火星有水意味着什么?

Water on Mars¹: What Does It Mean? 火星有水意味着什么?

For centuries, humans have wondered whether there is life on Mars.

Scientists have asked why Mars is losing its atmosphere. Last week, the question was answered with a song.

“The answer, is blowing in the wind,” said Michael Meyer, taking a line from a Bob Dylan song. Meyer is the lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

It turns out solar winds from the sun are slowly stripping away Mars’ atmosphere. That is what NASA scientists explained at a press conference Thursday.

Bruce Jakosky is principal investigator² on the MAVEN team. MAVEN stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile³ Evolution. It is a spacecraft that collects information from Mars as it circles the planet.

Today, Mars has a thin atmosphere. It is cold and dry, with a desert-like environment. Jakosky says it used to be much different.

“When we look at ancient Mars, we see a different type of surface. One that had valleys that looked like they were carved by water, lakes that were standing⁴ for a long periods of time. We see an environment that was much more able to support liquid water.”

NASA scientists have used the phrase “follow the water” in their work to understand Mars.

Recently they found a kind of liquid water that flows with salt down a mountain area of the planet. But, it is not always there.

Scientist Michael Meyer describes what they found:

“We’re seeing water, with the salt that’s able to flow down the sides of the cliff.  Why is this important? That   means there is water on Mars, on the surface of Mars today.”

Scientists already knew that ice exists at the polar caps of Mars. So why is it important to find liquid water? Meyer explains:

“It means that we have a resource. And when we’re looking at sending humans to Mars, water is one of the key things that we need to have. Not only for the astronauts to drink, but also to make oxygen, to make fuel, and so having a ready resource there on the planet make a big difference in terms of how much stuff you have to bring with you.”

Sending humans to Mars is still in the distant future. NASA is aiming for the 2030s. The space agency has even started a recruiting⁵ campaign to hire new astronauts. Those chosen might fly any number of space vehicles still in development.

Both U.S. government and private industries are developing rockets and spacecraft to get people to Mars.

Many questions need to be answered: How do you protect humans from radiation in space? How do you grow food in space ships on the way to Mars? How do they grow food once they arrive on Mars? Having access to water on the planet will be critical to that effort.

Meanwhile, American astronaut Scott Kelly just passed a halfway⁶ mark. Kelly, and Russian Mikhail Kornienko, are spending a year on the International Space Station circling the Earth. Scientists want to know how the human body reacts to being in space for long periods of time.

Whether there is life on Mars remains⁷ unanswered. But some scientists say they think there might be some kind of microbial life on the planet.

Michael Meyer is more cautious⁸, saying it has yet to be proven. He says there could be life there today, if it ever got started there in the first place. Finding life, however small, on another planet in our solar system would be so exciting:

“Whether or not there’s life on Mars doesn’t matter, whether or not I think so, or don’t think so.  I’m a scientist, I want to go and find out. The real point is we don’t know, but it’s a good question. It’s a reasonable question. It’s something we should be pursuing. ‘Cause imagine how exciting that would be to find evidence of life somewhere else, not on our planet.”

And that, finding life on another planet, would certainly change the way we view the whole universe.

Words in This Story

strip (ping) -  v. to remove matter from something

distant - adj. far away

microbial - adj. extremely small living thing

cautious - adj. careful

solar system - n. our sun and the planets that move around it

1 Mars   

n.火星，战争

参考例句：

• As of now we don't know much about Mars.目前我们对火星还知之甚少。
• He contended that there must be life on Mars.他坚信火星上面一定有生物。

2 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

3 volatile   

adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质

参考例句：

• With the markets being so volatile,investments are at great risk.由于市场那么变化不定，投资冒着很大的风险。
• His character was weak and volatile.他这个人意志薄弱，喜怒无常。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 recruiting   

招聘( recruit的现在分词 )； 吸收某人为新成员； 动员…（提供帮助）； 雇用

参考例句：

• We are recruiting a sales manager with responsibility for the European market. 我们正在招聘负责欧洲市场的销售经理。
• "Hoist the recruiting flag and hungry men will come. “插起招军旗，就有吃粮人。”

6 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 cautious   

adj.十分小心的，谨慎的

参考例句：

• We should not only be bold,but also be cautious.我们不仅要大胆，而且要谨慎。
• He was cautious about his work.他对工作非常谨慎。