霍金再次預言 2600年地球將變成熾熱的'火球'

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has issued yet another warning for Earth and this time, he says we have less than 600 years before the Earth turns into a sizzling fireball.

著名物理學家斯蒂芬·霍金日前發出了對地球的又一個警告，這一次，他聲稱在地球變成一個炙熱的火球之前，我們只有不到600年的時間了。

Hawking says that if we don't leave Earth soon, overpopulation will increase energy consumption and pretty much kill us all.

霍金表示，如果我們不盡快離開地球，過多的人口會增加能源消耗，很有可能會使人類全部滅亡。

But Hawking has a plan. Speaking at the Tencent WE Summit in Beijing, Hawking appealed to investors to back his plans to travel to Alpha Centauri. At around 4 light-years away, it's the closest star system to our sun.

不過，霍金有一個方案。在北京舉行的騰訊WE峯會上，霍金呼籲投資者支持他的計劃--前往半人馬座阿爾法星系。在大約四光年外，它是離太陽系最近的恆星系統。

The venture is called Breakthrough Starshot and it would use a tiny spacecraft that travels at the speed of light.

該冒險計劃被稱作“突破攝星”，將使用能夠以光速行進的小型飛機。

"Such a system could reach Mars in less than an hour, or reach Pluto in days, pass Voyager in under a week and reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years."

“這樣的一個系統可以在一小時內到達火星，或者在數天內到達冥王星，在一週內可超過“旅行者”號探測器，並在20多年內到達半人馬座阿爾法星系。”

"Maybe if all goes well, sometime a little after the middle of the century, we'll have our first picture of another planet that may be life-bearing orbiting the nearest star," Pete Worden, the former head at NASA's AMES Research Center and Starshot Breakthrough director, said at the summit.

前NASA艾姆斯研究中心主任皮特·沃登在WE峯會上表示：“如果成功了，在本世紀中葉後的某個時間，我們就有可能看到另一個環繞半人馬座阿爾法星系運行的、有生命的星球的第一張照片。”