CNN News:MAVEN檢測火星大氣

At the moment, it's not possible to get someone to Mars and back alive. One of NASA's five active missions called MAVEN involves a satellite orbiting Mars that took more than ten months to get there from earth. Still, because NASA hopes to put someone on Mars one day, they're getting all the information they can from MAVEN and its $672 million mission.

現(xiàn)在，讓人們登上火星，并活著回來，是不可能的。NASA現(xiàn)在執(zhí)行的5個任務中，有一個叫做 MAVEN(美國國家航空航天局2011年火星探測計劃 )，是一個衛(wèi)星以火星為軌道轉(zhuǎn)動，從地球到火星需要10個月的時間。但是，因為NASA希望將來能將宇航員送上火星，所以，他們在收集所能從MAVEN收到的信息，該項活動耗資6.72億美元。

Thanks to the space probe MAVEN, we now have clues in the mystery of Mars' shift from a warmer, wetter environment to the cold, dry desert it is today.

由于MAVEEN的空間探測器，現(xiàn)在，我們已經(jīng)掌握了火星的環(huán)境從溫暖、濕潤轉(zhuǎn)變成現(xiàn)在寒冷、干旱沙漠的奧秘。

MAVEN has been exploring Mars' atmosphere since 2014. One of its main goals is to figure out how and why it got so thin. This low high pressure atmosphere is comprised mostly of carbon dioxide will prevent fresh water from being present, because it will boil at 10 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees Fahrenheit. On Earth, it boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.

MAVEN從2014年開始就一直在探測火星的大氣。其主要目的之一就是查明火星的大氣變得稀薄的途徑以及方式。這種主要由二氧化碳組成的低高壓氛圍，將使現(xiàn)在不復存在淡水，因為淡水在那種低高壓氛圍內(nèi)10攝氏度(50華攝氏度)就會沸騰。而在地球上，水的沸點是212華氏攝氏度。

And now, NASA scientists think they know the culprit -- solar winds. They observed a massive amount of ions and gases escaping during solar bursts like coronal mass ejections. Since the sun would have been incredibly active in its infancy, the prevalence and strength of these bursts could have had a tremendous influence in the evolution of the Martian environment and the thinning of the atmosphere.

現(xiàn)在NASA科學家們覺得自己知道了事情的罪魁禍首——太陽風。他們觀察到在日冕物質(zhì)拋射等太陽爆發(fā)活動中有大量的離子以及氣體釋放。因為太陽自開始階段就異常活躍，這就導致這些爆炸活動的頻率以及力度會對火星環(huán)境的變化以及大氣變薄產(chǎn)生重大的影響。

Scientists also observed a unique type of aurora called the diffuse aurora in the planet's northern hemisphere. Auroras occur when particles collide with a planetary atmosphere along electromagnetic fields. They're not uncommon. In fact, they've been observed above all planets with a substantial atmosphere, even some moons.

科學家們也觀察了該星球北半球的一種獨特類型的極光稱為分散極光。當粒子在磁場與行星霧團相撞時，就會產(chǎn)生極光。然而，極光很常見。實際上，所有的空氣的行星，甚至一些衛(wèi)星上都可以看到此種現(xiàn)象。

But the aurora seen on Mars was at the lowest altitude observed on any planet. The unique characteristics of this aurora versus those observed on Earth may be determined by the very different magnetic field configurations of the two planets.

但是，火星上看到的極光高度是最低的。這種極光的獨特特征以及在地球上所觀察的這樣現(xiàn)象可能是有兩個星球不同的磁場配置決定的。

As NASA gears up to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, they hope to gain further insights into the Red Planet's past, so we can better prepare ourselves for these future missions.

因為NASA準備在21世紀30年代將宇航員送到紅星，因此，他們希望能夠深入了解火星的歷史，這樣的話，我們就能夠為未來的這些任務做好準備。