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太阳系其他星球水资源远胜地球 木星水量最大
在太空放眼望去,地球这颗美丽的蓝色星球似乎在太阳系拥有得天独厚的优势,尤其是覆盖地表的大片大片的海洋资源,但事实上,据科学家研究发现,木星才是水资源最丰富的星球,相比太阳系其他星球,地球的水量少得可怜,连一颗小卫星的水资源都可以把地球比下去。
The next time someone asks you where the biggest ocean is, point them toward Jupiter. While Earth harbours about 320 million cubic miles (1,333 cubic km) of water, our planet is practically a desert compared to the rest of the Solar System.
下回有人问你哪个星球的海洋最宽广,你就说木星。尽管地球拥有3.2亿立方英里(1333立方千米)水资源,我们的星球相比太阳系的其他星球而言简直就是一片沙漠。
A moon of Jupiter called Europa, for example, which is roughly the size of our own Moon, likely hides a subsurface ocean with more than twice as much water as there is on Earth.
比如,木星的一颗名叫欧罗巴(木卫二)的卫星,体积和我们的月球差不多,可能隐藏着一片次表层海洋,水量是地球的两倍多。
Yet even that pales in comparison to Europa’s neighbour Ganymede; more than 30 times as much water as our home planet is thought to reside there as liquid and ice.
即便拥有这样的水量,木卫二相比邻星木卫三却是相形见绌;木卫三拥有的液态和固态水量超过了地球水量的30倍。
And scientists keep finding more water wherever they look. On September 28, researchers reported that Dione - a small moon of Saturn - probably has a subsurface ocean, too.
而且,科学家还在不断发现水资源丰富的星球。9月28日,研究人员报告称,土星的一颗小卫星土卫四很可能也拥有一片次表层海洋。
To see just how Earth stacks up agains other ocean worlds, Business Insider contacted Steve Vance, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who’s crunched the numbers on just how much water might be out there.
为了弄清地球在太阳系海洋世界的实力,商业内幕网联系了美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的行星科学家史蒂夫•凡思,他运算出了其他星球的水量数据。
The to-scale graphic below uses Vance’s data to show the plausible volumes of water (both liquid and ice) for the nine ocean worlds verified so far:
下面的这张等比例绘制图运用凡思的数据显示出到目前为止已证实的太阳系九大行星海洋的理论水量(包括液态和固态水):
In order of how much water they have, from the least to the most, they are: Enceladus, Dione, Earth, Europa, Pluto, Triton, Callisto, Titan, and Ganymede.
按照拥有的水量排序,从少到多依次是:土卫二,土卫四,地球,木卫二,冥王星,海卫一,木卫四,土卫六和木卫三。
Mimas, a moon of Saturn, and Ceres, the largest asteroid in the Solar System, are also thought to have subsurface oceans - but scientists aren’t yet sure how big each one might be.
土星的卫星土卫一和太阳系最大小行星谷神星也被认为拥有次表层海洋,但科学家尚不能确定这两颗星球上的海洋有多大。
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