Star Wars: why Princess Leia is nearly two years older than twin Luke Skywalker
Star Wars: why Princess Leia is nearly two years older than twin Luke Skywalker
By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
星战：为啥莱娅比她的双胞胎哥哥卢克大了近两岁
Relative velocity time dilation means that Princess Leia is older than Luke Skywalker, according to scientists
依据科学家的说法，相对速度时间膨胀意味着莱娅比卢克更老
They are supposed to be twins, but Princess Leia would actually be nearly two years older than Luke Skywalker because of Einstein’s theory of relativity, say scientists.
科学家说，他们确实是双胞胎，但根据爱因斯坦的相对论，莱娅实际上要比卢克大了接近两岁。
The fact that Luke and Leia are brother and sister is one of the major revelations of the original Star Wars trilogy.
卢克和莱娅是兄妹的真相是原《星球大战》三部曲的主要启示之一。
But because of relative velocity time dilation - which describes the bending of spacetime due to differences in speed - their different journeys through space in various craft would change how fast they are ageing.
但是由于相对速度时间膨胀（由于速度差异所导致的时空弯曲）他们在多次航行中经过不同的太空之旅会改变他们衰老的速度。
Under Einstein’s theory of relativity time ticks more slowly on an object that is moving at a higher speed. It would mean a person standing on Earth watching a spacecraft moving would see a clock tick more quickly on the ground, compared with one they could see on the ship.
通过爱因斯坦的相对论，对于以更高速度移动的物体时间过得更慢。类似于，一个站在地球上观看飞船移动的人会看到地球上的时钟走得更快，如果在飞船上看到的时钟就会走得慢一些。
Students at the University of Leicester made their calculations based on the twins’ journeys to Cloud City. Leia travels from the neighbouring system of Anoat and arrives at Cloud City in around 6.72 hours, while Luke travels from the much more distant planet Dagobah, which takes around one week.
莱斯特大学的学生基于这对双胞胎的云城之旅做了个计算。莱娅从邻近的阿诺阿特星区出发，大约6.72小时到达云城，而卢克则从更遥远的达戈巴星球出发，到达云城大约需要一周的时间。
Additionally, as Leia travels in the Millennium Falcon, a much larger ship with more powerful engines than Luke’s X-Wing Starfighter, the students assumed that it reaches a higher speed.
此外，由于莱娅乘坐千年隼旅行，这是一艘装配着更强发动机、比卢克的X-Wing Starfighter更大的飞船，莱斯特大学的学生们假定它速度更快。
Leia’s journey yields a time dilation of 62.6 days; however Luke experiences a time dilation of 700.8 days.
莱娅的旅程产生了62.6天的时间膨胀; 然而卢克产生了700.8天的时间膨胀。
The students concluded that Luke is therefore 1.75 years younger than Leia, possibly rendering them the first twins ever to have more than a year between their ages.
学生们得出结论，卢克比莱娅年轻1.75岁，可能使他们成为有史以来第一对年龄差超过一年的双胞胎。
In the second scenario the students considered gravitational time dilation - the slowing of time due to gravity. Cloud City, a mining station, floats above the clouds of the planet Bespin, a gas giant very similar to Jupiter. An observer at a distance far from the planet would see time pass more quickly than an observer on the surface.
在第二种情景中，学生们考虑了引力时间膨胀（由于引力导致的时间减慢）。云城是漂浮在贝斯平星球的云层之上的一个采矿站，，贝斯平星球是一个非常类似于木星的气态巨星。远离星球的观察者会比星球表面上的观察者更快地看到时间变化。
Lead author Thomas Griffiths said: “For Luke to become the same age as Leia he would have to orbit the gas giant for 9.77 million years.”
第一作者托马斯格里菲斯说：“如果要让卢克成为与莱娅相同的年龄，他必须在气态巨星的轨道上航行977万年。”
“While it is not demonstrated in the film, the twins will actually have aged very differently due to their extensive travelling at speeds close to that of light. "
“虽然在电影中没有证明这一点，但由于这对双胞胎多次以接近光线的速度旅行，所以他们实际上的衰老程度会差距明显。”
“Despite Luke’s journey being twenty five times longer than Leia’s, the time dilation he experienced was only around ten times larger. This shows that miniscule changes in relativistic speeds have significant effects on the dilation observed. An attempt was made to use gravitational time dilation as a tool to restore the difference between the ages of the twins. "
“尽管卢克的旅程比莱娅的长25倍，但他所经历的时间膨胀只有大约十倍。这表明相对论速度的微小变化对所观察到的膨胀有显著影响。试图利用引力时间膨胀作为恢复双胞胎年龄差异的工具。”
“The results above indicate that this type of time dilation has a much less significant effect than velocity time dilation. Due to the length of time required to correct for the velocity time dilation, the gravitational dilation would be unfeasible to correct the age difference of the twins as they would need to be 9.77 million years old in proper time. "
“上述结果表明，这种时间膨胀的效果远不如速度时间膨胀。考虑到缩短速度时间膨胀所需的时间长度，重力膨胀对于缩短双胞胎的年龄差距是不可行的，因为它们需要在恰当的时间内达到977万年。”
“ Even at very large distances away from the gas giant, time does not pass considerably faster as the gravitational pull of the planet becomes negligible."
“即使距离气态巨星很远，时间也不会快得特别多，因为行星的引力可以忽略不计。”
The calculation is a good example of the physics phenomenon, the twin paradox. which states that twins travelling relativistically appear to age differently to one another due to time dilation.
这个计算是物理现象的一个很好的例子，孪生悖论。这表明，由于时间膨胀，相对地时空旅行的双胞胎似乎彼此年龄不同。
