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如果玛雅天启是真实的,那么本周五世界将如何灭亡?
If the Mayan prophecy is true, just how might it all end on Friday? Scientists foretell the cataclysms that could bring on Doomsday
如果玛雅天启是真实的，那么在本周五这个世界将如何灭亡？科学家们预测了一些会引发世界末日的大灾难
They say it won't happen, at least not on Friday, but in the event the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world is right, scientists have foretold a raft of bloody and catastrophic fates for us all.
他们说这将不会发生，至少不是在本周五，但是如果玛雅天启如果真的应验的话，科学家们预测了一系列可以导致我们灭亡的大灾难。
Dark comets, famine, super-volcanoes, catastrophic climate change, and a plague of cancers are just some of the ends that could fulfill the prophecy.
黑色彗星群，饥荒，超级火山大爆发，灾难性的气候变化，癌症的折磨，如果天启真的应验的话，这些灾难只是其中的一小部分而已。
Astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars, believes the most likely disaster that could pencil Doomsday into Friday's diary is a black comet.
发现了脉冲星的天体物理学教授Jocelyn Bell Burnell说，他相信最有可能引起周五世界末日的因素是黑色彗星。
Such an end would match that of the dinosaurs who after walking the planet for about 165 million years - homo sapiens has been around for a mere 200,000 years - were killed off by a 10km asteroid or comet that slammed into the planet.
如果世界末日真的到来，其结果就像恐龙大灭绝一样，恐龙在地球上生存了1亿6千5百万年&&而智人的历史也才200000年而已&&恐龙灭绝的原因是受到了10公里长的小行星或者是彗星猛烈撞击地球。
Professor Bell Burnell believes if the world as we know it is to end on December 21 it would have to be a dark comet that strikes.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell教授相信，如果世界真的在12月21号世界末日的话，原因极有可能是受到了一个彗星的撞击。
Dark comets have little of the ice and snow that most comets have, and a lot more dust which makes it much more difficult to spot them as they speed through Space.
黑色彗星和大多数的彗星不一样，因为黑色彗星只含有很少量的冰雪，而含量更多的是尘土，所以当它们在太空中穿梭的时候很难监测到它们。
'Comets normally are big, dusty snowballs. A dark comet has not much snow and a lot of dust. They are much harder to get a handle on,' she said.
&一般来说，彗星都是一些布满灰尘的巨型雪球。而黑色彗星的雪成分很少，灰尘很多。所以这些黑色彗星更难对付。
The collision itself, except for those near the point of impact, would be unlikely to be fatal to the world's population but it would throw up so much dust into the atmosphere that billions of people could expect a slow death.
如果彗星撞击地球的话，那些撞击点附近的人口肯定会死亡，所以并不会对全世界人口造成致命的打击。不过撞击会产生大量的灰尘，这些灰尘会散播到大气中导致几十亿人口慢慢死亡。
Huge quantities of dust would bring on an 'eternal winter' in which the sun would be obscured and crops around the world would fail, leading to mass famine.
大量的灰尘将会引发一个&永久性的冬天&，这时候阳光会被阻挡住，然后全世界的农作物将会死亡，所以导致大饥荒。
Dr Dave Rothery, a volcanologist at the Open University, foretells a similar end but he thinks the death-bringing dust would be put into the atmosphere by a supervolcano.
来自英国公开大学的火山学家Dave Rothery也预测了一个类似的结局，但是他觉得那些致命的灰尘是由超级火山爆发而产生的。
More than 240 cubic miles of molten rock and debris are blasted into the sky by super-volcanoes.
超级火山会把超过240立方英里的熔岩和碎屑喷洒入大气中。
Much of it would remain in the atmosphere as volcanic dust which would, just as with a massive asteroid or comet, block out the sun and cause famine.
而其中的大部分会以火山灰的形式一直停留在大气中，而这些大气中的火山灰就像小行星或者彗星撞击地球产生的灰尘一样阻挡住阳光，从而导致大饥荒。
'It would put so much ash and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere that photosynthesis may break down,& he warned.
&超级火山爆发的结果是会给大气带来大量的灰尘和二氧化硫，从而使光合作用无法发生，&他警告道。
A similar, albeit less devastating, even took place in 1816 when a volcano in Indonesia erupted and put so much dust into the atmosphere that it became known as 'the year of no summer'.
在1816年的时候，印度尼西亚的一处火山爆发，虽然并没有前面说的那么具有灾难性，但是这次的火山爆发使大量的灰尘进入大气，导致那年成了一个著名的&没有夏天的年份&。
Other scientists asked by The Times what cataclysms could bring on the end of the world on Friday, in line with what many people believe is foretold by the ancient Mayan prophecy, included Bryan Lovell, a former president of the Geological Society.
泰晤士报问了很多科学家有关什么样的灾难会导致本周五的世界末日，当然这个世界末日就是很多人相信的古老的玛雅天启预言，被访科学家中包括Bryan Lovell，他是地理学会的前主席。
His favourite Doomsday scenario was a vast escape of methane caused by an undersea landslide.
他最喜欢的一个末日设想就是因海底山崩而引发的甲烷泄漏。
Methane is a greenhouse gas but it is about 20 times more powerful in warming the world than is carbon dioxide.
甲烷是一种温室效应气体，但是在全球变暖作用上，它比二氧化碳强20倍。
Dr Lovell said a huge release of sub-sea methane deposits would accelerate man-made climate change and lead to 'catastrophic climate change not too many Fridays from now'.
Bryan Lovell说，如果海底甲烷大量泄漏的话，将会加快气候变暖过程，最终导致灾难性的气候变化，那么我们离世界末日就真的不远了。
But it is not just scientists who are putting forward theories as to how the world will end and they range from the unlikely to the fantastical.
但是并不仅仅只有科学家在做世界末日猜想，有的猜想根本就不可能会发生，而有的则是在捕风捉影。
Among the favourites is that a rogue planet, Nibiru, which has long been inhabiting the far reaches of the solar system, beyond even Pluto, is now on a collision course with Earth.
而人们最为相信的一个理论是，一个叫做尼比鲁的流浪行星长久以来都处于太阳系的最外延，而现在它正在冲向我们的地球。
Scientists have dismissed the theory as ridiculous not just because no one has ever managed to detect it in the outer reaches of the solar system but because if such a large object was heading this way it would have been spotted by now.
但是科学家认为这种理论是很可笑的，因为没有任何人探测到这颗位于太阳系边缘的行星，而且如果它真的正在向地球进发的话，早就被我们探测到了。
Scepticism on the part of experts, however, has done little to diminish the determination of thousands of people to find a safe haven from disaster.
虽然专家们对末日言论持怀疑态度，但是这并没有降低人们寻找避难所的决心。
In France the authorities have had to bar New Age followers from travelling to Bugarach, a tiny village home to fewer than 200 people, and the 'mystical mountain' where it is located.
在法国，当局不得不阻止新时代追随者前往布加拉斯，这是一个拥有不到200人口的小村庄，而那个&神秘的山脉&就位于这个地方。
Doomsday fanatics have identified Bugarach as a place of safety on the grounds that aliens live hidden within the mountain and are waiting for the end of the world when they will rescue humans in the area.
世界末日的狂热者相信布加拉斯是一个安全的地方，因为他们相信有外星人隐藏在这座山里面。并且这些外星人一直在等待着世界末日的来临，到时候他们会在该地区营救人类。
'I have issued an order barring anyone from climbing the mountain. And those trying to get into the village will be stopped and asked what their business is,' said Regional prefect Eric Freysselinard.
&我已经发布了一道命令禁止任何人爬这座山。而且那些试图进入该村庄的人将被阻止并且会被盘问，&该地区官员Eric Freysselinard如此说道。
The village and the mountain will only be re-opened to outsiders two days after the end of the world is scheduled to have taken place.
在世界末日过去两天后，这个村庄才会再次向外人开放。
The Doomsday prophecy is based on an ancient calendar from the Mayan civilisation that was based in what is now Guatemala in in Central America.
末日预言是根据玛雅文明的日历得来的，而玛雅就位于现在中美洲国家危地马拉。
The calendar lasts for more than 5,000 years but comes to an end on Friday, which has prompted fears it forecasts the end of the world.
这份日历延续5000多年，但是本周五将是这份日历上的最后一天，所以人们才会担忧本周五将会是世界末日。
Other favourite Doomsday scenarios include a vast solar storm which will flare out from the Sun and engulf the Earth.
其他比较受欢迎的末日设想包括太阳引发的太阳风暴把地球吞没。
An alternative doom-laden theory is that a rogue black hole will swallow up the Earth, or that a quirk of galactic alignments will trigger a disastrous reversal of the Earth's magnetic field.
还有另外一个绝望的末日理论，那就是黑洞把地球给吞没了，或者银河系会产生大逆转从而导致难性的地球磁场逆转。
Vivienne Parry, a former presenter of Tomorrow's World, suggested a cancer that starts in foxes but can be transmitted to humans.
Vivienne Parry，《明日世界》的主持人，她的理论是狐狸得了一种癌症，然后狐狸把这种癌症转移给了人类，最终这种绝症导致人类灭绝。
Dogs, she suggested, would cease to be man's best friend and instead become man's worst enemy because the cancer would be transmitted through them.
她还说，到时狗狗将不再是人类最好的朋友，相反，将会成为人类最坏的敌人，因为这种癌症可以通过狗狗传播给人类。
Foxes would bite the dogs, transmitting the cancer to them, and they would bite their human owners.
狐狸会去咬狗，然后就把这种癌症病毒传播给了狗狗，然后这些狗狗又会去咬自己的主人。
She said that were all dogs to be destroyed as soon as people realised they were passing on an untreatable cancer the end of the world for humans could be postponed.
她说，人类一旦意识到这些狗狗是癌症病毒的传播者，将会把它们全部给杀死掉，那么人类的世界末日就可以推迟了。
But she suspects man's love of his canine companions would seal his fate because putting down every dog would be too much to ask.
但是她又说，人类对狗狗的爱将会使人类自己灭绝，因为要杀死心爱的狗狗真的是下不了手。
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