The American space agency’s Mars explorer, Curiosity, has reached a new area of the planet Mars as it searches for evidence of water and possible life.
美国航天局的火星探测器“好奇号”在寻找水和可能存在生命的证据时已经到达火星的一个新区域。
The explorer, or rover, recently arrived at an area called the Gediz Vallis Channel. Researchers said the area was chosen because evidence suggested that it once held large amounts of liquid water. The term “channel” describes a natural bed that carries water.
探险家或漫游者最近到达了一个名为盖迪兹山谷海峡的地区。研究人员表示，选择该地区是因为有证据表明该地区曾经拥有大量液态水。 “渠道”一词描述了输送水的天然河床。
Curiosity arrived on Mars in 2012 and began exploring areas around the planet’s huge Gale Crater. Mars is a cold, dry desert today. But the Gale Crater area is believed to have contained a lake at one time and has shown other evidence of flowing water in the past.
好奇号于 2012 年抵达火星，并开始探索火星巨大盖尔陨石坑周围的区域。今天的火星是一片寒冷、干燥的沙漠。但据信盖尔陨石坑地区曾经有一个湖泊，并且在过去也曾出现过其他流水的证据。
A large meteor strike about 3.7 billion years ago is believed to have formed the crater . At the time, scientists believe groundwater filled Gale Crater while additional water flowed in from rivers fed by rain or melting snow. This is thought to have formed Gale Crater’s large lake.
据信大约 37 亿年前的一次大型流星撞击形成了这个陨石坑。当时，科学家认为地下水充满了盖尔陨石坑，而额外的水则从雨水或融雪注入的河流中流入。人们认为这形成了盖尔陨石坑的大湖。
Since 2014, Curiosity has been exploring an area called Mount Sharp, which sits about five kilometers above the floor of Gale Crater. NASA said the new area contains formations created “over millions of years amid a changing Martian climate.”
自 2014 年以来，好奇号一直在探索一个名为夏普山的地区，该地区位于盖尔陨石坑底部约五公里处。美国宇航局表示，这个新区域包含“数百万年来在不断变化的火星气候中”形成的地层。
Curiosity will be searching for evidence of ancient water in areas around Gediz Vallis Channel, with studies centered on how the channel formed. NASA scientists said they do not think wind formed it because the sides of it are too high. From space, the channel looks like an ancient riverbed, the agency said . Later, the channel filled with large rocks and other forms of debris .
好奇号将在盖迪兹山谷海峡周围地区寻找古代水的证据，研究的重点是该海峡是如何形成的。美国宇航局科学家表示，他们认为它不是由风形成的，因为它的侧面太高了。该机构表示，从太空看，该海峡就像一条古老的河床。后来，通道里充满了大块岩石和其他形式的碎片。
Last month, Curiosity documented the Gediz Vallis Channel with a 360-degree black-and-white picture captured by one of the rover’s cameras.
上个月，好奇号用流动站的一台相机拍摄的 360 度黑白照片记录了盖迪兹山谷海峡。
The rover’s new exploring activities can provide scientists with “a new way to study how the presence of both water and the chemical ingredients required for life changed over time,” NASA said. The first formations to be examined contain sulfates, which are salty minerals often created when liquid water evaporates .
美国宇航局表示，火星车的新探索活动可以为科学家提供“一种研究水和生命所需化学成分的存在如何随时间变化的新方法”。第一个要检查的地层含有硫酸盐，这是液态水蒸发时通常产生的咸矿物质。
NASA said Curiosity also uncovered evidence of clay minerals in the Mount Sharp area. This suggests past interactions between large amounts of water and rock.
美国宇航局表示，好奇号还在夏普山地区发现了粘土矿物的证据。这表明过去大量的水和岩石之间存在相互作用。
Movements of water and minerals can also produce a material called sediment, particles that settle on the bottom of bodies of water over time. Examinations of these sediments can provide additional evidence of past water and possible life.
水和矿物质的运动也会产生一种称为沉积物的物质，随着时间的推移，这些颗粒会沉积在水体的底部。对这些沉积物的检查可以提供过去水和可能存在生命的额外证据。
Ashwin Vasavada is a Curiosity project scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. He said in a statement, “If the channel or the debris pile were formed by liquid water, that’s very interesting.”
阿什温·瓦萨瓦达 (Ashwin Vasavada) 是美国宇航局加利福尼亚州喷气推进实验室的好奇号项目科学家。他在一份声明中说：“如果通道或碎片堆是由液态水形成的，那就非常有趣了。”
Vasavada added, “It would mean that fairly late in the story of Mount Sharp – after a long dry period – water came back, and in a big way.”
瓦萨瓦达补充道，“这意味着在夏普山故事的相当后期——在经历了长时间的干旱之后——水又回来了，而且是在很大程度上。”
NASA currently operates two rovers on Mars. The other one, Perseverance, has been exploring the planet’s Jezero Crater since September 2021. It has collected rock, soil and atmospheric materials during that time. Jezero Crater is also believed to have contained large water bodies in the distant past.
美国宇航局目前在火星上运行着两辆漫游车。另一艘“毅力号”自 2021 年 9 月以来一直在探索地球的 Jezero 陨石坑。在此期间，它收集了岩石、土壤和大气物质。据信，杰泽罗陨石坑在遥远的过去也曾存在过大型水体。
Materials collected by the rovers are expected to be returned to Earth in the future. That effort, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), is planned for 2028.
漫游者收集的材料预计将在未来返回地球。这项工作是 NASA 和欧洲航天局 (ESA) 的联合任务，计划于 2028 年进行。