火星上的探秘

Mars’ tiny moon Phobos created a big stir among astronomers in early 2010. That’s when the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Spacecraft flew by the tiny moon. EarthSky spoke with Thomas Duxbury, on the science team collecting images of Phobos.

2010年初，火星的小卫星福波斯在天文界掀起轩然大波。事情发生在欧洲航天局的火星快车号宇宙飞船飞经这颗小卫星期间。EarthSky对话托马斯．克斯伯里，讲述科学队收集福波斯图像的故事。

Thomas Duxbury: As you get higher and higher resolution of the images, you see more and more detail on the surface. It is just pockmarked with craters.

托马斯．克斯伯里：随着图像的分辨率越来越高，星球表面细节也看的越来越清楚。地表坑坑洼洼布满了陨石坑。

The biggest crater on Phobos is called Stickney.

福波斯卫星表面最大的陨石坑称为“斯蒂克尼”。

Thomas Duxbury: And from radiating from this crater are these long linear features that go all the way around to the backside of Phobos.

托马斯．克斯伯里：这些陨石坑上留下的线条特征与福波斯背面的一模一样。

Duxbury said these features look like grooves you make in the snow when you’re building a snowman.

克斯伯里说这些凹痕和你在雪地里堆雪人留下的凹痕类似。

Thomas Duxbury: If you look at these features and you start rolling a ball of snow, and of course it gets bigger and bigger, you get these indentations in the snow.

托马斯．克斯伯里:你开始滚雪球后，你就会发现这些特点：雪球越来越大，雪面会留下一条凹痕。

Duxbury thinks these grooves were created when an asteroid impact threw up large boulders that rolled from the crater.

克斯伯里认为，小行星撞击福波斯地表后，产生的巨大岩石滚过陨石坑，就形成了这些凹痕。

Thomas Duxbury: You can actually see how these trails follow the topography.

托马斯．克斯伯里:你能清楚的看到这些轨迹在地形上的走势。

Duxbury added that these questions and more might be answered by a future mission in 2011 to collect samples of Phobos and return them to Earth.

克斯伯里补充道，2010年将开始福波斯样采样任务，采集的样本送回地球后，这些问题或者更多其他问题都将得到解答。