在火星表层以下很可能生活过外星生物

Alien life might have been able to flourish under the surface of Mars, according to a major new study.

根据最新一项重大研究发现，在火星表面以下可能生活过外星生命。

The red planet once had the right conditions to allow microbes to thrive there, the new research claims. Those microorganisms could have been able to survive for hundreds of millions of years on the ancient planet.

新研究表明在火星这个红色的星球上有适宜微生物繁衍的条件。在这个古老的星球上这些微生物可能存活了数亿年之久。

“We showed, based on basic physics and chemistry calculations, that the ancient Martian subsurface likely had enough dissolved hydrogen to power a global subsurface biosphere,” said Jesse Tarnas, a graduate student at Brown University and lead author of the study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. “Conditions in this habitable zone would have been similar to places on Earth where underground life exists.”

发表在《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》（国际权威地学期刊）上面的领衔文章作者Jesse Tarnas一位来自布朗大学的研究生说：“我们在基本物理和化学计算的基础上，在古老的火星表面有足够的溶解氢为全球地下生物圈提供动力，火星地表下的生存环境和地球的非常相似。

Around four billion years ago, Mars would have had the same conditions that sustain huge numbers of microbes down on Earth today.

在十亿年前，火星和地球上一样生活这数量庞大的微生物。

The researchers are clear that the findings don't definitively mean that alien life existed on Mars. But they are important evidence that if life did get started there it would have been able to sustain itself.

研究人员澄清该发现并不完全代表火星上存在外星生命。不过这对于火星上存在生命并存续提供重要的证据。

By combining a range of different data about the red planet, scientists found that it probably had a habitable zone that stretched for kilometres deep and all around the world. It would have existed for hundreds of millions of years.

从这个红色星球上收集到的一些列跨度较大的不同数据，科学家们发下，这个生命存续的区域可能延伸数千米之深，遍布整个星球。这些微生物可能存续了数亿年之久。

Scientists now hope the findings can be used to inform future trips to Mars that will attempt to find evidence of alien life.

科学家们希望该发现能够为将来在火星上发现外星生物有所利用。

“The mission of the 2020 rover is to look for the signs of past life,” Mustard said. “Areas where you may have remnants of this underground habitable zone — which may have been the largest habitable zone on the planet — seem like a good place to target.”

“火星2020任务是在火星上发现生命痕迹。这个区域可能是在地下可栖息的残存区域，也就可能是这个星球上面积最大生命存在区，这样看来地下是一个不错的探测目的地。”Mustard如是说。

（翻译：林浔鸥）