2022年11月02日 VOA慢速英語：美國宇航局航天器記錄新的和更大的流星撞擊火星

 
Two NASA spacecraft have recorded the biggest meteor strikes and impact craters on Mars than ever before.
美國宇航局的兩艘宇宙飛船記錄了火星上最大的流星撞擊和撞擊 坑，這是前所未有的。
 
One of the spacecraft is on Mars' surface. The other is orbiting the planet.
其中一艘宇宙飛船在火星表面。另一個是繞行星運行。
 
The impacts last year produced seismic waves that travelled thousands of kilometers across Mars. These are the first seismic waves scientists have ever found near the surface of another planet. The hits produced craters nearly 150 meters wide, scientists reported Thursday in the journal Science.
去年的撞擊產生了穿越火星數(shù)千公里的地震波。這是科學家們在另一個行星表面附近發(fā)現(xiàn)的第一批地震波?？茖W家們周四在《科學》雜志上報道說，這些撞擊產生了近 150 米寬的隕石坑。
 
The larger of the two strikes threw out large pieces of ice. That information may help researchers find ways future astronauts can use Mars' natural resources.
兩次打擊中較大的一次拋出了大塊冰塊。這些信息可能有助于研究人員找到未來宇航員使用火星自然資源的方法。
 
The Insight lander measured the seismic waves, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter provided pictures of the craters.
洞察號著陸器測量了地震波，而火星勘測軌道器提供了隕石坑的圖片。
 
Liliya Posiolova of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego is one of the study investigators. She said scientists were lucky to be able match the seismic waves with pictures of the impact craters.
圣地亞哥馬林空間科學系統(tǒng)公司的 Liliya Posiolova 是該研究的調查員之一。她說，科學家們很幸運能夠將地震波與撞擊坑的圖片相匹配。
 
Mars' atmosphere is thin. On Earth, the thick atmosphere stops most space rocks from reaching the ground. Instead, the rocks break apart and burn in the atmosphere.
火星的大氣層很稀薄。在地球上，厚厚的大氣層阻止了大多數(shù)太空巖石到達地面。相反，巖石在大氣中分解并燃燒。
 
InSight is close to the end of its operation. Its power equipment is covered in dust from storms on Mars and failing. InSight landed on Mars in 2018 and has since recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes. A marsquake is similar to an earthquake.
InSight 的運營已接近尾聲。它的動力設備被火星上的風暴和故障所覆蓋的灰塵所覆蓋。洞察號于 2018 年登陸火星，此后記錄了 1,300 多次火星地震。大地震類似于地震。
 
Bruce Banerdt of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lander's chief scientist who took part in the studies, estimated the lander had between four to eight more weeks before power runs out.
美國宇航局噴氣推進實驗室的布魯斯·班納特 (Bruce Banerdt) 是參與研究的著陸器首席科學家，他估計著陸器在電力耗盡之前還有四到八周的時間。
 
The space rocks were between 5 meters and 12 meters wide, said Posiolova. The larger of the two struck last December about 3,500 kilometers from InSight, creating a crater about 21 meters deep. The Orbiter's cameras showed material thrown as far as 40 kilometers from the impact. They also showed white spots of ice around the crater, the most frozen water observed at such low latitudes, Posiolova said.
Posiolova 說，太空巖石的寬度在 5 米到 12 米之間。去年 12 月，兩者中較大的一個在距離洞察號約 3,500 公里處撞擊，形成了一個深約 21 米的隕石坑。軌道飛行器的攝像機顯示了距離撞擊點 40 公里遠的物質。波西奧洛娃說，他們還在火山口周圍顯示了白色的冰點，這是在如此低緯度地區(qū)觀察到的最冰凍的水。
 
Posiolova found the crater earlier this year after taking extra pictures of the region from orbit. The crater was missing from earlier photos. After looking at older photos, the scientist dated the impact to late December. She also remembered a large seismic event recorded by InSight around that time. With help from the Insight team, Posiolova connected the new hole to the strike.
今年早些時候，波西奧洛娃在從軌道上拍攝了該地區(qū)的額外照片后發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個隕石坑。早先的照片中沒有這個隕石坑。在查看了較舊的照片后，這位科學家將這次撞擊確定為 12 月下旬。她還記得當時 InSight 記錄的一次大型地震事件。在洞察團隊的幫助下，波西奧洛娃將新洞與擊球聯(lián)系起來。
 
Scientists also learned that the lander and orbiter both recorded an earlier meteoroid strike. It was more than double the distance of the December one and a little smaller.
科學家們還了解到，著陸器和軌道飛行器都記錄了較早的流星撞擊。這是十二月的距離的兩倍多，而且更小。
 
"Everybody was just shocked and amazed," Posiolova remembered.
“每個人都感到震驚和驚訝，”波西奧洛娃回憶道。
 
The seismic readings from the two impacts point to a denser Martian layer of ground beyond InSight's location.
兩次撞擊的地震讀數(shù)表明，在 InSight 所在位置之外的火星地層更密集。
 
Doyeon Kim of ETH Zurich's Institute of Geophysics in Switzerland, was part of the research. He said scientists still have much to learn about the deeper structure of Mars.
瑞士蘇黎世聯(lián)邦理工學院地球物理研究所的 Doyeon Kim 參與了這項研究。 他說，關于火星的更深結構，科學家們還有很多需要了解。
 
Outside scientists said future landers from Europe and China will carry even more advanced equipment to detect seismic waves.
外部科學家表示，未來來自歐洲和中國的著陸器將攜帶更先進的設備來探測地震波。