正文翻譯

Carl Sagan once said that Venus is the planet in our solar system most like hell. So when are we going back?

卡爾·薩根曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)，金星是我們太陽(yáng)系中最像地獄的行星。那么，我們什么時(shí)候能重返那里呢？

Astronomers on Monday reported the detection of a chemical in the acidic Venusian clouds, phosphine, which may be a possible sign of life. That has some planetary scientists itching to return to the sun’s second planet, especially those who feel Venus has long been overlooked in favor of Mars and other destinations.

9月14日，天文學(xué)家報(bào)告稱在金星的酸性云層中發(fā)現(xiàn)了化學(xué)物質(zhì)磷化氫，這可能是生命存在的跡象。這讓一些行星科學(xué)家十分渴望能夠重返太陽(yáng)系的第二顆行星，尤其是那些認(rèn)為比起火星和其他星球，金星長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都被忽視的科學(xué)家。

“forget this Mars nonsense,” said Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University. “We need a lander, an orbiter, we need a program.”

“忘記關(guān)于火星的廢話吧，”北卡羅來(lái)納州立大學(xué)的行星科學(xué)家保羅·伯恩說(shuō)。“我們需要著陸器，軌道飛行器，我們需要一個(gè)探索金星的項(xiàng)目。”

Venus is not easy to visit. Its carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere is 90 times as dense as ours, and surface temperatures average 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Its surface pressure is intense enough to crush some submarines.

要造訪金星并不容易。金星的大氣富含二氧化碳，密度是地球的90倍，其表面溫度平均達(dá)到800華氏度（約426.7攝氏度）。它的表面壓力大到足以壓碎一些潛艇。

But that hasn’t stopped human space programs from trying. About 40 robotic spacecraft launched by governments on Earth have tried to visit Venus in one way or another. Here are highlights from past journeys to Venus, as well as the prospects for a speedy return to the planet to find out what’s going on in those clouds.

但這并沒(méi)有阻止人類太空計(jì)劃的嘗試。地球上的各國(guó)政府已經(jīng)發(fā)射了約40個(gè)航天器，試圖以各種方式登上金星。以下是歷史上人類探索金星之旅的努力，以及在未來(lái)快速飛往金星、探索金星厚重云層之下的神秘世界的展望。

The many Soviet visitors to Venus

來(lái)自蘇聯(lián)的訪客

After seeing their first round of spacecraft sent into the atmosphere squashed like tin cans, the Soviets realized just how extreme the pressure on Venus was. This trial and error led to the construction of five-ton metal spacecraft built to withstand, even if for just an hour, the immense surface pressures.

在看到第一批被送入金星大氣層的航天器像易拉罐一樣被壓扁后，蘇聯(lián)人意識(shí)到金星上的壓力有多大。經(jīng)過(guò)這樣的反復(fù)試錯(cuò)，他們建造了一個(gè)五噸重的金屬航天器，可以承受巨大的表面壓力，但僅能維持1個(gè)小時(shí)的時(shí)間。

Venera 4 in 1967 became the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet, detecting large amounts of carbon dioxide that cause the ceaseless Venusian greenhouse effect.

1967年，“金星4號(hào)”成為首個(gè)測(cè)量金星大氣的航天器，它探測(cè)到了金星大氣層大量的二氧化碳，這揭示了金星產(chǎn)生無(wú)休止的溫室效應(yīng)的原因。

In 1985 the Soviet unx concluded its Venus encounters with the twin Vega spacecraft, which each released large balloons loaded with scientific instruments, demonstrating the potential for probes that could float in the planet’s clouds.

蘇聯(lián)對(duì)金星的最后探索是1985年“維加”計(jì)劃發(fā)射的雙子探測(cè)器，它們各自釋放了巨大氣球，證明了探測(cè)器漂浮在金星云層中的可能性。

NASA kept its sights on Venus, too

NASA（美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局）也把目光投向了金星

While Mars has always seemed like the apple of the eyes of American space planners, the Mariner and Pioneer programs of the 1960s and ’70s made time for Venus.

雖然火星一直被美國(guó)太空規(guī)劃者視為掌上明珠，但1960和70年代的“水手”與“先驅(qū)”計(jì)劃仍留給了金星。

In 1978, the Pioneer missions gave American researchers a closer look. The first of the pair orbited the planet for nearly 14 years, revealing much about the mysterious Venusian atmosphere. It also observed the surface was smoother than Earth’s, and that Venus had very little or perhaps no magnetic field. A second Pioneer mission sent a number of probes into Venus’s atmosphere, returning information on the structure of the clouds and radar readings of the surface.

1978年，先驅(qū)計(jì)劃讓美國(guó)研究者對(duì)金星有了更深入的了解。其中第一次任務(wù)環(huán)繞金星運(yùn)行近14年，揭示了很多關(guān)于神秘的金星大氣層的信息。它還觀察到金星表面比地球光滑，而且磁場(chǎng)很弱，甚至可能沒(méi)有磁場(chǎng)。第二次先驅(qū)計(jì)劃向金星大氣層發(fā)射了一些探測(cè)器，送回了關(guān)于金星云層結(jié)構(gòu)和表面雷達(dá)探測(cè)數(shù)據(jù)的信息。

NASA’s Magellan entered into orbit in 1990 and spent four years mapping the surface and looking for evidence of plate tectonics. It discovered that nearly 85 percent of the surface was covered in old lava flows, hinting at significant past and possible present volcanic activity.

1990年，NASA的“麥哲倫號(hào)”探測(cè)器進(jìn)入金星軌道，用四年時(shí)間繪制了金星表面圖，并尋找其板塊運(yùn)動(dòng)的證據(jù)。它發(fā)現(xiàn)近85%的金星表面被古老的熔巖流所覆蓋，表明金星曾經(jīng)有、現(xiàn)在也可能有火山活動(dòng)。

Other visitors to Venus

金星的其他訪客

The planet’s only guest from Earth right now is Akatsuki, which was launched by Japan in 2010. The probe missed its meeting with Venus when its engine failed to fire as it headed into orbit. By 2015, the mission’s managers had managed to steer it on a course to orbit and study the planet.

目前金星唯一的訪客是日本在2010年發(fā)射的“破曉號(hào)”。該探測(cè)器在即將進(jìn)入金星軌道的時(shí)候引擎點(diǎn)火失敗，因此錯(cuò)過(guò)了與金星的相遇。2015年，管理人員成功將其引導(dǎo)到金星軌道上，并對(duì)該行星進(jìn)行了研究。

It has since transformed how scientists view our clouded twin. In its study of the physics of the dense cloud layers of Venus, the mission has revealed disturbances in the planet’s winds known as gravity waves, as well as equatorial jet streams in its atmosphere.

從那以后，“破曉號(hào)”就改變了科學(xué)家對(duì)金星是地球?qū)\生兄弟的看法。在對(duì)金星密集云層的物理研究中，“破曉號(hào)”發(fā)現(xiàn)了被稱為重力波的金星風(fēng)暴，以及金星大氣中位于赤道的高速氣流。

Who’s next?

誰(shuí)是下一個(gè)訪客？

India’s space agency has proposed a mission called Shukrayaan-1, which will orbit the planet and primarily focus on the chemistry of the atmosphere.

印度航天局提出了一項(xiàng)名為“舒克拉雅1號(hào)”的任務(wù)，它圍繞金星運(yùn)行，主要關(guān)注其大氣層的化學(xué)成分。

Peter Beck, the founder of Rocket Lab, a private company started in New Zealand that has launched about a dozen Rockets to space, has recently spoken of sending a small satellite to the planet.

彼得·貝克是火箭實(shí)驗(yàn)室的創(chuàng)始人，這家在新西蘭成立的私人企業(yè)已經(jīng)向太空發(fā)射了十多枚火箭，最近，他談到了要向金星發(fā)射一顆小型衛(wèi)星的計(jì)劃。

NASA has considered a number of Venus proposals in the past decade, including two in 2017 that were finalists of NASA’s Discovery program, which has previously sent explorers to the moon, Mars, Mercury and other destinations. But the agency instead sexted a pair of asteroid missions.

在過(guò)去十年里，NASA考慮過(guò)很多關(guān)于金星的探測(cè)提議，包括2017年的NASA“發(fā)現(xiàn)”計(jì)劃，該計(jì)劃此前曾將探測(cè)器送往月球、火星、水星和其他目的地。但該機(jī)構(gòu)最終選擇執(zhí)行的是探測(cè)兩個(gè)小行星任務(wù)。

The agency will have another chance to pick a Venus mission for funding in the next round of its Discovery program.

在下一輪“發(fā)現(xiàn)”計(jì)劃中，金星探測(cè)項(xiàng)目將有新的機(jī)會(huì)獲得資助。

評(píng)論翻譯

ErickFTG
Friendship with Mars has ended. Now Venus is my new best friend.

與火星的友誼結(jié)束了?，F(xiàn)在金星是我新的最好的朋友。

mythicalnacho
I say NASA should use this as cynically as possible and extract promises from politicians and presidents known for riding the hype. Get committed funds ASAP to be there ahead of other nations with more probes and research

我認(rèn)為NASA應(yīng)該盡可能地利用這一點(diǎn)，并從那些善于炒作的政客和總統(tǒng)那里獲得承諾。盡快獲得投入資金，趕在其他國(guó)家之前進(jìn)行更多的探索和研究。

shogi_x
I would agree for the Moon and Mars, but Europa, Titan, and Venus all present unique engineering challenges that may be more expensive.

我認(rèn)為探測(cè)月球和火星更好，木衛(wèi)二、土衛(wèi)六和金星都存在獨(dú)特的工程技術(shù)挑戰(zhàn)，可能耗資更昂貴。

memoryballhs
Is there an relativly easy way to explain why its difficult to form on venus?
Because if I am not mistaken it was also detected on Jupiter. But there I think its obviously not a sign of life. Different pressure?

有沒(méi)有相對(duì)簡(jiǎn)單的方法來(lái)解釋為什么磷化氫難以在金星上形成?
因?yàn)槿绻覜](méi)記錯(cuò)的話，磷化氫在木星上也被發(fā)現(xiàn)過(guò)。但我認(rèn)為這顯然不是生命的跡象。是不同的壓力產(chǎn)生的嗎?

Eshkation
the concentration of phosphine found is too high to be generated by geological sources, like volcanoes (what was found is in the billions x what a vulcan can generate)

金星所發(fā)現(xiàn)的磷化氫濃度太高，無(wú)法由火山等地質(zhì)來(lái)源產(chǎn)生(金星所發(fā)現(xiàn)的磷化氫濃度是武爾坎火山所能產(chǎn)生磷化氫的數(shù)十億倍)。

supercannonball
The authors considered volcanic activity
Similarly, there would need to be >200 times as much volcanic activity on Venus as on Earth to inject enough PH3 into the atmosphere

研究人員考慮金星上的了火山活動(dòng)
同樣地，金星上的火山活動(dòng)需要是地球上的200倍，才能將足夠的磷化氫拋入大氣。

supercannonball
It's likely that Venus does have active volcanos, but we don't know of any that are currently active. It's unlikely that Venus currently has hundreds of times the volcanic activity as the Earth.

很可能金星上確實(shí)有活火山，但我們不知道目前有哪些活火山。金星目前的火山活動(dòng)性不太可能是地球的數(shù)百倍。

sintaur
Earth bacteria are known to make phosphine: they take up phosphate from minerals or biological material, add hydrogen, and ultimately expel phosphine. Any organisms on Venus will probably be very different to their Earth cousins, but they too could be the source of phosphine in the atmosphere.
On Earth it appears there's not a lot of phosphate floating around in the air:
Phosphorus does enter the atmosphere in very small amounts when the dust is dissolved in rainwater and seaspray but remains mostly on land and in Rock and soil minerals.

眾所周知，地球上的細(xì)菌能制造磷化氫:它們從礦物或生物物質(zhì)中吸收磷酸鹽，然后與氫相結(jié)合，最終排出磷化氫。金星上的任何生物體都可能與它們?cè)诘厍蛏系谋碛H截然不同，但這些生命可能是大氣中磷化氫的來(lái)源。
在地球上，空氣中漂浮的磷酸鹽似乎并不多:
當(dāng)塵埃在雨水和海水中溶解時(shí)，磷確實(shí)會(huì)以非常小的量進(jìn)入大氣，但大部分殘留在陸地、巖石和土壤礦物質(zhì)中。

Xizithei
Jupiter, for instance, has around 20 parts per quadrillion(from their numbers) of phosphine present from natural pRocesses, whereas Venus has around 20 parts per billion phosphine.
By their observation, beyond microbial life functions, there isn't readily a way to explain the density compared to other planets in the solar system, It isn't the declaration of microbial life on Venus, however, because there Are some pRocesses which create phosphine beyond decaying plant/animal matter, just none which explain the above numbers.

在木星上，自然過(guò)程中產(chǎn)生的磷化氫約為千萬(wàn)億分之20，而在金星上產(chǎn)生的磷化氫約為十億分之20。
根據(jù)他們的觀察，除了微生物生命活動(dòng)產(chǎn)生磷化氫之外，還沒(méi)有一個(gè)現(xiàn)成的方法來(lái)解釋金星與太陽(yáng)系其他行星的磷化氫密度差異。然而，這并不是說(shuō)金星上有微生物存在，因?yàn)槌宋⑸锘顒?dòng)之外，還有一些自然過(guò)程也能產(chǎn)生磷化氫，只是沒(méi)有一個(gè)能解釋金星異常的磷化氫濃度。

Trumpologist
I wish pluto's subsurface oceans would get this love too!

我希望冥王星的地下海洋也能發(fā)現(xiàn)微生物!

Xizithei
Seriously, though. That is an interesting bit to look into. I imagine the reason we aren't looking further away from our star for potential life is, from our limited understanding of biomechanics, they couldn't possibly function that far out in space. Pluto, like most Trans-Neptunian obxts, is at a bone-shattering -229C(-380F), just 50C warmer than absolute zero(-273C or -459C), theoretically the coldest temperature our solar sytem(universe?) can reach.
Supposedly, Pluto has ice volcanoes, which I can't help but assume are simply geysers of methane ice, which is unfortunately not something I am familiar enough with to know if it is caused by tidal forcing, crust displacement, or other forces, unknown by me at this time.

這是一個(gè)有趣的研究。我想，我們之所以沒(méi)有把目光放在離我們的星球更遠(yuǎn)的地方尋找潛在生命的原因是，因?yàn)閺奈覀冏约簩?duì)生物學(xué)的有限理解來(lái)看，生命不可能在離太陽(yáng)那么遠(yuǎn)的太空中存活。冥王星的溫度達(dá)到了令人震驚的零下229攝氏度(-380F)，只比絕對(duì)零度(-273攝氏度)高50攝氏度，這在理論上是我們的太陽(yáng)系所能探測(cè)到的最冷溫度。

slasher372
Something I wonder about is, do you think that if there was life on other planets, it would use something similar to dna, or dna exactly? Obviously things like dna and atp work here for all our life, doesn't it seem likely that those same molecules and pathways would be utilized by life if it exists elsewhere?

我想知道的是，你認(rèn)為如果其他行星上有生命，它會(huì)使用類似于DNA的東西嗎 ?很明顯，我們的生命活動(dòng)要靠DNA和ATP這樣的東西維持，如果生命存在于其他地方，其他生命也會(huì)使用和地球生命相同的模式嗎?

DoomDread
The study's authors have pretty much ruled out nucleic acids like DNA being present on Venus's microbes. These molecules cannot tolerate the conditions of Venus. The sulfuric acid will mess up Earthly nucleic acids real bad.

研究人員幾乎排除了DNA等核酸存在于金星微生物中的可能性。因?yàn)檫@些分子不能忍受金星的環(huán)境。硫酸會(huì)把地球上的核酸分子腐蝕得一團(tuán)糟。

Not_Actually_French
Actually in their press briefing they did mention this. it would have to be essentially different seeing as the concentration of sulfuric acid on the planet would melt away any of the biological component inherent in us and the chemical ones necessary for life (è.g. Sugar)

實(shí)際上研究人員的新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上確實(shí)提到了這一點(diǎn)。他們聲稱如果金星上有生命，那么從本質(zhì)上看，生命形態(tài)肯定會(huì)與地球生命有所不同，因?yàn)榻鹦巧蠞饬蛩釙?huì)融化掉我們體內(nèi)的任何生物成分，以及生命所必需的化學(xué)成分(例如:糖分子)

Savenura55
I know this theory exists but the presence of hydRocarbons just about anywhere the elements to make them exist leads me to believe that life if found else where will have a very different “dna”. Life seems like the outcome of chemistry and energy anywhere those two things exist in sufficient supply.

我知道這個(gè)事實(shí)，但金星上碳?xì)浠衔锏拇嬖谑刮蚁嘈牛绻谄渌乔虬l(fā)現(xiàn)了生命，它們將有一個(gè)非常不同的“DNA”。生命是化學(xué)和能量的產(chǎn)物，只要有足夠的化學(xué)和能量供應(yīng)，生命就可能產(chǎn)生。

AJWinky
Venus had very Earth-like conditions for ~3 billion years, though. It's still possible there was panspermia and then Venusian life evolved to survive the hostile Venusian conditions as the runaway greenhouse effect occurred.

不過(guò)，在大約30億年前的時(shí)間里，金星的環(huán)境與地球非常相似。仍然有可能存在著生命起源，然后隨著失控的溫室效應(yīng)的發(fā)生，金星上僅剩的生命最終進(jìn)化到能在金星惡劣的環(huán)境中生存。