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Salty water just below the surface of Mars could hold enough oxygen to
support the kind of microbial life that emerged and flourished on Earth billions
of years ago, researchers reported on Monday.
周一，研究人员称，火星地表下的盐水可能蕴含着能够维持微生物生命的充足氧气。这些微生物曾在十亿年前在地球上繁衍生存。
In some locations, the amount of oxygen available could even keep alive a
primitive, multicellular animal such as a sponge, they reported in the journal
Nature Geosciences.
据研究人员发表在《自然地球科学》杂志上的报告，在某些地方，氧气含量甚至高达可维持原始多细胞的生物的生命的水平，如海绵动物。
We discovered that brines -water with high concentrations of salt- "on Mars
can contain enough oxygen for microbes to breathe," said lead author Vlada
Stamenkovic, a theoretical physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
California.
加州喷气推进实验室的理论物理学家Vlada Stmenkovic表示，“我们发现，火星上的卤水(高浓度盐水)中含有够微生物呼吸的氧气。”
This fully revolutionizes our understanding of the potential for life on
Mars, today and in the past.
“此发现完全改变了我们对火星可能存在生命的认知，无论是以前的还是现在(的认知)。”
Up to now, it had been assumed that the trace amounts of oxygen on the Red
Planet were insufficient to sustain even microbial life.
时至今日，大家一直都认为，火星上稀薄氧气无法维持微生物的生命。
We never thought that oxygen could play a role for life on Mars due to its
rarity in the atmosphere, about 0.14 percent, Stamenkovic said.
Stamenkovic表示，“因火星大气中氧气含量约为0.14%，十分稀薄，所以我们未曾想过这点氧气可以让生物存活。”
By comparison, the life-giving gas makes up 21 percent of the air we
breathe.
相比之下，地球大气中氧气含量为21%。
On Earth, aerobic -that is, oxygen breathing- life-forms evolved together
with photosynthesis, which converts CO2 into O2. The gas played a critical role
in the emergence of complex life, notable after the so-called Great Oxygenation
Event some 2.35 billion years ago.
在地球上，需氧生物(进行有氧呼吸的生物)随光合作用一起进化，光合作用将二氧化碳转化为氧气。氧气在复杂生命的形成中发挥着重要作用，在大约23.5亿年前所谓的“大氧化事件”后作用更明显。
But our planet also harbors microbes - at the bottom of the ocean, in
boiling hotsprings - that subsist in environments deprived of oxygen.
但我们星球中仍有藏着微生物但氧气供给稀少的环境--在那些海洋的底处，以及沸腾的喷泉。
That’s why - whenever we thought of life on Mars - we studied the potential
for anaerobic life, Stamenkovic said.
这就是为什么当我们在思考着火星生命的时候，我们在研究厌氧生物存在的可能。Stamenkovic说。 |
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发表于 2018-11-3 14:13:17