人類探測器首次登陸彗星

An unmanned probe touched down on a comet for the first time on Wednesday, as the European Space Agency’s Philae lander successfully negotiated a perilous seven-hour descent from its Rosetta mother ship on to the irregular nucleus of Comet 67P.

一個無人駕駛的探測器週三首次在一顆彗星表面着陸，歐洲航天局(European Space Agency)的飛來號(Philae)着陸器成功與母船羅塞塔號(Rosetta)分離，在危險中下降了7個小時，最終在彗星67P的不規則中心着陸。

Scientists at ESA mission headquarters erupted in applause shortly after 4pm GMT as a radio signal from Philae 511m km away confirmed that the washing-machine-sized probe had reached the surface.

在格林威治時間週三下午4點後不久，歐洲航天局任務總部的科學家們爆發出熱烈掌聲，“飛來號”從距離地球5.11億公里的地方發來的一個無線信號證實，這個洗衣機大小的探測器已在彗星表面着陸。

“The lander is talking to us,” said an emotional Stephan Ulamec, Philae manager, after the first signal came through. “We are extremely relieved to be safely on the surface of the comet, especially given the extra challenge of the comet’s unusual shape and unexpectedly hazardous surface,” he added. “In the next hours we’ll learn exactly where and how we’ve landed, and we’ll start getting as much science as we can from the surface of this fascinating world.”

“着陸器在跟我們說話，”“飛來號”主管史蒂芬•烏拉美克(Stephan Ulamec)在第一個信號傳來後激動的表示，“得知着陸器已安全抵達彗星表面，我們徹底鬆了一口氣，特別是在這顆彗星的形狀不同尋常且表面意外危險的情況下，”他補充稱：“未來幾個小時，我們將搞清楚它是在哪裏着陸以及如何着陸的，我們將開始從這個迷人世界的表面獲得儘可能多的科學數據。”

Philae separated from Rosetta at 9am on Wednesday morning. ESA scientists had dubbed Philae’s descent to the comet “seven hours of terror” – an echo of the “seven minutes of terror” endured by their Nasa counterparts before the successful landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012.

“飛來號”是在週三早晨9點與羅塞塔號分離的。歐洲航天局的科學家們將“飛來號”下降抵達彗星的過程稱爲“恐怖7小時”，這與美國國家航空航天局(Nasa)在2012年“好奇號”(Curiosity)探測器在火星成功着陸之前經歷的“恐怖7分鐘”形成呼應。

If anything, the Philae landing was even more perilous. While Curiosity dropped on to a relatively smooth Martian surface, Philae landed on a duck-shaped lump of ice, dust and rock just 4km wide, strewn with boulders and shooting out unpredictable jets of gas.

“飛來號”的着陸更加危險。“好奇號”是在相對平滑的火星表面着陸的，而“飛來號”則是降落在一塊鴨子形狀、由冰、塵埃和岩石組成的塊狀物上，只有4公里寬，周圍散佈着巨石，而且噴射出無法預測的氣流。

Before the landing, mission managers said anchoring would be needed because 67P’s gravitational pull is too weak to hold Philae firmly in place. After touchdown they discovered that Philae had landed without its harpoons firing successfully.

在着陸前，此次飛行任務的主管們表示，着陸器需要固定，因爲彗星67P的引力太小，無法讓“飛來號”緊緊固定。在着陸後，他們發現，“飛來號”是在沒有成功發射魚叉的情況下着陸的。

Philae will start scientific investigations of the comet immediately. Various instruments will look at the physics and chemistry of the surface, while drills extract subsurface samples and deliver them to the probe’s onboard laboratory for further analysis.

“飛來號”將立即展開科學調查。各種工具將考察彗星表面的物理和化學結構，同時鑽頭將提取地表下樣本，並將它們送至探測器的機載實驗室，進行進一步分析。

Scientists are looking forward eagerly to the results because cometary material is believed to have changed little since the formation of the solar system 4.5bn years ago.

科學家們正熱情期待着這些結果，因爲據信，自太陽系於4億年前形成以來，彗星物質幾乎沒有發生變化。

Although the initial science phase will last for just three days – the lifetime of Philae’s primary batteries – mission scientists hope its solar panels will enable it to study the change in conditions for a few months as it approaches the sun, heating up and becoming ever more active.

儘管最初的科學考察期僅會持續3天（“飛來號”主電池的壽命），但此次任務的科學家們希望探測器上的太陽能電池板能夠讓探測器在未來幾個月，在彗星接近太陽、燃燒以及變得更爲活躍時考察其狀態的變化。

“Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our Solar System,” said Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist. “What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? What role did comets play in this evolution? How do comets work?”

“羅塞塔號正試圖解答有關我們太陽系的一些非常重要的問題，”羅塞塔號項目科學家馬特•泰勒(Matt Taylor)表示，“在太陽系形成初期它是什麼狀態？它是如何進化的？彗星在這種進化中起到了什麼作用？彗星如何運轉？”