2023年02月27日 VOA慢速英语：研究：发现火星生命需要更好的仪器

 

A new study suggests that current tools used by scientists to look for signs of life on Mars may not be effective enough to make new discoveries.
一项新研究表明，科学家目前用于寻找火星生命迹象的工具可能不足以产生新发现。
 
A group of international scientists is raising questions about the instruments used on the latest spacecraft and vehicles to explore Mars. The concerns started after researchers carried out tests on soil and rocks in Chile's Atacama Desert. The area is one of the driest places on Earth and one of the oldest deserts in the world.
一群国际科学家正在对用于探索火星的最新航天器和车辆上使用的仪器提出疑问。在研究人员对智利阿塔卡马沙漠的土壤和岩石进行测试后，人们开始担心。该地区是地球上最干旱的地方之一，也是世界上最古老的沙漠之一。
 
The area – which is geologically similar to Mars – is often used by scientists to carry out experiments to improve Mars research methods.
该区域在地质学上与火星相似，经常被科学家用来进行实验以改进火星研究方法。
 
The team tested material from a fossil-rich area in the desert called Red Stone. It was once a body of water that now contains a large collection of microorganisms. Such microorganisms, also called microbes, are commonly studied in the search for ancient life on Mars.
该团队测试了来自沙漠中富含化石的地区红石的材料。它曾经是一片水域，现在含有大量微生物。这种微生物，也称为微生物，通常在寻找火星上的古代生命时进行研究。
 
The American space agency NASA says this part of the Atacama Desert is dry and rocky and experiences extreme temperatures and severe radiation from the sun. "If you can find life here, you might be able to find it in an even harsher environment – like the surface of Mars," the space agency said in a statement.
美国航天局美国国家航空航天局表示，阿塔卡马沙漠的这一部分干燥多岩石，经历着极端温度和强烈的太阳辐射。 “如果你能在这里找到生命，你可能会在更恶劣的环境中找到它——比如火星表面，”该航天局在一份声明中说。
 
Researchers from NASA and other organizations have spent time in the desert testing instruments meant to be used to search for signs of ancient life forms on Mars. Such testing is carried out in areas where bodies of water once existed.
来自美国国家航空航天局和其他组织的研究人员在沙漠中花费了一段时间测试仪器，这些仪器旨在用于寻找火星上古代生命形式的迹象。此类测试在曾经存在水体的地区进行。
 
This is because those areas, called deltas, contain higher levels of ancient microbes to study. The Red Stone area was a river delta about 100 million years ago.
这是因为那些被称为三角洲的区域包含更高水平的古代微生物以供研究。红石地区在大约一亿年前是一个河流三角洲。
 
In the most recent research, the team tested four instruments at Red Stone that are either currently being used on Mars or are to be used in the future. Research results were recently published in a study in Nature Communications.
在最近的研究中，该团队在红石实验室测试了四种目前正在火星上使用或将在未来使用的仪器。研究结果最近发表在 Nature Communications 的一项研究中。
 
The scientists said the instruments were not able to make clear identifications of several "signatures," or signs, that would suggest the presence of "current and ancient microorganisms."
科学家们说，这些仪器无法清楚地识别出几个“特征”或迹象，这些“特征”或迹象表明存在“现代和古代微生物”。
 
The researchers said the instruments did find "numerous" microbes of unknown classification. Scientists call such microbes "dark microbiome" and they are of limited use in efforts to search for past life on Mars.
研究人员表示，这些仪器确实发现了“大量”未知分类的微生物。科学家称这种微生物为“暗微生物组”，它们在寻找火星过去的生命方面的作用有限。
 
The team said their testing led them to believe that the latest instruments used on Mars "might not be sensitive enough" to effectively make discoveries about possible life.
该团队表示，他们的测试让他们相信，火星上使用的最新仪器“可能不够灵敏”，无法有效地发现可能存在的生命。
 
Armando Azua-Bustos was the study's lead writer. He said new instruments and technologies should be considered to improve the current tools used to confirm microbes on Mars.
Armando Azua-Bustos 是该研究的主要作者。他说，应该考虑使用新的仪器和技术来改进目前用于确认火星微生物的工具。
 
Azua-Bustos is a research scientist at the Center of Astrobiology in Madrid, Spain. He said ineffective instruments can make confirmed identifications of microbes extremely difficult. The high chance of getting false negatives in the search for life on Mars "highlights the need for more powerful tools," he said.
Azua-Bustos 是西班牙马德里天体生物学中心的研究科学家。他说，无效的仪器会使微生物的确认鉴定变得极其困难。他说，在火星上寻找生命时出现假阴性的可能性很高，“这凸显了对更强大工具的需求”。
 
The team is suggesting that space agencies either put more complex instruments on Mars or bring samples back to Earth for close examination. Such efforts will be needed "to conclusively address whether life ever existed on Mars," the researchers said.
该团队建议太空机构要么在火星上放置更复杂的仪器，要么将样本带回地球进行仔细检查。研究人员说，将需要这样的努力“最终确定火星上是否曾经存在过生命”。
 
Both of these plans, however, are extremely difficult to carry out, said Alberto Fairén. He is a visiting scientist in the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University in New York.
然而，这两个计划都极难实施，Alberto Fairén 说。他是纽约康奈尔大学天文学系的访问科学家。
 
Fairén urged planetary researchers to decide which methods are more effective at searching for past life on Mars. The first possibility would be to use the limited abilities and instruments currently on Mars for studying many samples. The other would be to have limited samples examined by the best instruments on Earth designed to identify signs of microbial life.
Fairén 行星研究人员决定哪种方法更有效地寻找火星上的过去生命。第一种可能性是利用目前火星上有限的能力和仪器来研究许多样本。另一种方法是让地球上最好的仪器检查有限的样本，这些仪器旨在识别微生物生命的迹象。
 
NASA currently operates two explorers, or rovers, on Mars. One vehicle, Curiosity, is searching an area called Mount Sharp, within the planet's Gale Crater. Curiosity has been active in the area since landing on Mars in 2012. In addition, NASA's Perseverance rover has been gathering rock, soil and atmospheric samples at Mars' Jezero Crater since September 2021. Both areas are believed to have contained large water bodies in the distant past.
美国国家航空航天局目前在火星上运营着两个探索者或漫游者。一辆车，好奇号，正在搜索地球盖尔陨石坑内一个叫做夏普山的区域。自 2012 年登陆火星以来，好奇号一直活跃在该地区。此外，自 2021 年 9 月以来，NASA 的毅力号火星车一直在火星的 Jezero 陨石坑采集岩石、土壤和大气样本。据信，这两个区域都含有大量水体遥远的过去。
 
Materials collected by the rovers are expected to be returned to Earth in a future mission. That mission – a joint effort 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的任务中返回地球。该任务是 NASA 和欧洲航天局 (ESA) 的共同努力，计划于 2028 年完成。