So that's your solar system. And what else is out there, beyond the solar system? 这就是你所在的太阳系。太阳系之外还有别的什么？

Well, nothing and a great deal, depending on how you look at it. 哎呀，也许什么也没有，也许有很多东西，这取决于你怎么看这个问题。

In the short term, it's nothing. 从短期来说，什么也没有。

The most perfect vacuum ever created by humans is not as empty as the emptiness of interstellar space. 人类创造的最完美的真空，都不如星际空间那样空空荡荡。

And there is a great deal of this nothingness until you get to the next bit of something. 那里有大量的这种"空空荡荡"，直到你抵达下一个"有点东西"。

Our nearest neighbor in the cosmos¹, Proxima Centauri, which is part of the three-star cluster known as Alpha Centauri, 宇宙里我们最近的邻居是比邻星，它是那个三星云团的组成部分，名叫α星，

is 4.3 light-years away, a sissy skip in galactic terms, 位于4.3光年以外，这在星系用语中只是微不足道的一点时间，

but that is still a hundred million times farther than a trip to the Moon. 但仍然要比去月球旅行远1亿倍。

To reach it by spaceship would take at least twenty-five thousand years, 乘宇宙飞船去那里，至少要花25 000年；

and even if you made the trip you still wouldn't be anywhere except at a lonely clutch of stars in the middle of a vast nowhere. 即使你真的做这次旅行，你仍然到不了任何地方，只会看到茫茫空间的中央悬着一簇寂寞的星星。

To reach the next landmark² of consequence³, Sirius, would involve another 4.6 light-years of travel. 若要抵达下一个有意义的陆标天狼星，还有4.6光年的行程。

And so it would go if you tried to star-hop your way across the cosmos. 因此，如果你想要以"越星"的方式穿越宇宙的话，情况就会是这样。

Just reaching the center of our own galaxy⁴ would take far longer than we have existed as beings. 即使抵达我们自己银河系的中心，也要花上比我们作为人的存在长得多的时间。

Space, let me repeat, is enormous. 我再来重复一遍，空间是巨大的。

The average distance between stars out there is 20 million million miles. 恒星之间的平均距离超过30万亿公里。

Even at speeds approaching those of light, these are fantastically challenging distances for any traveling individual. 即使以光的速度去那里，这对任何想去旅行的个人来说都是极富挑战性的距离。

Of course, it is possible that alien beings travel billions of miles to amuse themselves by planting crop circles in Wiltshire 当然，为了逗乐，外星人有可能旅行几十亿公里来到威尔特郡种植庄稼，

or frightening the daylights out of some poor guy in a pickup⁵ truck on a lonely road in Arizona 或者来到亚利桑那州哪一条人迹稀少的路上，把行驶中的小卡车上的哪个可怜虫吓得魂飞胆丧，

(they must have teenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely. （他们之中毕竟肯定有年轻人）但这种事似乎永远不会发生。