研究发现月球正在生锈

study: the moon is rusting
研究发现月球正在生锈

The moon is turning red, and it's likely Earth's fault.
月球正在变红，这很可能是地球的错。

Our planet's atmosphere may be causing the moon to rust, new research finds.
最新研究发现，地球上的大气层可能正让月球慢慢生锈。

Rust, also known as iron oxide, is a reddish compound that forms when iron is exposed to water and oxygen.
铁锈，也叫氧化铁，是一种红色的化合物。当铁暴露于水和氧气时，铁锈就会产生。

But not all celestial environments are optimal for rusting, especially our dry, atmosphere-free moon.
但并非所有的天体环境都适合铁锈的形成，尤其是干燥、无大气保护的月球。

"It's very puzzling," the study's lead author, Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii, said in a statement. "The moon is a terrible environment for [rust] to form in."
论文主要作者、来自夏威夷大学的李帅在一份声明中说：“这非常令人费解。月球上的环境对铁锈的形成非常不友好。”

Li was studying data from the JPL Moon Mineralogy Mapper when he realized that the poles of the moon had very different compositions from the rest of it.
李帅在研究喷气推进实验室（JPL）月球矿物质绘图仪收集的数据时，发现月球两极的构造成分和其他地方大不一样。

He found that the moon's polar surfaces had iron-rich rocks with spectral signatures that matched that of hematite.
他发现月球两极表面有富含铁质的岩石，其光谱特征与赤铁矿十分相似。

The mineral hematite, commonly found in Earth's surface, is a specific type of iron oxide, or rust, with the formula Fe2O3.
赤铁矿常见于地球表面，是氧化铁的一种矿物形式，分子式为Fe2O3。

"At first, I totally didn't believe it. It shouldn't exist based on the conditions present on the moon," said co-author Abigail Fraeman, a planetary geoscientist at JPL. "But since we discovered water on the moon, people have been speculating that there could be a greater variety of minerals than we realize if that water had reacted with rocks."
"起初我完全不相信。根据月球上目前的环境，赤铁矿几乎没有存在的可能性，"JPL行星地球科学家、论文的共同作者阿比盖尔·弗雷曼说道，"但是，自从我们发现月球有水之后，人们一直在猜测，如果这些水和岩石发生反应的话，那么月球上的矿物质种类可能比我们知道的要多很多。"

The moon doesn't have an atmosphere of its own to provide sufficient amounts of oxygen, but it has trace amounts donated by Earth's atmosphere.
月球上没有大气层可以提供足够的氧气，但却有少量来自地球大气层的氧气。

This terrestrial oxygen travels to the moon along an elongated extension of the planet's magnetic field called a "magnetotail."
地球氧气沿着行星磁场的延长部分（即“磁尾”）不远万里来到月球。

Earth's magnetotail can reach all the way to the near side of the moon, where more of the hematite was found, according to the statement.
声明中写道，地球的磁尾可以一直延伸到月球正面。在月球正面也确实发现了更多的赤铁矿。