Undisclosed Finding by Mars Rover Fuels Intrigue
By KENNETH CHANG November 29, 2012
“好奇号”到底在火星上发现了什么
KENNETH CHANG 报道 2012年11月29日
The Mars rover Curiosity has found something — something noteworthy, in a pinch of Martian sand. But what is it?
火星探测车“好奇号”(Curiosity)在一撮火星沙中发现了一些值得注意的东西。但是，是什么呢？
The scientists working on the mission who know are not saying. Outside of that team, lots of people are guessing.
参与此次火星探测任务的科学家中，那些知道答案的人不肯说。团队之外，很多人都在纷纷猜测。
The intrigue started last week when John P. Grotzinger, the Mars mission’s project scientist, told National Public Radio: “This data is going to be one for the history books. It’s looking really good.”
这个谜始于上周，当时该火星探测项目科学家约翰·P·格罗青格(John P. Grotzinger)告诉美国全国公共广播电台（National Public Radio，简称NPR）：“这个数据将被载入史册。它看起来很不错。”
And then he declined to say anything more.
然而他拒绝透露更多内容。
Fossils? Living microbial Martians? Maybe the carbon-based molecules known as organics, which are the building blocks of life? That so much excitement could be set off by a passing hint reflects the enduring fascination of both scientists and nonscientists with Mars.
是化石？还是活的火星微生物？或许是构成生命的、被称为有机物的碳基分子？一句不经意的暗示就让大家如此激动，这反映了科学家和非科学家都对火星有着经久不衰的兴趣。
“It could be all kinds of things,” said Peter H. Smith, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona who was the principal investigator for
NASA’s earlier
Phoenix Mars mission but is not involved with Curiosity. “If it’s historic, I think it’s organics. That would be historic in my book.”
“什么东西都有可能，”亚利桑那大学(University of Arizona)的行星科学家彼得·H·史密斯(Peter H. Smith)说。他曾担任美国国家航天航空局(NASA)“凤凰号”(Phoenix)火星探测器的首席科学家，但没有参与“好奇号”项目，他说，“如果说有历史意义的话，我认为是有机物。在我看来，发现有机物会具有历史意义。”
Dr. Grotzinger and other Curiosity scientists will announce their latest findings on Monday in San Francisco at a meeting of the
American Geophysical Union.
格罗青格和其他参加“好奇号”项目的科学家，将于下周一在旧金山举行的美国地球物理学会(American Geophysical Union)会议上，宣布他们的最新发现。
Do not expect pictures of Martians, though.
但是，别指望能看到火星人的照片。
Guy Webster, a spokesman for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which operates Curiosity, said the findings would be “interesting” rather than “earthshaking.”
位于加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳、宇航局下属的喷气推进实验室(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)负责“好奇号”项目的运行，实验室发言人盖伊·韦伯斯特(Guy Webster)表示，这些发现将会“很有意义”，而不会“震撼世界。”
Mr. Webster noted that “a really big announcement,” if one should occur, would most likely be made at NASA headquarters in Washington and not at an academic conference.
韦伯斯特指出，假如有“真正重大的发现”，那么最有可能的宣布地点，是位于华盛顿的宇航局总部，而不是在一个学术会议上。
Whatever is revealed will be linked to the work of Curiosity’s sophisticated chemistry laboratory instrument,
Sample Analysis at Mars — SAM, for short. The rover’s robotic arm dropped the first bit of sand and dust into the instrument on Nov. 9, and the scientists have been analyzing and contemplating ever since.
无论揭示的是什么，都将与“好奇号”上的尖端化学实验仪器“火星样本分析仪”（Sample Analysis at Mars，简称SAM）有关。11月9日，探测车的机械臂首次将一撮沙尘放入该仪器，从那以后，科学家一直在分析和思考。
One of the main goals of SAM is to identify organic molecules, but it would be a big surprise for organics to show up in a first look at a sand sample selected more as a test exercise than with the expectation of a breakthrough discovery.
SAM的一个主要目标就是识别有机分子。但是，如果第一次测试中就看到了有机分子，那将是一个巨大的惊喜。毕竟，选择这个沙土样本的主要目的是测试仪器，并不是期待突破性的发现。
Curiosity will be headed toward layers of clays, which could be rich in organics and are believed to have formed during a warm and wet era early in the planet’s history. But Curiosity has months to drive before arriving at those locations.
“好奇号”将前往可能富含有机物质的粘土层，人们认为粘土层是在火星早期的温暖潮湿时期形成的。但是，“好奇号”要到达这些地点还需要行驶好几个月。
And the Curiosity scientists have learned through experience that it pays to double-check their results before trumpeting them. An initial test of the Martian atmosphere by the same instrument showed the presence of methane, which would have been a major discovery, possibly indicating the presence of methane-generating microbes living on Mars today. But when the scientists ran the experiment again, the
signs of methane disappeared, leading them to conclude that the methane found in the first test had come from air that the spacecraft had carried to Mars from its launching spot in Florida.
而且“好奇号”的科学家从经验中学到了点东西：在吹嘘自己的结果之前最好对这些结果进行复核。SAM对火星大气初次测试的结果显示其中有甲烷存在，如果是真的，那是个重大发现，因为这有可能表明火星上目前存在能够产生甲烷的微生物。但是科学家们再次进行试验时，甲烷的迹象消失了。他们由此推断，第一次测试中发现的甲烷实际上来自航天器从佛罗里达州的发射基地带过去的空气。
Mr. Webster, who was present during the interview with NPR, said Dr. Grotzinger had been talking more generally about the quality of data coming back from Curiosity and was not suggesting that the data contained a breakthrough surprise. “I don’t think he had in mind, ‘Here’s some particular chemical that’s been found,’ ” Mr. Webster said. “That’s not my impression of the conversation.”
接受NPR采访时，韦伯斯特也在场，他说，格罗青格说的话更广泛地针对“好奇号”发回数据的质量，而不是暗示这些数据中包含突破性的惊喜。韦伯斯特说，“我不觉得他想说‘发现了一些特定的化学物质。’那不是我对那次对话的印象。”
On Twitter,
Curiosity chimed in: “What did I discover on Mars? That rumors spread fast online. My team considers this whole mission ‘one for the history books.’ ” (The public information staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory writes the posts for the rover.)
“好奇号”在Twitter上表示赞同，“我在火星上发现了什么？谣言在网上传播得真快。我的团队认为，整个任务‘本身就值得载入史册。’”（喷气推进实验室的公共信息人员帮探测车在网上发文章。）
This would not be the first time that rumors eclipsed the actual findings from Mars.
谣言让来自火星的实际发现黯然失色，这并不是头一次。
In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter found
evidence of frozen reservoirs of water beneath the surface of Mars, leading to breathless rumors in the British press that the Bush administration was about to announce a commitment to send astronauts there within 20 years. The White House remained quiet.
2002年，“火星奥德赛号”(Mars Odyssey)探测卫星曾发现表明火星表层下面存在大量冷冻水的证据，导致英国媒体中无比兴奋的传言，说布什政府将宣布在20年内把宇航员送上火星的承诺。白宫则对此保持沉默。
Dr. Smith, the Phoenix Mars scientist, had a similar experience in 2008 when Aviation Week reported, “The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new
Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the ‘potential for life’ on Mars.”
负责“凤凰号”火星探测器的科学家史密斯也在2008年有过类似的经历。当时《航空周刊》(Aviation Week)曾报道：“白宫已得到提前消息，宇航局计划很快就‘凤凰号’火星探测器的重要新发现做有关宣布，发现与火星上‘可能存在生命’有关。”
“The blogosphere lit up,” Dr. Smith said.
史密斯说，“一时间，整个博客圈非常激动。”
At a hastily arranged news conference, Dr. Smith revealed the actual news: chemicals known as
perchlorates had been found in the soil. “The public was not interested in that,” he said.
在临时安排的新闻发布会上，史密斯透露了真正的消息：在火星土壤中发现了名为高氯酸盐的化学物质。他说，“公众对此并不感兴趣。”
If Curiosity’s pinch of sand indeed contained organics, it would again revive the possibilities of life on Mars. For now, Curiosity scientists are still analyzing the data.
如果“好奇号”研究的沙土中的确存在有机物，那将会使火星上有生命存在的可能性复苏。目前，“好奇号”的科学家仍然在对数据进行分析。
“I do want to temper expectations,” said Mr. Webster, the spokesman. “But then again, I don’t know exactly what they’re going to say they’ve found.”
“我的确想降低期望值，” 发言人韦伯斯特说。“但话又说回来，我并不知道他们会宣布发现了什么。”
翻译：陈柳
