记得念小学的时候,有一篇课文叫做《数星星的孩子》,讲述了汉朝天文学家张衡童年的故事。时隔这么多年,小学的很多课文我已经淡忘了,但那篇数星星的课文却依然记忆犹新。那时候,我住在杭州郊外,家门口有一个池塘,在许多个晴朗的夏夜里,我和小伙伴们也常常坐在池塘边仰望星空。那时候,郊外的天空还没有被都市的灯光所污染,在广袤的天幕下,那一颗颗璀璨夺目的星星显得格外晶莹美丽。自远古以来,这种无与伦比的美丽就吸引了一代又一代的追随者,他们中的一些人甚至将自己的一生都献给了探索星空奥秘的事业。人类寻找太阳系疆界的故事只是科学史上的几朵小小浪花,但在那些故事中有浪漫,也有艰辛,有功成名就的兴奋,也有错失良机的遗憾,它们就像天上的星星一样动人。 I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a text called “Children Counting the Stars,” telling the story of Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Han Dynasty. After so many years, I have forgotten many of the texts of elementary schools, but the number of texts in the stars is still fresh in my memory. At that time, I lived in the outskirts of Hangzhou. There was a pond on the doorstep. On many sunny summer nights, my friends and I often sat by the pond looking up at the stars. At that time, the sky outside the suburbs had not been polluted by the lights of the city. Under the vast canopy of the sky, the starry stars were extraordinarily beautiful and beautiful. Since time immemorial, this unparalleled beauty has attracted generations of followers. Some of them even dedicated their lives to exploring the mysteries of the stars. The story of human beings searching for the boundaries of the solar system is just a few small waves in the history of science. But there are romances and hardships in those stories. There is also excitement about active fame and the opportunity to miss the opportunity. They are as touching as the stars in the sky.