火星表面的藍(lán)色隕石坑讓天文學(xué)家們驚嘆不已

Blue crater on the Martian surface wows astronomers

A stunning blue crater has been discovered on the surface of Mars.

在火星表面發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)驚人的藍(lán)色隕石坑。

The 16m-wide pockmark was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in April, using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.

今年4月，美國(guó)宇航局的火星勘測(cè)軌道飛行器，用高分辨率成像科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)(HiRISE)相機(jī)拍攝到了這個(gè)16米寬的隕石坑。

The stunning image shows streaks of grey exploding from the impact site, one side glowing blue.

這張令人震驚的照片顯示，從撞擊地點(diǎn)爆炸所顯示的灰色條紋中，有一邊閃耀著藍(lán)色。

(Photo credit: NASA)

"That has not yet been confirmed, but commonly, when a HiRISE image of a new impact shows a blue area, it is sometimes water ice," HiRISE team member Veronica Bray told CNN.

“雖然還沒有得到證實(shí)，但通常情況下，HiRISE拍攝的撞擊圖像顯示出藍(lán)色區(qū)域時(shí)，有時(shí)是冰塊，”Hirise團(tuán)隊(duì)成員Veronica Bray告訴CNN。

It's not clear when the crater was formed. The orbiter can't cover the whole planet at once, so NASA's best estimate is it was formed somewhere between September 2016 and February 2019, by a meteorite about 1.5m across.

目前還不清楚該隕石坑是何時(shí)形成的。這顆人造衛(wèi)星無法同時(shí)檢測(cè)整個(gè)火星，所以美國(guó)宇航局給出的的最佳估計(jì)是，它是在2016年9月至2019年2月之間的某個(gè)地方，由一顆直徑約1.5米的隕石形成的。

A rock that size wouldn't have made it to Earth's surface, burning up in our much thicker atmosphere.

這個(gè)體積的巖石不太可能到達(dá)地球表面，因?yàn)樗鼤?huì)在地球厚厚的大氣層中燃燒殆盡。

"It's a gorgeous [crater]," Bray told space.com.

布雷向space.com表示，“這是一個(gè)美麗的隕石坑。”

Whether it's ice or not will be hard to determine, as the instrument onboard that measures that kind of thing is well past its use-by date. The orbiter was launched in 2005, and only expected to function for two years once in orbit around Mars.

由于衛(wèi)星上用來測(cè)量這種物質(zhì)的儀器早已過時(shí)，所以是不是冰將很難確定。這顆人造衛(wèi)星于2005年發(fā)射，當(dāng)時(shí)的預(yù)期只是進(jìn)入火星軌道運(yùn)行兩年。

NASA's next Mars mission, tentatively titled Mars 2020, is expected to include a drone that will launch from the space /agency's next rover.

美國(guó)宇航局的下一個(gè)火星任務(wù)，暫定名為“火星2020”，預(yù)計(jì)從航天局的下一個(gè)探測(cè)器發(fā)射出來的會(huì)有一架無人機(jī)。