人類美麗的家園 - 懸浮在一束光中的一粒塵埃

NASA 的載人探月器Artemis II成功地完成了繞月飛行。照片展示了我們人類家園是那麽的美麗動人。看著這些照片，使我不由自主地想起Voyager 1(旅行者1號)拍攝的著名的“暗淡藍點”。

1990年2月14日，旅行者1號飛到距地球37億英裏的位置。此刻，它已經超過了冥王星距太陽的平均距離。這時旅行者1號回望地球，拍下了那張包含“暗淡藍點”的照片(根據天文學家、行星科學家、科幻作家Carl Sagan(卡爾.薩根)的構想)。隨後告別太陽係飛向銀河係。在這張照片裏，“暗淡藍點”地球僅占0.12像素。

人類的家園在宇宙的長河中是那麽的微小，而家園的主人-我們人類在宇宙中幾乎可以忽略不計。當談論多少多少年文明、祖上多麽多麽榮耀時，不知看著這個“暗淡藍點”有何感想。

還是卡爾.薩根在其1994年所著的《暗淡藍點》書中說的精辟：

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

再看看那個光點。就是這裏。那就是家園。那就是我們。在這個光點上，每一個你所愛的人、每一個你認識的人、每一個你聽說過的人，以及每一個曾經存在過的人類，都度過了他們的一生。我們所有的歡樂與痛苦，成千上萬種自信滿滿的宗教、意識形態和經濟學說，每一個獵人和采集者，每一個英雄和懦夫，每一個文明的創造者和毀滅者，每一個國王和農夫，每一對相愛的年輕伴侶，每一位母親和父親，每一個充滿希望的孩子、發明家和探險家，每一個道德導師，每一個腐敗的政客，每一個“超級巨星”，每一個“最高領袖”，以及我們人類曆史上每一個聖人和罪人，都曾生活在那裏——懸浮在一束陽光中的一粒塵埃之上。

在浩瀚的宇宙競技場中，地球隻是一個極其微小的舞台。試想一下，那些將軍和帝王為了能在榮耀與凱旋中，成為這個光點上極小一部分區域的短暫主宰，曾流淌了多少鮮血。試想一下，這個“像素點”一隅的居民，曾對另一隅那些同樣微不足道的居民施加了多少無盡的暴行；他們之間的誤解是何等頻繁，他們彼此殘殺的欲望是何等強烈，他們相互間的仇恨又是何等熾烈。

麵對這個蒼白的光點，我們那自以為是的姿態、那臆想出來的自我重要感，以及那種以為自己在宇宙中擁有某種特權地位的幻覺，都顯得不堪一擊。在浩瀚無垠的宇宙黑暗中，我們的星球不過是一個孤獨的微塵。在這片廣袤的虛空中，在這渺小的存在裏，沒有任何跡象表明會有外來的援手，能將我們從自身的毀滅中拯救出來。

迄今為止，地球是我們所知的唯一孕育著生命的世界。至少在可預見的未來，我們人類沒有任何其他地方可以遷徙。去造訪，或許可以；但要去定居，目前還不行。無論我們是否情願，至少在當下，地球就是我們唯一的立足之地。

有人曾說，天文學是一門令人心懷謙卑、並能陶冶情操的學科。或許，沒有什麽比這幅遙遠的、展現我們微小世界的圖像，更能有力地揭示人類狂妄自大的愚蠢了。對我而言，這幅圖像突顯了我們的責任：我們要更加友善地對待彼此，並去守護和珍愛這個“暗淡藍點”——這唯一一個我們所知的家園。(Google translation)