水星上生存?研究表明，這是可能的

水星上生存?研究表明，這是可能的

Even though it currently has temperatures approaching 800 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and nearly -300 degrees at night, a new study suggests there is a small chance that the planet Mercury could have supported life.

盡管目前水星的氣溫白天接近800華氏度，晚上接近-300華氏度，但一項新的研究表明，水星有很小的可能是支持生命的。

The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, notes the planet’s surface is not caused by the result of quakes, but rather “volatiles,” which can switch elemental states rather quickly.

發(fā)表在《科學報道》雜志上的這項研究指出，水星表面并非由地震造成，而是“揮發(fā)物”，它可以相當快地改變元素狀態(tài)。

“For nearly half a century, it was considered that these terrains formed due to catastrophic quakes and ejecta fallout produced by the antipodal Caloris basin impact,” researchers wrote in the study’s abstract.

研究人員在研究摘要中寫道：“近半個世紀以來，人們一直認為這些地形是由卡洛里盆地對跖沖擊產(chǎn)生的災難性地震和噴出沉降物形成的。”

“Currently documented evidence of surface modifications due to the removal of volatiles includes Mercury’s hollows, which are shallow, flat-floored, irregular, rimless depressions with bright interiors, and halos,” they added. “These features are relatively small, exhibiting an average depth of 24 ± 16 m13. Therefore, their origin is thought to represent minor mass losses produced by the local sublimation of near-surface geologic material that included large volumes of volatiles (i.e., volatile-rich compounds).”

他們補充說:“目前有文獻證明，由于揮發(fā)物的清除，表面會發(fā)生變化，其中包括水星的空洞，這是一種淺的、平的、不規(guī)則的、無框的洼地，內(nèi)部有明亮的光暈。”這些特征相對較小，平均深度為24±16 m13。因此，它們的來源被認為是近地表地質(zhì)物質(zhì)局部升華產(chǎn)生的少量質(zhì)量損失，其中包括大量揮發(fā)物(即富揮發(fā)物)。

Speaking with The New York Times, one of the study’s co-authors, Jeffrey Kargel, said he thought his co-researcher, Alexis Rodriguez, was wrong. Upon further review, he realized the idea wasn’t so outlandish.

該研究的合著者之一杰弗里·卡爾格爾(Jeffrey Kargel)在接受《紐約時報》采訪時說，他認為他的合著研究員亞歷克西斯·羅德里格斯(Alexis Rodriguez)錯了。經(jīng)過進一步審查，他意識到這個想法并不是那么古怪。

“It is possible that as long as there was water, the temperatures would be appropriate for the survival and possibly the origin of life,” Kargel told the news outlet.

“只要有水，溫度就有可能適合生存，也有可能是生命的起源。”卡爾格爾告訴新聞媒體。

“I thought Alexis had lost it at some point,” he added. “But the more I dug into the geologic evidence and the more I thought about the chemistry and physical conditions there, the more I realized that this idea — well it might be nuts, but it’s not completely nuts.”

“我以為亞歷克西斯在某個時候失去了理智，”他補充說。“但是，我越深入地挖掘地質(zhì)證據(jù)，越深入地思考那里的化學和物理條件，我就越意識到這個想法——好吧，這可能是胡說八道，但也不全是胡說八道。”

Rodriguez, who is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, spends the majority of his time studying “areas of interest are related to the study of the Martian subsurface hydrology.”

羅德里格斯是行星科學研究所的一名高級科學家，他把大部分時間花在研究“與火星地下水文相關(guān)的興趣領(lǐng)域”。