霍金再次预言 2600年地球将变成炽热的'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.

著名物理学家斯蒂芬·霍金日前发出了对地球的又一个警告，这一次，他声称在地球变成一个炙热的火球之前，我们只有不到600年的时间了。

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，如果我们不尽快离开地球，过多的人口会增加能源消耗，很有可能会使人类全部灭亡。

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.

不过，霍金有一个方案。在北京举行的腾讯WE峰会上，霍金呼吁投资者支持他的计划--前往半人马座阿尔法星系。在大约四光年外，它是离太阳系最近的恒星系统。

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

该冒险计划被称作“突破摄星”，将使用能够以光速行进的小型飞机。

"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."

“这样的一个系统可以在一小时内到达火星，或者在数天内到达冥王星，在一周内可超过“旅行者”号探测器，并在20多年内到达半人马座阿尔法星系。”

"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峰会上表示：“如果成功了，在本世纪中叶后的某个时间，我们就有可能看到另一个环绕半人马座阿尔法星系运行的、有生命的星球的第一张照片。”