[(Title)] Life on Mars: Did NASA Destroy Martian Organic Matter 40 Years Ago?.

A new analysis of 40-year-old data found that NASA exploratory spacecraft might have detected evidence of life on Mars decades before the June discovery of organic matter on the Red Planet—but the results were likely destroyed before they made it to Earth.

对40年前数据的新分析表明，早在六月份探索性航天器在红行星上发现了有机物质的几十年前，美国航天局就探测到火星有生命的证据——但很可能在到达地球之前就被毁坏。

The 1976 Viking landers were sent to Mars in search of organic matter but returned with nothing.

1976年，维京登陆车被派往火星寻找有机物，但没有得到任何回报。

In reexamining the Viking mission's data, researchers identified chlorobenzene, a chlorinated organic material created in a reaction with the salt found in Martian soil, according to findings published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.

在重新审查维京登陆车任务的数据时，研究人员根据在《地球物理研究：行星》杂志上发表的调查结果，查明了氯化有机物质，与火星土壤中发现的盐发生反应。

A 2008 NASA mission that explored Mars' north pole discovered that the salt, called perchlorate and used in rocket fuel and fireworks, became explosive when excessively heated.

2008年美国宇航局对火星北极的探测任务发现，过度加热时，被称为高氯酸酯用于火箭燃料和烟火的盐变得具有爆炸性。

That means the Vikings, which used an instrument that heated soil samples to locate the organic material, may have burned any carbon molecules found in the soil when the perchlorate caught fire.

也就是说，维京登陆车使用了一种加热土壤样本以找到有机物质的仪器，当高氯酸火灾发生时，可能烧毁了土壤中发现的任何碳分子。

Most Martian missions have sought organic matter through a heating method, a probable cause of the delay in data.

大多数火星飞行任务都通过一种加热方法寻找有机物质，这是造成数据延误的可能原因。

The Curiosity rover that identified organic molecules in three-billion-year-old Martian rock used the same method, heating the samples in an oven at more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit, to release sulfur and organic carbon concentrates, NASA said.

美国航天局说，在30亿年前的火星岩中识别有机分子的好奇号火星探测车使用了相同的方法，将样本加热到华氏900度以上的烤箱中，以便释放硫和有机碳浓缩物。

The sedimentary rock, called mudstone, likely didn't contain perchlorate.

沉积岩被称为泥岩,可能并不含有高氯酸盐.

"It was just completely unexpected and inconsistent with what we knew,"  NASA planetary scientist Chris McKay told New Scientist.  "You get some new insight, and you realize that everything you knew was wrong."

"这与我们所了解的情况完全不一致，"美国航天局的行星科学家克里斯·麦凯对新科学家说，"你有新的见解，你意识到你所知道的一切是错误的。"

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover takes a self-portrait on the planet in January 2015. The space agency might've discovered organic molecules as early as 1976 but accidentally destroyed them in a chemical reaction,

美国航天局的好奇号火星探测车于2015年1月在这个星球上做了自我描述，空间机构可能早在1976年就发现了有机分子，但意外在化学反应中破坏了有机分子，

revisited research claims.   (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via Getty Images)

See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows

The presence of organic molecules could mean life exists on Mars—or did at one point. But organic molecules can also be created through non-biological processes like chemical reactions that don't require life.

有机分子的存在可能意味着火星上有生命，或者曾经有生命存在，但有机分子也可以通过非生物过程来创造，比如不需要生命的化学反应。

Study lead author Melissa Guzman posited that the chlorobenzene might have traveled from Earth on the Viking landers, contaminating their instruments.

研究主要作者梅利莎·古兹曼推测，氯苯可能由维京登陆器从地球带到火星，污染了它们的仪器。

The Curiosity team also reported levels of methane, the simplest organic molecule, that varied by season, further evidence for the potential of living things on Mars.

好奇号研究小组还报告了最简单的有机分子甲烷的含量，按季节变化，这进一步证明了火星生物的潜力。

And though 95 percent of Earth's methane is generated in biological processes, like livestock waste breakdowns and natural gas leakage, the presence of methane is not a guarantee of life on the planet.

虽然95%的地球甲烷产生于生物工艺中，如牲畜废物分解和天然气泄漏，但甲烷的存在不是地球上生命的保障。

"It's a gas in the atmosphere of Mars that really shouldn't be there,"  NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientists Chris Webster told National Geographic.

美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的科学家克里斯·韦伯特对国家地理学家说：“火星大气层中的气体真的不应存在。”

Another study published weeks earlier in the same journal uncovered inorganic secrets about the Red Planet's past.

前几周的另一篇研究报告也发现了红行星的过去无机秘密。

Researchers found nearly 800  "ghost dunes,"  or sand-covered shells of former dunes, evidence that water and lava covered Martian sand dunes with sediment that hardened before wind blew it away.

研究人员发现了近800个“鬼沙丘”、“沙丘”、“沙子壳”等前沙丘，这些证据表明，水和熔岩覆盖了火星沙丘，其沉积物在风刮之前就已硬化。

Ancient microbes could still live in the dunes that contain ancient sand, researchers said.

研究人员说，古代的微生物仍能生活在沙丘里，沙丘中蕴含着古沙子。

"There is probably nothing living there now,"  study author Mackenzie Day told the American Geophysical Union.  "But if there ever was anything on Mars, this is a better-than-average place to look."

研究作者麦肯齐日对美国地球物理联盟说：“现在那里也许没有生物存在，但如果火星上以前有任何生命迹象，在火星上寻找就对了。”

SaveSave