We're at a tipping point in human history, a species poised between gaining the stars and losing the planet we call home.我们正处在人类历史上的一个转折点，人类正徘迴在「取得」其它星球及「失去」我们称之为家的地球之间。Even in just the past few years, we've greatly expanded our knowledge of how Earth fits within the context of our universe. NASA's Kepler mission has discovered thousands of potential planets around other stars, indicating that Earth is but one of billions of planets in our galaxy. Kepler is a space telescope that measures the subtle dimming of stars as planets pass in front of them, blocking just a little bit of that light from reaching us. Kepler's data reveals planets' sizes as well as their distance from their parent star. Together, this helps us understand whether these planets are small and rocky, like the terrestrial planets in our own Solar System, and also how much light they receive from their parent sun. In turn, this provides clues as to whether these planets that we discover might be habitable or not.即使在过去的几年中，我们对于地球如何在宇宙中生存的知识已经有大幅度的扩展。美国太空总署(NASA)的Kepler任务已经在银河系发现成千上万的潜在行星围绕著其它恒星，并指出地球在银河系数十亿行星裡并非是唯一的行星。Kepler是一个太空望远镜，藉由行星从恒星前方掠过的「凌日现象」来锁定观察恒星少许的亮度变化。Kepler的数据揭示了行星的大小以及它们与直系恒星之间的距离。总之，这有助于我们了解这些行星是否像是我们太阳系裡的类地行星具有小及岩石多样性的特性。以及了解它们从它们的直系太阳接收到多少光。因此这提供了我们所发现的这些行星是否适合居住的线索。Unfortunately, at the same time as we're discovering this treasure trove of potentially habitable worlds, our own planet is sagging under the weight of humanity. 2014 was the hottest year on record. Glaciers and sea ice that have been with us for millennia are now disappearing in a matter of decades. These planetary-scale environmental changes that we have set in motion are rapidly outpacing our ability to alter their course.不幸的是，当我们在探索其他适合人居的珍贵世界的同时，我们自己的地球也正在急速地失去它的人性。2014年是纪录中最热的一年，与我们相处好几千年的冰川和海冰在近几十年裡，一直在消失中... 这些由我们造成行星级规模的环境变化正将快速地超越我们扭转它们既定方向的能力。But I'm not a climate scientist, I'm an astronomer. I study planetary habitability as influenced by stars with the hopes of finding the places in the universe where we might discover life beyond our own planet. You could say that I look for choice alien real estate.

TED演讲不要指望火星 20160123 内含中英文对照演讲稿