposed to be talking about the Sun. LET ME ASK YOU A BETTER QUESTION: WHY DOESN'T THE SUN GET SMOOSHED INTO A TINY BALL BY ITS GRAVITY? The Sun is about 300,000 times heavier than Earth, so its gravity is REALLY STRONG.

但如果你碰巧生活在一颗绕太阳运行的行星上（如果你正在读这篇文章，那你就是），这是个坏消息。 因为一旦太阳的核心完全被氦填满，太阳就会死亡。 让我问你一个问题：你最喜欢哪种仓鼠？ 事实上，这是一个非常愚蠢的问题。 我们应该讨论的是太阳。 让我问你一个更好的问题：为什么太阳不会被它的引力压成一个小球？ 太阳大约比地球重30万倍，所以它的引力真的很强。