These photographic plates were incredibly difficult to work with.

这些照相底片非常难以使用。

First, a photographic plate is coated with a light-sensitive material.

首先，在照相板上涂上感光材料。

When I tell people about using photographic plates to study the universe, it does sound ridiculous.

当我告诉人们用照相底片研究宇宙时，听起来确实很荒谬。

This is Edwin Hubble, and Hubble used photographic plates to completely change our entire understanding of how big the universe is and how it works.

这就是埃德温·哈勃，哈勃用感光底片彻底改变了我们对宇宙有多大及其运作方式的全部认识。

In Paris, physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovers during an experiment that uranium leaves a trace -- or darkens -- a photographic plate without any other light source.

在巴黎，物理学家亨利·贝克勒尔在一次实验中意外发现， 在没有任何其他光源的情况下， 铀会在照相底片上留下痕迹， 或者说使底片变暗。

Natural radioactivity was first discovered by Henri Becquerel, who observed how a chunk of mineral that contained uranium affected a photographic plate that was covered up by paper.

Henri Becquerel 首先发现了天然放射性，他观察了一大块含有铀的矿物如何影响被纸覆盖的感光板。

New technologies in astronomy -- things like lenses, photographic plates, all the way up to space telescopes -- each gave us new ways to see the universe and directly led to a new understanding of our place in it.

天文学中的新技术——像镜头、照相底片，一直到太空望远镜——每一项都给了我们观察宇宙的新方法， 并直接导致了对我们在其中的位置的新认识。