Back in 1884, a Swiss astronomer by the name of Arndt made headlines when he claimed to have discovered a very curious planet in an orbit beyond Neptune -- a surprisingly cubical planet.
讓我們回到1884年，一位叫作阿爾恩特的瑞士天文學(xué)家占據了報紙的新聞頭條，聲稱(chēng)在海王星之外的一條軌道上發(fā)現了一個(gè)奇怪的行星。它是一顆立方體形狀的行星。
You know, like Bizarro World from the Super Man comics.
你能想象出來(lái)，就像超人漫畫(huà)里的奇異世界（Bizarro World ）一樣。
Of course even in 1884, everyone knew this was bunk. The New York Times even ran a piece titled "The Cubical Planet" in their Nov. 16 edition.
當然，即使在當時(shí)每個(gè)人都知道他在滿(mǎn)口胡言?！都~約時(shí)報》甚至在他們11月16號的報紙上以為《立方體行星》（The Cubical Planet）題登載了一篇文章。
As informative as it is stuffy, the Gilded Age article interviews physicist Dr. Theodore Vankirk, who first dismisses the prospect of a square planet as pure hooey, and then proceeds to wax scientific about just what a cube world would be like.
為了駁斥瑞士人自以為是的發(fā)現，這篇發(fā)表在鍍金時(shí)代（譯注：是指從南北戰爭結束到20世紀初的美國歷史階段）的文章還采訪(fǎng)了物理學(xué)家西奧多·范柯克。他首先駁斥這個(gè)立方體行星是真正的無(wú)稽之談，然后還以科學(xué)的語(yǔ)言解釋立方體世界會(huì )是什么樣的。
It all comes down to gravity. On our spherical Earth, gravity pulls "down" us toward the planet's center of mass. So on a flat surface, we naturally stand up straight.
歸結起來(lái)就是重力的因素。在我們地球上，重力會(huì )把我們拉向星球的質(zhì)量中心，因此在平坦的地表，我們自然站得很直。
A hypothetical cube world, however, would feature six square faces and you'd only encounter up/down gravity toward the centers of these regions. As you traveled closer and closer to the edge, it would feel like you were walking up an incline and it would be difficult to stand up straight because the gravitational pull would draw you toward the center of the massive cube, which wouldn't lie directly beneath your feet.
然而，在一個(gè)假設的立方體世界里，會(huì )有6個(gè)正方形表面。你會(huì )朝向這些區域的中心承受向上或向下的重力。當你向邊緣靠近時(shí)，感覺(jué)就好像你在爬一個(gè)陡坡，并且重力會(huì )把你拉向立方體的質(zhì)量中心，由于這個(gè)質(zhì)量中心并不是在你雙腳的正下方，所以你很難保持直立狀態(tài)。
Standing on the "edge" of this cube world would feel like standing atop a mountain range.
站在這個(gè)立方體世界的“邊上”會(huì )感覺(jué)像是站高山之巔一樣。
Contemporary cosmologist Karen L. Masters also finds the topic of cube worlds fascinating -- especially the atmospheric possibilities. As she explains in Cornell's Ask a Physicist feature, all six faces of the plant aces would boast temperate weather, centralized bodies of water and none of them would feature polar or equatorial weather. What's more, the pointy edges of the cube would actually poke through the planet's atmosphere like titanic mountains. Here's her explanation:
當代的宇宙學(xué)家卡倫·L·馬斯特斯也發(fā)現立方體世界的話(huà)題很是迷人，特別是如果有大氣存在的情況下更是如此。根據她在天文學(xué)趣味問(wèn)答（康奈爾大學(xué)主辦）上發(fā)表的一篇文章的解釋?zhuān)诹鶄€(gè)面上的植物佼佼者會(huì )享受到適宜的的氣候和分布在中心區域的水體，它們也不會(huì )受到極地或者赤道氣候的影響。而且，立方體世界尖尖的邊緣會(huì )像高山一樣刺穿大氣層。下面就是她的解釋?zhuān)?strong style="BACKGROUND: none transparent scroll repeat 0% 0%" class="label bg2" jquery1314092214750="39">
Let's assume that the atmosphere goes up 1000 km above the Earth (when it is a sphere), and so is a sphere itself of radius 6400km+1000km=7400km. This should be about the right number. A cube with the same volume as the spherical Earth would have a side 10,000 km (6,400 miles) long so the corners are 8700 km from the center! They would definitely stick out above the atmosphere.
讓我們做個(gè)假定，如果大氣層高過(guò)“地球”（如果確是球體的情況下）1000公里的話(huà)，那么地球本身的半徑6400公里+1000公里=7400公里。這應當是正常的數據。和球形“地球”具有同等體積的立方體的每個(gè)邊長(cháng)應當是10000公里，每個(gè)頂點(diǎn)到立方體中心的距離是8700公里！這樣這些頂點(diǎn)肯定在大氣層之外了。
As I was poking around the net on this topic, I also ran across this amusing tidbit from a 1964 edition of the Rice University campus paper. A mysterious, well-dressed gentleman had been observed hanging out around the Houston-area campus, distributing literature about an alien, cubical planet.
我在網(wǎng)上搜羅與話(huà)題有關(guān)的資料時(shí)，還在1964年萊斯大學(xué)的學(xué)報上發(fā)現了一段趣聞。人們注意到有位神秘的、衣冠楚楚的紳士住在休斯敦校區散發(fā)有關(guān)一顆地外立方體行星的資料。
The man claimed that the planet was called Aocicinori and that it was the 63rd in a system of 96 planets. He showed off maps of the world, as well as some colorful illustrations of the creatures that lived there. The Rice University article reveals that these materials were created by Scotland L. Moore, an outpatient from the Houston State Psychiatric Institute.
此人聲稱(chēng)這顆行星叫作奧西西納里星（Aocicinori），在一個(gè)由96顆行星組成的星系中位列第63位。他向人們炫耀這顆行星的地圖和生活在那里的動(dòng)物的彩色圖片。萊斯大學(xué)的資料顯示，這些材料出自蘇格蘭·L·摩爾之手，是一位休斯頓州立精神病學(xué)研究所的門(mén)診病人。
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