彷彿若有光！宇宙中第一縷光究竟從何而來？

小譯說

宇宙中第一縷光從何而來？

可能只有我們人類這種「微粒」

才一直都在追求事物真理的路上，

樂此不疲且勇往直前。

幸運的是，我們的努力沒有白費。

太空望遠鏡的面世讓這個曾經困擾科學家多年的問題得以破冰。

然而這一切要從宇宙的早期狀態來說起……

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Studies of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), tell us that light predates matter and even neutral particles themselves. The CMB is the afterglow of the Big Bang still found everywhere in the universe, as the background scenery to the intergalactic pagentry before us. It isn』t stationary. Such waves bounce around everywhere, including into the Earth, where they can be detected.

有關宇宙微波背景輻射（CMB）的研究指出，光先於物質而存在，甚至比中性粒子都出現得早。宇宙微波背景輻射是大爆炸的餘輝，宇宙間隨處可見，是星際爭霸的背景。宇宙微波背景輻射不是靜止的，它四處擴散，也會進入地球，在地球上可以檢測到。

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The European Space Agency』s (ESA) Planck space telescope, launched in 2009, has studied the CMB extensively. As a result, ESA researchers found that the rate of universal expansion is slightly slower than first thought. The universe is also older than previous estimates. Our understanding today is that it』s 13.78 billion years old.

歐洲空間局（ESA）於2009年推出普朗克太空望遠鏡（Planck space telescope），對宇宙微波背景輻射展開了廣泛研究。歐空局的研究人員發現：宇宙擴張略慢於之前預想的速度、宇宙存在的年限比預想的早。根據我們今天的理解，宇宙已經137.8億歲了。

宇宙微波背景輻射/「宇宙的嬰兒照」

In 2013, researchers on the Planck project announced they had found out how the earliest light must』ve formed. Right after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with subatomic particles, both matter and antimatter, bumping into each other at a balmy 2,700oC (4,892oF). So when an antimatter particle bumps into its opposite, both particles vanish.

普朗克太空望遠鏡項目組研究人員於2013年宣布他們已經發現第一縷光是如何形成的。大爆炸之後，宇宙間充斥著物質和反物質等亞原子粒子，在2700oC的溫度條件下相互碰撞。在這種情況下，當一個反物質粒子碰到一個物質粒子時，這兩個粒子都會消失。

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When protons and electrons meet, they form hydrogen, releasing light. This is how the first light in the universe was born, about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. Soon, the universe went through a period of rapid expansion. This stretched out the first light』s wavelengths making it into microwaves, what is today called the CMB.

質子和電子相互碰撞，形成氫原子，釋放出光。這是宇宙中第一縷光產生的原因，第一縷光大約出現在大爆炸後38萬年。不久之後，宇宙經歷了一個快速膨脹期。宇宙擴張拉長了第一縷光的波長，使之成為微波，也就是我們今天所說的宇宙微波背景輻射。

So what caused this rapid cosmic inflation? Here』s where things get a little fuzzy. Something needed to occur, a period of intense energy buildup that wasn』t caused by matter, antimatter, or radiation. Scientists suggest it must』ve been some kind of super-intense, dark energy event.

那麼究竟是什麼導致了宇宙快速膨脹呢？這個問題不甚明了。宇宙快速膨脹期有強大的能量形成，但這些能量既不是來自於物質、反物質，也不是來自於輻射，那一定是來自於別的事物。科學家認為這個東西肯定是某種超強黑暗能量。

普朗克太空望遠鏡下的宇宙微波背景輻射局部圖

Over a period of hundreds of millions of years, the universe developed in total darkness. Within it, the first stars, star clusters, and superstar clusters formed. A type of radiation known as the Lyman continuum is emitted from stars, and over the next billion years, this reionized the hydrogen, which eventually lifted the 「dark」 period, allowing light to travel freely once again.

數億年里，宇宙在黑暗中發展。期間，形成了第一顆恆星、第一個星團和第一個超級星團。有一種輻射被稱為賴曼連續光譜，它由恆星發射出來。在接下來的十億年中，賴曼連續光譜再電離氫原子，使得光線再次自由行進，最終結束了「黑暗」時期。

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