科學家向外星文明發送維基百科

Wikipedia is becoming Wookiepedia as boffins hope the informative website will help us reach out to intelligent life forms.
維基百科（Wikipedia）真的要變身星戰維基（Wookiepedia）了。加州研究人員希望這個百科式網站能幫助地外文明了解地球。

Astronomers would like to beam the entire contents of Wikipedia into space in the hope of contacting aliens.
天文學家希望能將整個維基百科送入太空，以聯系外星人。

They want to send messages to hundreds of star systems and planets 20 light years away using radio telescopes.
運用無線電波望遠鏡，他們想把信息發送到距離地球20光年外的行星和星系。

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, in California, wants to use powerful radio telescopes to try to reachChewbacca and his mates in a galaxy far far away.
加州搜尋地外文明研究所（SETI）還希望用這種強大的無線電望遠鏡在遙遠的河外星系尋找楚巴卡（Chewbacca，《星球大戰》中的人物）和他的伙伴們。

The plans will be discussed by astronomers at the weekend as some scientists fear a reply from ET might not turn out to be friendly.
研究人員將在本周末對計劃展開研討，有科學家則擔心外星人會回復不友好的信息。

Institute astrophysicist David Black said: “One question is if there are predators we might be drawing attention to ourselves. Another is if we go ahead, what message should be sent?
研究所的天體物理學家大衛·布萊克（David Black）表示：“一方面，我們要想想這樣的行為是否會引狼入室。另一方面，一旦計劃更進一步，我們應該發些什么呢？

“There could be many civilisations out there but if they are all listening and no one is broadcasting then nothing will happen.”
“地外文明成千上萬，但是如果他們全都只聽不回，這一切都將石沉大海。”

Professor Stephen Hawking is among those who has warned that although intelligent aliens probably exist we should give them a wide berth.
包括斯蒂芬·霍金（Stephen Hawking）教授在內的另一些科學家也警告稱，雖然高智能生物可能真的存在，我們還是應該與他們保持安全距離。

“If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America which didn’t turn out well for the native Americans,” he said.
“一旦外星人造訪，所帶來的后果無異于哥倫布發現新大陸，要知道這對美洲土著來說不是好事。”霍金表示。

Signals from Earth’s radio and TV transmissions have been heading out in space for around 60 years reaching around 5,000 stars.
此外，60年來地球一直在向宇宙發送電視廣播訊號，覆蓋了大約5000多顆行星。

Vocabulary

boffin：科學家（尤指從事研究工作的人）
galaxy：星系
astronomers：天文學家
astrophysicist：天體物理學家
predators：捕食者
give sb/sth a wide berth：與……保持安全距離

（譯者：菠蘿油八戒 編輯：侯瑋萍）