在火星表層以下很可能生活過外星生物
Alien life might have been able to flourish under the surface of Mars, according to a major new study.
根據最新一項重大研究發現，在火星表面以下可能生活過外星生命。
The red planet once had the right conditions to allow microbes to thrive there, the new research claims. Those microorganisms could have been able to survive for hundreds of millions of years on the ancient planet.
新研究表明在火星這個紅色的星球上有適宜微生物繁衍的條件。在這個古老的星球上這些微生物可能存活了數億年之久。
“We showed, based on basic physics and chemistry calculations, that the ancient Martian subsurface likely had enough dissolved hydrogen to power a global subsurface biosphere,” said Jesse Tarnas, a graduate student at Brown University and lead author of the study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. “Conditions in this habitable zone would have been similar to places on Earth where underground life exists.”
發表在《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》（國際權威地學期刊）上面的領銜文章作者Jesse Tarnas一位來自布朗大學的研究生說：“我們在基本物理和化學計算的基礎上，在古老的火星表面有足夠的溶解氫爲全球地下生物圈提供動力，火星地表下的生存環境和地球的非常相似。
Around four billion years ago, Mars would have had the same conditions that sustain huge numbers of microbes down on Earth today.
在十億年前，火星和地球上一樣生活這數量龐大的微生物。
The researchers are clear that the findings don't definitively mean that alien life existed on Mars. But they are important evidence that if life did get started there it would have been able to sustain itself.
研究人員澄清該發現並不完全代表火星上存在外星生命。不過這對於火星上存在生命並存續提供重要的證據。
By combining a range of different data about the red planet, scientists found that it probably had a habitable zone that stretched for kilometres deep and all around the world. It would have existed for hundreds of millions of years.
從這個紅色星球上收集到的一些列跨度較大的不同數據，科學家們發下，這個生命存續的區域可能延伸數千米之深，遍佈整個星球。這些微生物可能存續了數億年之久。
Scientists now hope the findings can be used to inform future trips to Mars that will attempt to find evidence of alien life.
科學家們希望該發現能夠爲將來在火星上發現外星生物有所利用。
“The mission of the 2020 rover is to look for the signs of past life,” Mustard said. “Areas where you may have remnants of this underground habitable zone — which may have been the largest habitable zone on the planet — seem like a good place to target.”
“火星2020任務是在火星上發現生命痕跡。這個區域可能是在地下可棲息的殘存區域，也就可能是這個星球上面積最大生命存在區，這樣看來地下是一個不錯的探測目的地。”Mustard如是說。
（翻譯：林潯鷗）
