Mysterious Mars

Mysterious Mars. Written by Susan Lennox. Focus Question. What have scientists learned about Mars?

神秘的火星。 苏珊·伦诺克斯 著。 探究问题。 科学家们对火星有哪些了解？

Introduction. Long ago ancient people saw a bright red light in the sky. The Romans named this red light Mars after their god of war. The name stuck and we still use it today for the fourth planet in our solar system.

引言。 很久很久以前，古人在天空中看到了一颗明亮的红星。 古罗马人用自己的战神玛尔斯，给这颗红星命名为火星。 这个名字沿用至今，我们现在仍用它称呼太阳系的第四颗行星。

Gazing from afar. Ancient astronomers wondered what made Mars red. Astronomers in the 1800s studied the planet through early telescopes. They found that Mars had polar ice caps just as Earth did. Parts of Mars were also covered with long lines that looked like a web of waterways.

远远眺望。 古代天文学家很好奇，火星为什么是红色的。 19世纪的天文学家借助早期望远镜观测这颗行星。 他们发现火星和地球一样，也拥有极地冰盖。 火星的部分区域还布满长线条，看起来就像一张水道网。

An Italian astronomer who discovered these lines in 1877 called them channels. Channels are natural waterways. People thought the astronomer said he saw canals. Canals are waterways built by people. The mix -up led people to believe that intelligent beings built canals on Mars. Were the channels on Mars really canals? Have they held water? And why was Mars red? Scientists had many questions about the planet.

1877年，一位发现这些线条的意大利天文学家称它们为沟道。 沟道是天然形成的水道。 人们误以为天文学家说自己看到了运河。 运河是由人类修建的水道。 这场误会让人们相信，有智慧生物在火星上修建了运河。 火星上的沟道真的是运河吗？ 它们曾经存过水吗？ 还有，火星为什么是红色的？ 科学家对这颗行星有许许多多的疑问。

taking a closer look. In the 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, began the Mariner missions to answer these questions. The Mariner 4 spacecraft traveled to Mars to take close -up pictures. The pictures showed that the canals were canyons.

进一步观测。 20世纪60年代，美国国家航空航天局，也就是NASA，开启了水手号任务解答这些疑问。 水手4号探测器飞往火星，拍摄近距离照片。 照片显示，那些所谓的运河其实是峡谷。

The Mariner 9 spacecraft showed that Mars had valleys and volcanoes. One of the volcanoes is the largest on any planet in our solar system. It is 26 kilometers, 16 miles high, and 500 kilometers, 311 miles wide at its base. That's three times as tall as Mount Everest.

水手9号探测器发现，火星上有山谷和火山。 其中一座火山，是太阳系所有行星中最大的火山。 它高26千米，也就是16英里，底部宽500千米，也就是311英里。 它的高度是珠穆朗玛峰的三倍。