20多年前，美国宇航局首次对火星进行探测，可能在不知不觉中探索了由灾难性洪水形成的古老海洋的边缘。这一前景重新点燃了人们对火星上曾经有生命存在可能性的兴趣。
关键词：科普；美国；火星；译文；
•New study says NASA’s first rover mission landed on the site of a spillway from an inland sea on Mars
•一项新研究称，美国宇航局的第一个探测器降落在火星内海泄洪道的位置
•The space agency deployed its first Mars rover, the Sojourner, in 1997 along with the Pathfinder lander
•美国航天局在1997年部署了第一个火星探测器Sojourner以及着陆器Pathfinder
•According to new simulations, the features seen in this area show signs of massive floods and an ancient sea
•根据新的模拟，该地区的地貌特征显示出大规模洪水和远古海洋的迹象
NASA may have stumbled upon traces of an ancient Martian sea decades ago without realizing it.
几十年前美国宇航局可能偶然发现了火星上古老的海洋痕迹却没有意识到这一点。
According to a new study, NASA’s first Mars rover mission landed on the site of a spillway from an inland sea, where ‘catastrophic’ floods once swept over the terrain.
根据一项新的研究，美国宇航局的首个火星探测器降落在一个内陆海的泄洪道的位置，那里的“灾难性”洪水曾经席卷整个地区。
The findings come 22 years after the Pathfinder mission imaged the landscape in question, and could now add yet another piece of evidence to a growing body of research painting a picture of Mars’ wet past.
22年前，Pathfinder号完成了对这片有争议的地貌的拍摄，如今，这一发现为越来越多描绘火星潮湿历史的研究提供了新的证据。
In the new study published to the Nature journal Scientific Reports, scientists re-investigated a site imaged by NASA’s first Martian rover: the Sojourner. The Sojourner arrived to the red planet aboard the Pathfinder lander in 1997. NASA deployed its robotic explorers at the time to study a series of massive channels spotted previously by the Mariner 9 spacecraft
在发表在《自然科学报告》上的一项新研究中，科学家们重新调查了美国宇航局第一个火星探测器Sojourner拍摄的一个地点。Sojourner于1997年搭乘探Pathfinder号着陆器到达了这颗红色星球。当时，美国国家航空航天局部署了它的机器人探测器，研究了Mariner 9号航天器先前发现的一些大型通道。
Our paper shows a basin, with roughly the surface area of California, that separates most of the gigantic Martian channels from the Pathfinder landing site,’ said Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Alexis Rodriguez.
行星科学研究所资深科学家罗德里格斯说，研究报告显示，火星上有一个盆地，面积大致相当于加州的面积，它将火星上大部分巨大的通道与Pathfinder着陆点分开。
‘Debris or lava flows would have filled the basin before reaching the Pathfinder landing site. The very existence of the basin requires cataclysmic floods as the channels’ primary formational mechanism.
碎片或熔岩流在到达Pathfinder着陆地点之前就已经填满了盆地。盆地的存在需要大洪水作为河道的主要形成机制。
In the new study published to the Nature journal Scientific Reports, scientists re-investigated a site imaged by NASA’s first Martian rover: the Sojourner.
在发表在《自然科学报告》上的一项新研究中，科学家们重新调查了美国宇航局第一艘火星探测器Sojourner拍摄的一个地点。
The Sojourner arrived to the red planet aboard the Pathfinder lander in 1997.
Sojourner号于1997年搭乘Pathfinder号着陆器到达了这颗红色星球。
NASA deployed its robotic explorers at the time to study a series of massive channels spotted previously by the Mariner 9 spacecraft.
当时，美国国家航空航天局部署了它的机器人探测器，研究Mariner 9号航天器之前发现的一系列大型通道。
It was thought they could be the remnants of mega-floods much larger than anything that’s occurred on Earth.
人们认为它们可能是大洪水的残余物，比地球上任何一次洪水都大的多。
According to new simulations, the features seen in this area show signs of massive floods and an ancient sea. The sedimentary deposits (left) line up with those predicted for 'inundation from potential catastrophic floods'
根据新的模拟，该地区的地貌特征显示出大规模洪水和远古海洋的迹象。沉积物(左)与 “潜在灾难性洪水淹没”的预测排列一致。
A simulation of a flooding into the proposed inland sea is shown above. The simulation shows the water depths, velocities, and water surface elevations that developed in the area
以上显示了对注入内海的洪水的模拟。模拟显示了该地区的水深、流速和水面高度
But, when Sojourner looked at the same features, they appeared 10 times shallower than they had when observed from orbit.
但是，当Sojourner观察到同样的特征时，它们的亮度比从轨道上观察时要浅10倍。
This meant scientists could not rule out earlier – and still disputed – hypothesis that suggested the features were created by debris or lava flows, largely without the presence of water.
这就意味着科学家们不能排除早期 - 现在仍然存在争议 - 的假设，即假设这些特征是由碎片或熔岩流产生的，而且基本上没有水的存在。
The new analysis, however, could finally put the debate to rest.
然而，新的分析可能最终会平息这场争论。
According to new simulations, the features seen in this area show signs of massive floods and an ancient sea.
根据新的模拟，该地区的地貌显示出大规模洪水和远古海洋的迹象。
‘The basin is covered by sedimentary deposits with a distribution that precisely matches the inferred extent of inundation from potential catastrophic floods, which would have formed an inland sea,’ Rodriguez said.
罗德里格斯说:“盆地被沉积物覆盖，其分布与推测的潜在灾难性洪水的淹没程度完全一致，而灾难性洪水可能形成内海。”
‘This sea is approximately 250 kilometers upstream from the Pathfinder landing site, an observation that reframes its paleo-geographic setting as part of a marine spillway, which formed a land barrier separating the inland sea and a northern ocean.’
“这片海域位于Pathfinder号着陆点上游约250公里处，这一观测结果将其古地理环境重新定义为一条海洋泄洪道的一部分，该泄洪道形成了一道将内陆海域和北海洋隔开的陆地屏障。”
‘Our simulation shows that the presence of the sea would have attenuated cataclysmic floods, leading to shallow spillovers that reached the Pathfinder landing site and produced the bedforms detected by the spacecraft.’
“我们的模拟显示，海洋的存在会减弱灾难性的洪水，导致浅层溢出，到达Pathfinder着陆地点，并产生探测器探测到的河床。”
According to the team, the spillover deposits could explain the Pathfinder observations from 22 years ago.
该团队称，溢出沉积物可以解释22年前的探路者观测结果。
According to new simulations, the features seen in this area show signs of massive floods and an ancient sea. In the image above, black areas indicate smooth sedimentary mantle material
根据新的模拟，该地区的地貌特征显示出大规模洪水和远古海洋的迹象。在上图中，黑色区域表示光滑的沉积地幔物质
Much like the Aral Sea on Earth, the inland sea on Mars lacks a distinct shoreline terrace.
就像地球上的咸海一样，火星上的内陆海也没有明显的海岸线阶地。
‘Our numerical simulations indicate that the sea rapidly became ice-covered and disappeared within a few thousand years due to its rapid evaporation and sublimation,’ said PSI Senior Scientists Bryan Travis.
PSI的资深科学家布莱恩·特拉维斯说:“我们的数值模拟表明，由于海洋的快速蒸发和升华，海洋在几千年内迅速被冰雪覆盖并消失。
‘Unlike on Earth, this sea was likely groundwater fed,’ Rodriguez said.
罗德里格斯说，与地球不同的是，这片海域很可能是地下水补给的。
‘If the ancient source aquifers hosted life, the proposed marine sedimentary materials at the Pathfinder landing site might contain a record of that life, a location easily accessible by future missions.
“如果古水源含水层中存在生命，那么Pathfinder号着陆点上的海洋沉积物中可能包含了生命的记录，未来的任务很容易到达这个地点。”
According to co-author Dan Berman, the new discovery combined with previous predictions ‘strongly favors the northern ocean hypothesis.’
根据共同作者丹·伯曼的说法，这一新发现与之前的预测相结合，“强烈支持北方海洋假说”。
（责任编辑：李露）
